The Yelp Protection Racket Redux

I've never had as many hits as I got on last night's post about Yelp's business practices. I've heard from dozens of businesses who've had the exact same problem, although most of them are reluctant to go public with their businesses names for fear of further retaliation on Yelp's part. 

In the slightly more than 24 hours since my first post, several customers of Dr. No's have attempted to post positive reviews of the store; five of the seven reviews posted since last night have already been moved to the not recommended section, where they're rarely seen and do not count towards the store's overall rating. I fully expect that same thing to happen to the other two positive reviews in the next 24 hours; keep checking our Yelp reviews to see if reviews by Carrie B and Cynthia A remain on the main page.

 

And here's one more bit of proof that this policy of deleting positive reviews of out store is deliberate and retaliatory on Yelp's part: a 5-star review of Dr. No's written by Sam W of Woodstock in January of this year was moved into the not recommended section. However, Sam W's 5-star review of Raven's Nest, another gaming store in the Marietta area, remains the first review you see on their Yelp page, where it has appeared since it was posted in January of this year. Sam has the exact same rating/number of reviews, so Yelp can't possibly claim that this is based on the number of reviews the writer has produced thus far, or the ratings he gave. One 5-star review for another store counts, but a 5-star review from the same customer for our store gets buried and negated in our totals.

 

Unless there are major changes in Yelp's business practices, I won't write about this regularly. Should anything of significance occur, I'll mention it here, of course, but I think I've made the scurrilous nature of Yelp's policies pretty clear by now..

Fifty Years Ago This Week in 1964: 4/27/1964 to 5/4/1964

Spring thunderstorms hit Rome Tuesday evening, April 28th, bringing brief heavy rain, 35 mile per hour wind gusts, and quarter-inch hailstones to some parts of Rome. Much of Shorter Avenue was without power for a while as a result of the storms.

The West Rome track team defeated Cedartown and Calhoun in a three-way meet on April 27th, winning 65 1/2 to 63 1/2 to 30.  Chieftain Steve Rush set a school record in the low hurdles with a 20.95 second time. Alas, the Chieftains fell to the Gladiators on Wednesday, April 29th; East Rome posted 86 1/2 points to West Rome's 40 1/2.

West Rome's baseball team defeated Berry Academy 4-1 on Thursday, April 30th.

McDonald's held an official grand opening party for its Turner McCall Boulevard store on Saturday, May 2nd; the highlight of the program was an appearance by WSB's Officer Don himself as Don Kennedy flew into Rome on the WBS Skycopter. To celebrate the grand opening, McDonald's offered their All-American meal—a hamburger, a milkshake, and french fries—for 47¢.

WSB ran a half-hour Salute to Rome as part of its Today in Georgia program on Wednesday, 4/29; the half-hour feature included a brief segment on West Rome.

Piggly Wiggly had fresh whole fryers for 23¢ a pound, fresh squash for a dime a pound, and a one-pound bag of Lay's potato chips for 39¢. Big Apple had Peter Pan tuna for 29¢ a can, whole cantaloupes for 29¢ each, and all meat bologna for 39¢ a pound. Kroger had 3 pounds of Crisco for 49¢, sirloin steak for 79¢ a pound, and lettuce for a dime a head. A&P had  Eight O'Clock coffee for 67¢ a pound, cubed steak for 79¢ a pound, and honeydew melons for 49¢ each. Couch's had center cut pork chops for 39¢ each, Aristocrat ice milk for 39¢, and large tomatoes for 19¢ a pound.

A week at the movies began with Sunday in New York (with Rod Taylor, Jane Fonda, & Cliff Robertson) at the DeSoto and Lilies of the Field (with Sidney Poitier) at the First Avenue. The last half of the week brought Advance to the Rear (with Glenn Ford and Stella Stevens) at the DeSoto and Summer Holiday (an eminently forgettable rock-music film with Cliff Richards and Lauri Peters) to the First Avenue. For the weekend, the West Rome Drive-In ran a double feature of Showdown and Kiss of the Vampire on Friday and Saturday nights.

Once again, the Beatles held three spots in the Top Ten this week in 1964 with "Can't Buy Me Love" (#1), "Do You Want to Know a Secret" (#3), and "Twist and Shout "(#7). Other top ten hits included "Hello, Dolly!" by Louis Armstrong (#2); "Bits and Pieces" by the Dave Clark Five (#4); "My Guy" by Mary Wells (#5); "Don't Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)" by the Serendipity Singers (#6); "Suspicion" by Terry Stafford (#8); "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan & Dean (#9); and "Ronnie" by the Four Seasons (#10).

And this week in 1964, the Beatles second Capitol Records album, appropriately entitled The Beatles Second Album (although it was actually their third album if you count the VeeJay Introducing the Beatles... which Capitol would prefer you didn't), was released. Naturally, it instantly went to number one on the album charts. And on this same week in 1964, the Beatles completed filming on A Hard Day's Night, their very first feature film.

Late Night Listening: A Letter Home

I've been a Neil Young fan for forty-five years now.

But I have to confess I'm still shaking my head after multiple playings of Neil Young's new album A Letter Home, thus far available only on vinyl.

The album is comprised entirely of cover songs, including "Crazy," "On the Road Again," "Reason to Believe," "Girl from the North Country," "If You Could Read My Mind," and "My Hometown," among other songs.  Okay, the concept sounds interesting: one of the most distinctive voices and stylists in music offering his take of songs by other songwriters. Hey, his versions of  "Oh Lonesome Me" and "Four Strong Winds" were brilliant, so this should be great, right?

Should be, but it isn't.

Neil decided to record the entire album in a restored 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl recording booth that Jack White has in his record store. This device wasn't state of the art in 1947, and it most certainly isn't state of the art now; the sonic quality is inferior to most 1970s bootlegs, and it makes those early 1970s 8-tracks we barely tolerated back then seem like the epitome of audio technology in comparison. I can't figure out how the man who can ask his fans to spend hundreds of dollars to support his Pono pipe-dream (yet another file format that is supposed to offer high-resolution audio quality, but is incompatible with existing players) while displaying such disrespect for his fans by putting out this sloppy album recorded in absolutely the worst way possible (and yet he still charges a premium price for it, of course).

And it's not just the sound quality that is disappointing. The performances themselves seem like throwaways. I'm reminded of all those sloppy cover versions the Beatles did during the Let It Be sessions--songs that really weren't intended for release as finished pieces of music. Apparently Neil Young decided that this was good enough for his fans, though.

Ultimately, A Letter Home is an audio train wreck--badly recorded, poorly performed, and inadequately reproduced. This letter should be marked "return to sender."

The Yelp Protection Racket

 Most businessmen don't make a habit of calling attention to negative reviews, but I'm about to do that very thing. Let me explain why.

 

As most of you know, I have a comic shop, Dr. No's Comics & Games SuperStore, in Marietta GA. The store has been around for 37 years, and I've owned it for 32 years; it's quite successful for a small business, and we have hundreds of dedicated, loyal, and happy customers, many of whom have shopped with us for 20 or more years.

On Facebook, Dr. No's has a 4.5 (out of 5) star rating.

And we used to have a 4.5 rating on Yelp. Then it dropped to a 4. It's now a 3. 

Why?

 

Because we refused to advertise with Yelp when they called and told us that if we advertised, they could see to it that more of our five-star ratings were factored into their overall rating. Employees were present for the call and are aware of its content; Yelp didn't even try to hide the fact that they were offering me improved ratings for ad payments. When I said no, our ratings began to drop.

 

You see, Yelp has two totally different groups of ratings: the recommended ratings, which are the ones that they place on their front page and factor into their overall rating, and the not recommended ratings, which can only be found through a small, almost hidden link at the bottom of the store page, and which are not factored into our overall rating.

 

In the past week, two positive reviews posted by our customers (Darlene and Gerald) were included in our ratings--and then they were suddenly removed. This has happened again and again. If you check the not recommended section, fifteen positive reviews of Dr. No's have been removed. In some cases, customers whose reviews of other comic shops were included on the front page had their reviews of Dr. No's moved to the not recommended section. Meanwhile, negative reviews that contain deliberation misinformation, or negative reviews that are written by employees of other stores, are allowed to stand.

 

Remember those old protection rackets you see in noir films and television shows? You know--a shop owner gets a visit from a thug who tells him that this bad things could happen to his business, but if the shop owner will just pay a protection fee to the thug, then his store will be protected.

 

Well, Yelp is a cyber version of a protection racket. A Yelp rep contacted us and offered to improve our positive ratings if we would commit to monthly Yelp advertising for a year. Isn't that pretty much the same as the old racket of paying a "protection fee" to stop your business from suffering harm? That's exactly what Yelp is doing to us, and I refuse to be blackmailed for positive ratings.

 

Yelp posts claims of that their system is designed to protect consumers, that "businesses can't pay to alter or remove reviews." That may be the case, but if businesses refuse to pay, Yelp is willing to skew the system of recommended and not recommended reviews to punish them, apparently.

To be clear, not every business with a positive rating on Yelp has paid an advertising fee. For years, we had a very high rating and did not advertise. But once Yelp contacted us and asked us to advertise--and we declined--our rating began to drop. Now it's obvious that the fix is in, and that Yelp has a deliberate policy of removing positive reviews to skew our ratings lower than they would otherwise be.

Research indicates that we are far from the only business suffering from this sort of treatment. There are hundreds of businesses who have made the same discovery, and there have even been class action suits; so far, none of them have gone anywhere, but I keep hoping... If a guy with a baseball bat did what Yelp is doing, he'd be arrested; but because Yelp does it with a website and a computer system, their protection racket is allowed to continue...

Now I'm curious to see how long Yelp will continue to block any positive reviews from being posted about Dr. No's Comics & Games SuperStore. My guess is this will go on for a long, long time, but I hope I'm proven wrong...

Late Night Listening: The Best of Sade

For some reason, it seemed to be trendy to dismiss Sade's music as easy listening pablum, but I've never understood that. She has a beautiful, emotional voice, and her jazz-pop arrangements are engaging and satisfying. I hadn't even thought to look for any of her work on vinyl until I ran across this two-album Best of Sade at a bargain price.  I've actually given it several plays since then, and I like it a little more each time.

I only knew a few of her biggest hits—"Smooth Operator" and "The Sweetest Taboo" and "Is it a Crime"—so most of this album was new to me. I was quite impressed; she has the confidence and talent of Amy Winehouse, who was also quite jazz influenced, but she lacks the stridence or anger of Winehouse, which is just fine with me.

As I listen to her album, I'm also reminded of some of the best music of the early 80s; the instrumentation, carried by an strong rhythm section that highlights Paul Denman's impeccable bass. There's also some wonderful saxophone courtesy of Stuart Matthewman, who does double duty on sax and on guitar.

You can't find better after-midnight listening than this.

Late Night Listening: Tracy

My close friends have heard me praise this album in the past; my love of this record hasn't waned at all in forty-five years. The Cuff Links are in reality Ron Dante—who recorded and overdubbed all of the vocal tracks and harmonies—and whatever session musicians were available. Dante is one of the most talented singers you've never heard of, but you've heard his voice: not only did he have a huge hit with "Tracy," but he was also the voice of the Archies, who had such hits as "Sugar Sugar."

Dante's voice is the selling point of this album, but the songwriting of Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss is just as important. They're the authors of the bouncy, energetic "Tracy," and Dante promised them that if the song was a hit, they'd do a whole album together. Well, it was, so they did. Vance and Pockriss wrote a bunch of songs, they added a couple of cover versions ("Put a Little Love In Your Heart," which had been a hit for Jackie DeShannon, and "Sweet Caroline," one of Neil Diamond's best) and a couple of songs that Vance and Pockriss had previously written with other songwriters ("Heather" and "Early in the Morning"), and the result is the album Tracy.

Ron Dante is gifted with an earnest, sincere voice that conveys emotion wonderfully, and that's what sells these songs. Next time you hear "Tracy" on the radio or on a hits-of-the-sixties compilation, listen closely and fully appreciate the fact that all of those voices you hear are one guy meticulously overdubbing again and again to create that wonderful sound. And I challenge you to listen to it all the way through without tapping your toes to the music, or tapping out the beat with your fingertips.

Getting Get TV

For the past couple of years, I've had an HD television antenna that allows me to pull in all the over-the-air broadcasts in the metro area. When I mention this in conversation, some people are surprised to hear that any channels are still broadcast over the air; those who knew that there were still free over-the-air broadcasts are usually surprised to hear that the picture quality of the primary network stations over-the-air far exceeds what they see on cable or satellite; and those who knew about over-the-air broadcasting and its improved picture quality are almost always surprised when I tell them that there are more than sixty area channels that I can pick up with the antenna.

Now this doesn't mean that there are fifty channels that I'd want to watch. The channel count includes stations that broadcast in French, Korean, Japanese, and Spanish; it includes a number of religious-programming stations; it includes some shopping channels; and it includes some channels that you'd normally watch for only a few minutes, such as weather channels.  (That's not surprising, though; cable and satellite have hundreds of channels, but I'll bet that 90% of my viewing involves no more than fifteen of those channels). Over-the-air broadcasting, however, does include some channels worth watching that are not currently available either on satellite or cable. One such channel is 34.3, Atlanta's Get TV affiliate.

Get TV is a classic film channel that is available in several cities (and on a few cable systems) across the country, including here in Atlanta on WUVG-DT 34.3. If Dad were alive, he's love this channel; it has lots of great Westerns from the 1930s and 1940s, along with a mix of other genres. Some of the films are more recent than that—they're showing the Dean Martin Matt Helm films, for example, and Anatomy of a Heavyweight—but the important thing is that they're showing films that aren't in heavy rotation on other channels. I watched most of Square Shooter, a 1935 Tim McCoy Western, this afternoon, and would have kept watching the next film if I hadn't been committed to do something else.

Picture quality varies widely on broadcast TV; while the major stations like WSB, WAGA, WXIA, and the like are broadcasting at full strength in beautiful HD, other stations are squeezing in as many channels in as little bandwidth as possible, resulting in some pretty pixellated broadcasts. Even worse, some of the stations are working on a shoestring budget, showing worn-out prints with blown-out video details and muddy audio tracks. But Get TV is not one of those channels; the picture quality was superb, the prints were clean, and the sound was crystal clear.

There's also a retro nostalgia to watching over-the-air television; I remember when I was a kid in Rome and we relied on a large antenna, a tall mast, and a finicky rotor to pull in signals from Atlanta and Chattanooga. Had someone told us back then that everyone would pay a monthly fee to watch those channels, we would have thought they were crazy; now I've rediscovered the immense amount of free entertainment that's all around us if we just install an attic-mounted antenna to pull it in!

Late Night Listening: The Association Greatest Hits

One one level, I've thought of Greatest Hits albums as a form of cheating. I figure that artists put a lot of time into preparing individual albums, creating a musical entity that should be allowed to stand on its own. As a result, I generally buy individual albums and enjoy the hits interspersed with the other songs produced at the same time.

So yes, I do own every individual Association album. But I still have a copy of The Association Greatest Hits (the absence of an apostrophe and an s at the end of Association is their titling, not my error), because it was my first exposure to the Association back in 1969. Susan had this album and liked it a lot; she recommended it to me, and I picked it up without really knowing the group or its music much at all.  Somehow, I had only heard an occasional song from them on the radio, because I really didn't listen to radio very much in the 1965-1969 time period, so songs like "Never My Love" and "Cherish" and "Requiem for the Masses" were all new to me. I was hooked immediately. I love harmonies, and there are harmonies galore on this album, along with great melodies and strong instrumentation.

In the decades since, the Association have become sort of a "parents' band," an easy-listening sort of 1960s group. But at the time they were recording, they were bold and innovative. Most of all, they were energetic and sincere; even with lyrics that might seem a bit simple and sappy, such as those of "Never My Love," they convince you that they really mean every word.

So this remains one of the half-dozen or so Greatest Hits albums that are on my frequent-play list. And this album is so burned into my memory that to this day, when I listen to the actual albums the various songs came from, I find myself confused for a split second when one of their hits isn't followed up by another one of their hits...

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 4/20/1964 to 4/26/1964

After a cool, soggy beginning, spring warmed up in a hurry, with temperatures hitting the mid-80s by April 20th and continuing in that range for most of the week.  Following the snow, ice, and rain (with subsequent flooding) that marked the first three months of the year, not too many people were complaining, even though most of us didn't have central heat or air back then.

Kids Day 1964 was held at West Rome on April 22nd; for those who don't remember this offbeat event, West Rome Teen Beat correspondent Tony Ledwell described it as being "for the seniors; it's their last fling at being a 'little brat' before leaving school days and childhood behind. All-day suckers, child clothing, and illegal water guns are always present during this tradition-filled day that was started many years ago at Rome High." The highlight of the day was an assembly program consisting of musical numbers and skits, along with a costume contest for the most original child clothing (the winners were David Hendrix and Anita Boatwright).

West Rome's chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes was organized in April 1964; almost three dozen boys were on hand for the first meeting.

West Rome's Hi-Y elected its 1964-65 officers. Jack Collum was elected president; Len Willingham, vice-president; David Godfrey, secretary; Tom McMahan, treasurer; and Charles Smith, chaplain.

Chris Lawler was West Rome's representative at Georgia Tech's meeting of the Georgia Society of Professional Engineers on April 24th and 25th.

Four esteemed members of West Rome's faculty—Mrs. Underwood, Mrs. Smiderski, Mrs. Finley, and Mr. Finley— were awarded study grants for summer continuing education. Meanwhile,  Mr. Midkiff received a John Hay Fellowship to attend Northwestern University.

We tend to think that McDonald's has been around forever, but Rome's first McDonald's (at 1504 Turner McCall Boulevard, in the heart of Gladiator territory) opened this week in 1964. "You'll find dining at McDonald's one of the good things in life," the ad touted. "Everything is so inviting... so convenient... so spotlessly clean. The service is instant and friendly. The food is the best of the best--prepared to your taste right before your own eyes... Plenty of parking... no car hops... no tipping--just the tastiest food in town at prices that please!"

The baseball season continued to prove mixed for the Chiefs, with the team winning 9-8 against Model on April 20th, then losing 1-0 to Calhoun on April 21st. This put Calhoun in first lace for the sub-region--a position that would have gone to West Rome had they been able to pull out a win.

Alas, the golf team fared no better, losing to arch-rival East Rome on April 21st, in spite an outstanding performance by Louie Akins, who managed to post an even-par 70 at the Callier Springs match.

West Rome's track team posted a win at a three-way track meet, defeating Armuchee and Calhoun with 85 1/2 points, which was more than twice the number of points the second place Armuchee team racked up. Ste Holland set a school record in the 220-yard dash, while Jerry Coalson broke his own record in the 880-yard run and Wayne White broke his own mark in the shot. 

Piggly Wiggly had sirloin steak for 89¢ a pound, Sealtest ice cream for 69¢ a half gallon, and JFG coffee for 59¢ a pound. A& P had 2 pounds of Allgood bacon for 79¢, Ann Page tomato soup for a dime a can, and winesap apples for 13¢ a pound. Kroger had five pounds of sugar for 49¢, corn for 6¢ an ear, and smoked hams for 39¢ a pound. Big Apple had 25 pounds of Best Biscuit flour for $1.79, celery for a dime a bunch, and a pound of flounder filets for 49¢. Couch's had an 18-ounce jar of Blue Plate peanut butter for 29¢, Stokely's cream-style corn for 17¢ a can, and chicken breaset for 49¢ a pound.

The cinematic week began with Dr. Strangelove at the DeSoto and Flight from Ashiya at the First Avenue, both continuing from the end of the prior week. The mid-week movie change brought Sunday in New York (with Cliff Robertson & Jane Fonda) to the DeSoto Theater and Shock Treatment (with Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowall, & Lauren Bacall) to the First Avenue. The West Rome Drive-In continued its weekends-only policy with a showings of Captain Newman MD (with Gregory Peck & Tony Curtis) on Friday and Saturday nights.

The number one song this week was "Can't Buy Me Love" by the Beatles, who also had the #3 song ("Do You Want to Know a Secret?") and the #7 song ("Twist and Shout"). Other top ten its included "Hello Dolly!" by Louis Armstrong (#2); "Bits and Pieces" by the Dave Clark Five (#4); "My Guy" by Mary Wells (#5); "Don't Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)" by the Serendipity Singers (#6); "Suspicion" by Terry Stafford (#8); "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan & Dean (#9); and "Ronnie" by the Four Seasons (#10).

Late Night Listening: Pendulum

Cosmo's Factory may be Creedence Clearwater Revival's most successful album (and it has so many great songs it's hard not to love it), but I've always been drawn to Pendulum, their post-Cosmo's release. It's not a musical tour de force, but I enjoy its lack of showiness. My two favorite songs are "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" (John Fogerty obviously likes rain motifs, since this followed the prior album's "Who'll Stop the Rain?") and "(Wish I Could) Hide Away." Every song on the album is a CCR original, which is a plus; I like their cover versions well enough, but I always prefer hearing a group doing their own material. I also like the musical diversity that Pendulum offers: more keyboards, more horns, and overall a more full sound. Alas, this was their last album with the full CCR lineup; Tom Fogerty left the group shortly after this was finished, and CCR would only do one more album before everyone went their separate ways.  And if you listen to Pendulum, you hear a lot of evidence that John Fogerty was aware that the group was already growing apart; "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" seems to allude to the friction between the Fogerty brothers.  If you only own two Creedence Clearwater Revival albums, this should be the other one.

If any track fails, it's "Rude Awakening #2." Haven't heard of it? There's a good reason; it's an experimental piece built around a couple of musical riffs, layered with instrumentation in a sort of audio montage, and for the most part it alternates between tedious and grating.

One thing about the album that has always bothered me is the track listing on the back cover. For some reason, CCR chose to list the tracks randomly; the song order on the record is totally different. Created confusion the first time I listened to the album, because my normal practice was to keep the album cover close at hand to see what track was playing and what was coming up. Ultimately, the order of songs on the album itself is better; side one on the album is wonderfully moody for the most part, while side two is a much more energetic, rocking side. No surprise that I prefer side one...

(One other thing worth mentioning: for some reason, Fantasy Records was using thinner vinyl than most companies in 1970, so most copies of this original album are amazingly flimsy. Nevertheless, they managed to get great sound into those vinyl grooves, including a very rich bass sound that is often lacking in thinner vinyl, since the grooves are often more shallow.)