Yelp's Review Filter

There was mention of Yelp's review filter on the news because some lady got sued for $750K.  I'd never heard of this filter in my time as a pretty regular yelper so I looked at my friends business page and saw that it was being rated on 3 reviews. Two of them were five star and one of them was a two star, bad review.  I could have sworn he had more reviews because he'd mentioned to me a while back that business was doing good and his yelp page was blowing up with good reviews from his customers. When I looked today it said rating based on 3 reviews.

At the very bottom is a link. It's light gray text that says (16 filtered). I clicked (because I knew what I was looking for, many wouldnt probably know what it was)  and it made me enter a captcha to prove I'm a real person. There I saw 16 more reviews all of which were 5 or 4 star. That one shitty review on the main page was the lowest star rating of all of them.  Now, how exactly does this "filter" work?  I don't trust it and don't see how any business can benefit from it.  It looks like it filters out reviews by users who have only 1 or 2 reviews. And apparently your worst review (which the user had only 2 reviews) gets automatically calculated on the main page. What the shit is that? Then apparently I've heard they call you to get you to sign up for their paid service which will let your profile show more good reviews. That, if true is straight up extortion.

Anyway, who are they to say that this bad review wasn't a fake? I mean she only had 2 reviews ever. Also who are they to say all those 1 review 5 star reviews aren't real? I know many businesses that support yelp by getting the window sticker and many people visit yelp maybe that one time to give a good review to that business. Just because they aren't yelp whores doesn't mean they are fakers or robots.

This yelp filter removes the aspect that people can see all of the reviews and make an intelligent choice. It was showing (and ranking on) 3 out of 18 reviews. That's not right, especially because people also look at how many ratings you've gotten. Only 3 people went here? jeez and 2 only of them like it? this place sucks. not TRUE! It falsely portrays businesses, and yea right, 16/18 are fake reviews? SURE!!!

I'm starting to hate yelp. Most of my reviews are negative btw.  Here's the best part, the stupid review filter sucks because my review of his business was totally fake. I did his website for him and set up his yelp page. But I have 70+ reviews, I guess that makes me trustworthy.

The Costco Problem

I'm very curious. Who designs the layout of the food court areas at Costco stores? Some of the Costco stores might have gotten a clue, but the few Costcos that I've been to have a condiment/soda area that seem to have been designed by mentally retarded donkeys.

The area in question.
Please excuse the crudity of this model as I didn't have time to build it to scale or paint it.

Imagine a narrow corridor with picnic tables on one side and the soda etc on the other. This situation sucks right off the bat because many people are towing behind them a just-filled-up giant shopping cart. The particular Costco I'm at now has this area laid out so you generally enter from the left after you've picked up your food. The first stop is the double-wide soda fountain. So you've filled up your cup and logically you'd expect the lids and straws to be near by. Nope. Next to the soda is the onion crank. And then the straws. But you still need a lid. Since you got a hot dog/soda meal deal you decide while you're there you might as well dress up your wiener with all the fixings. Mmm onions! But wait where is the mustard? You see straws, and next down the line, you maneuver your giant cart while carefully handling your full soda with no lid passed the onions and straw dispenser to the next stop... More onions? Where are the fucking lids, where's the mustard!? Oh here we go, still with no lid you can finish adding desired toppings to your hot dog. But your soda still has no lid. Oh there they are. All the way passed the 2 banks of condiments and the wall mounted napkin dispenser. Oh fuck I still need a damn straw. So you backtrack reaching over people getting onions. Squeezing between other people's shopping carts hoping no one fucks with your cart which you had to abandon by the lids.

What a fucked, unthoughtout, poorly planned piece of shit.

#costco consider this my unofficial complaint

It only took 4 years. but its done.

When we moved in one of the major obstacles was to redo the kitchen. Fairly quickly we did the cabinets and counter top, and shortly after put the floor in. But the tile backsplash never got started. Finally, after four years of procrastination, I finally bit the bullet and went for it.  Here's some pics from along the way.

A Real Old Fashioned Photo Friday.