Yelp Reviews of Obama Hugger Scott Van Duzer's Restaurant

[LeighAnn]

Republicans are so mad at fellow Republican Scott Van Duzer for the bear hug he gave Obama that right-wingers from around the country are attacking his Yelp page with one-star negative reviews. Here's the Huffington Post story:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/10/scott-van-duzer-big-apple-pizza-yelp-bear-hug_n_1871329.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012

Now read the actual reviews... this is ridiculous. Makes me want to order pizza by credit card from here in Missouri and have it delivered to local shelters. Read the reviews of this restaurant for the past 24 hours... and notice that in spite of it, he still retains his 5-star rating

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/10/scott-van-duzer-big-apple-pizza-yelp-bear-hug_n_1871329.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012

[flamingdem]

1. Someone was paid to write this

No normal human thinks in these terms. This is canned. Thanks Koch Bro$


>>>>quote: Well.. I'd eat there but after seeing the owner grab our leftist President I felt compelled to disrespect his establishment as much as the President disrespects our constitution. Shame on you Scott Van Duzer for thumbing your nose at all the small business owners this President has disrespected for the last four years. I guess you DIDN'T BUILD IT!

[Cha]

2. Well, it could be right out of fox

screws with your head, Brainwashing for Dummies, playbook!

It's the rwingers who are disrespecting the MF Constitution, Genius!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Yelp is problematic at the best of times. Already threads on donations.

There are already plenty of threads on donations. Donate to van Duzer's foundation, not have 20 people send 40 hot pizzas to shelters that can't use them.

[lame54]

8. shelters cant use free food?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. They can, but call the shelter first. Hot food is different. They got snowed under: internet effect.

[spiderpig]

4. Don't these people have lives? n/t

[JRLeft]

5. Can they tell us what part of the constitution, he steps on? The make these general statements,

without facts.

[RockyTheWonderGeek]

6. Not sure which is worse...

Republicans are so mad at fellow Republican Scott Van Duzer for the bear hug he gave Obama that right-wingers from around the country are attacking his Yelp page with one-star negative reviews.

I'm not sure which is worse. That scores of people are so filled with hatred for our President, that they would vent their hostility on a small business owner who's only sin was being thrilled that the President visited his establishment...or that this story fails to surprise me in the least.

[Paulie]

7. Welcome to DU!

[beac]

12. Welcome to DU, Rocky!

And yes, Republicans really raise the bar on cynicism. Think of something awful, and they've likely done it, are doing it or will do it soon.

[WeekendWarrior]

10. And anyone reading these

will immediately ignore them, because they have nothing to do with food.

[SoapBox]

13. Can those reviews on YELP be reported?

...I don't "do" the site but is there a link on a review, where you can report
it to their admin?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

14. I suspect Yelp will have to clean it up...

There are nearly 2500 reviews for this place now, and almost none of them have anything to do with the actual quality of the food. nearly all of them date to after Obama's visit.

This incident is really not good for Yelp, as it makes it clear that reviews and ratings can be influenced by things other than genuine customer satisfaction.

[SoapBox]

15. Whoa...2500?

That's a lot of hate.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

16. It was 2400(ish) when I checked

There are other locations (same name, anyway) and they all had 2-3 reviews, so I suppose that is an average amount. Nearly everything posted would be related to the hug.

[Pryderi]

17. Freeped? nt

[taught_me_patience]

18. Yelp is a bullshit scam company run like a mafia

They "shakedown" business for "advertising", and if they don't participate, they "hide" good reviews. These pieces of shits are fucking with my wife's livelihood. Fuck Yelp and their ratings... I don't trust any of it.

[Blue Idaho]

21. I had no idea...

I thought it was a legitimate crowd-sourced review site!

[taught_me_patience]

22. They hold small business hostage

http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2012/05/the-yelp-extortion-scam.html

read the comments.

They've been involved in class action lawsuits:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/26/class-action-lawsuits-over-yelps-review-system-dismissed/
plaintiffs lost the suit, but where there's smoke, there's fire...

http://www.wired.com/business/2010/04/yelp-fights-fraud-allegations-by-unfiltering-reviews-killing-pay-for-favorite-feature/

[Blue Idaho]

23. Wow - thanks for the links. A real eye opener! nt.

[Zoeisright]

19. It's all five stars now.

Good people are giving it 5 stars. More than 3000 reviews.

[DFW]

20. I'm stationed overseas, but I'm REALLY tempted

If a charity organization can be found that is halfway honest, I'd sponsor a fund to subsidize Van Duzer getting an order each business day for a year for his biggest pizza for a different welfare family in his area. I have no idea what a huge pizza costs in Florida these days, but how much could it be?

*on edit--Van Duzer himself is a Republican. This would be the first time I supported ANY Republican since the Philadelphia mayoralty election of 1971!