The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs » Yelptards

Yelp still keeping it classy

Steve — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:46:37 +0000

Longtime readers will know that this blog has a wonderful history with the online blackmail racket known as Yelp. You can see our whole tag string here, and enjoy the run-ins we had with various Yelptards, such as Butt Plug Girl and her angry boyfriend, who were upset about many things, including a bad lap dance in Las Vegas; Pube Face; Big Mama Gummy Bear; and of course, Bike Helmet Girl, who later almost became my lover. I’ve especially always had a warm spot in my heart for Yelp founder Jeremy Stoppelman (photo above), who I said “appears to be just the kind of sociopathic nouveau riche lady killer that I’ve always admired.”

Well, it turns out I had no idea how much of an evil fucker this guy actually is.

Nor did I really understand the true nature of his business, which is, I have to admit, kind of brilliant. Because now it’s coming out, in a lawsuit that just got filed against Yelp, that what Yelp has done is harnessed the angry energy of its Yelptard army to create a pretty awesome little shakedown racket. Works like this. Sub-normal IQ Yelptards visit your restaurant, or dry cleaner, or whatever. They go home and write mean, unfair, borderline libelous things about your business. This of course drives away business.

But in comes Jeremy Stoppelman to save you — all you need to do is buy ads from Yelp, and they’ll let you put a really nice positive review (say, by you or one of your friends) at the top of the list, so that’s what people see first. There’s also some belief that if you pay up, maybe some of the bad stuff gets erased altogether, though I guess Yelp swears that this never, ever, ever happens, swear to God, cross my heart and hope to die, because we’re really super honest Web 2.0 guys who just to make the world a better place and have really loads of integrity because trust is the foundation of our business and if our customers don’t trust us then they will just go to another site and our competition is only a click away, so we actually have created a system in which we’re disincentivized from doing any that’s even remotely scuzzy and if people don’t believe that it’s probably just because they’re olds who don’t really understand how the Web works and we just need to invest more effort into educating them.

In other words, it’s the Google defense. All of these dirtbags — Zynga, now Yelp — have read that bullshit from Google so many times that they’ve just internalized it and can say it in their sleep.

Truth is, they’re all venture funded, and they’re all run by scammers who, if the Web did not exist, would most likely be selling either cars or drugs, or both. The truth about their business model is that it’s not built on trust, but quite the opposite. The real incentive is for these guys to “do every horrible thing in the book just to get revenues,” as Mark Pincus of Zynga was caught on tape admitting.

I call it the Zynga moment, and every Web company, even Google, has it — it’s when you start out saying there’s all these scumbaggy things we’ll never do because they’re just too evil, but then when Plan A doesn’t generate any revenue, and Plans B and C fail too, well, your investors hold a come-to-Jesus meeting and here comes your Zynga moment, when you realize that you’re just going to have to give in and start doing all those things you said you’d never do. If you’re Zynga, or Yelp, you’re doing this to stay alive, and you rationalize it by saying that (a) your investors made you do it; or (b) even if you sell a little bit of your soul that’s just so you can stay in business and accomplish the really, really important and transformative things that were the original goal of the company. If you’re Google, you’re doing it not to stay alive, but because you realize that your core business model, as wonderful as it is, can only take you so far, and if you want to achieve any kind of growth, well, it’s time to start fucking people over.

FWIW, the best indication that Yelp is a mess is the fact that not long ago, Bono’s investment company, Elevation Partners, said it would invest up to $100 million into the company. I don’t mean to be a dick, but Elevation’s other big investments have been in Forbes magazine, which may or may not still be in business, and Palm, which is in business but won’t be for long. Not saying Yelp is doomed or anything, because let’s face it, blackmail is a hell of a business. But Elevation does not have a record of backing winners. They’re bottom feeders, and if they back you it probably means that someday, down the road, they’re going to take you apart and sell you for scrap.

Bike Helmet Girl writes in– she has a gig coming up

Steve — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:30:00 +0000

Dudes, I’m still sort of madly in love with Tiffany, aka Bike Helmet Girl, the girl with the golden glutes (center dancer in photo above), and though my feelings are unrequited I’m still going to promote her upcoming dance show — she’s asked me to attend, and invites any FSJ readers too. I will definitely be there. I’ll be wearing a disguise, but will introduce myself to anyone who wears some kind of FSJ badge or T-shirt. (Also, FWIW, the robot on the right side of the photo is being played by Scott McNealy.) For info & tickets click here.

Just to refresh everyone’s memory, and to clue in some of the newbies, BHG is one of the original Yelptards (look it up under labels). To see some of the original hot pix of Bike Helmet Girl dancing in her underwear at a Yelptard party, see this and this on the flickr page of Mitchell “Maximum Mitch” Aidelbaum, ace photographer. Yeah. Now you see why I’m in love with her.

UPDATE: No idea why this first went up with comments not allowed. I think one of the interns here at FSJ Central is still coming up to speed. Or was coming up to speed. He’s gone now. Peace out.

Contest: Find a new "Yelptard of the Month"

Steve — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:22:00 +0000

Dudes, BPG has taken down all her reviews on Yelp. Which is unfortunate because they were amazingly good. Anyhoo, we’ve had our fun, but it seems best that we should just leave BPG and BPB alone. Not because of the lawsuits or the samurai sword expertise. (Well, okay, maybe a little because of the swords.) But they seem like nice enough folks, and they don’t seem to appreciate the humor. So let’s bid them a fond farewell and go find some other Yelptard who is either a) super pretentious; or b) super mean; or c) both. Free fake shuffle to whoever finds our first Yelptard of the Month.

Also: Though we’re going to lay off BPG and BPB, Fantasia Q. Minge is still fair game. Peace out.

Oh man now this is really getting out of control

admin — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 15:56:00 +0000

We have just received a “subpeena” (sic) from a woman named Fantasia Q. Minge, who describes herself as an “adult performer” at the Spearmint Rhino in Vegas, seeking “damiges” for repeating the “slandrous defecation” of her reputation by Butt Plug Girl on Yelp.

PLAINTIFF(S) FANTASIA Q. MINGE and SPEARMINT RHINO MANAGEMENT hereby contend that DEFENDANT(S) BUTT PLUG GIRL, BUTT PLUG BOY, YELP INC., GOOGLE INC., and FAKE STEVE JOBS have cast aspersion on the performance of PLAINTIFF FANTASIA Q. MINGE to the detriment of her career and for their own commercial gain. PLAINTIFF SPEARMINT RHINO contends that PLAINTIFF FANTASIA Q. MINGE did perform a satisfactory private lapdance for DEFENDANT(S) BUTT PLUG GIRL and BUTT PLUG BOY, with said performance remaining well within the limits set forth in the ordinances of Las Vegas, Nevada. PLAINTIFFS contend that misleading and inaccurate reviews have caused PLAINTIFF SPEARMINT RHINO to suffer a loss of patronage and in particular has caused PLAINTIFF FANTASIA Q. MINGE to suffer a decline in requests for lapdances. Thereby the above-named DEFENDANT parties are asked to pay no less than $1 million (USD) to FANTASIA Q. MINGE and SPEARMINT RHINO MANAGEMENT in compensation and restitution; to delete all offending reviews from the Internets; and to post a public apology immediately to FANTASIA Q. MINGE, her colleagues, and the management of SPEARMINT RHINO.

Hoo boy. This one just keeps getting better.

UPDATE: Apparently BPG got the same letter from Fantasia Q. Minge and took it to heart. She has taken down all of her reviews on Yelp including the one where she said mean things about Fantasia and the other girls at Spearmint Rhino, like calling them “stupid bitches.” Not sure if she’s also agreed to compensate Fantasia Q. Minge for her lost lapdance wages. Personally I’m just hoping that Fantasia Q. Minge will go away now that the offending material has been taken down off the “Internets.” –FSJ

Speaking of people who say mean things online …

admin — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 14:44:00 +0000

Since Saxon Schrute now is threatening legal action I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the nasty reviews that Butt Plug Girl has posted on her Yelp page about various establishments. I won’t reprint them but let’s just say that BPG isn’t shy about sharing her opinions or revealing waaay too many details about her intimate life with her beau. She accuses one restaurant of serving rotten meat; calls a store in San Leandro “not honest,” and complains that strippers at Spearmint Rhino in Vegas did not deliver a satisfactory lapdance for her and her boyfriend. She does, however, rave about the strapons at Good Vibrations in San Francisco. Not kidding. Dudes, you can’t make this stuff up.

Scaaaaary

admin — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 13:20:00 +0000

Check out these videos from the Samurai sword website where Saxon Schrute appears to be a member. I think this dude may be his personal sensei. Holy crap. The bottom photo on this page appears to show what happens to bloggers who use their typing hand to offend a master swordsman. Okay, now I really am scared. Kind of.

Boyfriend of Butt Plug Girl writes in again

admin — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 12:36:00 +0000

Now he’s eschewing physical threats and instead imitating an attorney. He writes:

You have published libelous and copyrighted materials for commercial gain without authorization. This has caused damages to the parties named. You are hereby asked to pay $7500 to these parties, remove the offending materials, and post a public apology immediately. Other parties who have republished these libelous and copyrighted materials have been similarly notified.
Saxon R MacLeod

Not sure who this guy is but now he’s added his middle initial so things are getting more official. He shows up here having something to do with a psychology experiment at Stanford and here
publishing an extremely erudite analysis of Plato on the Barnes & Noble website. This appears to be his LinkedIn page showing a B.S. in psychology from University of Iowa and employment at a non-Yelp company in the Bay Area. He seems also to have some connection to this website about Japanese Samurai swords. (Eeps. Check out the scary video.) One of his comments: “It is a good thing to divine the meaning behind the events of life. In fact, the meaning IS the life.” Here he is badgering Tori Amos online and getting smacked down in return.

Okay, he’s not a lawyer. But he’s clearly an intellectual heavyweight and quite likely an expert Japanese swordsman. But then again, um, I invented the friggin iPod. Have you heard of it? I asked Apple’s fake legal team to check on this stuff just in case. Their opinion is that when people post stuff online it is fair game to link to it and make fun of it; and reproducing comments they make or photos they’ve published falls under the doctrine of “fair use.” Especially if a site is clearly a parody and no reasonable person would ever take anything on it seriously. Ahem. They suggested I file a fake countersuit over Saxon’s threat of physical violence. I’d rather just direct SRM to this page about blogging and free speech on the Electronic Frontier Foundation website. Money quote:

We’re working to shield you from frivolous or abusive threats and lawsuits. Internet bullies shouldn’t use copyright, libel, or other claims to chill your legitimate speech.

Much love, Butt Plug Boyfriend.

Boyfriend of Butt Plug Girl writes in

admin — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 12:58:00 +0000

He calls himself “Saxon MacLeod” (which I believe was the name of a private eye on some 1970s TV show — he drove a Trans Am that talked or something) and says the following in the comment string on the BPG item:

I’m going to give you an opportunity to show you’re anything but a 12 year old girl by getting in touch with me, at which point I will give you an opportunity to take on the face you’ve appropriated through the reconstructive plastic surgery you will need.

Butt Plug Boy, I really get upset by negative people and violence of any kind — I’m all about creating beautiful objects and making the world a more amazing place — but if you really want to throw down, hey, round up your nunchuks and butt plugs and drive down in your talking Trans Am to 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino and ask for me. I’ll have my ex-Mossad security team at the gates, and Katie Cotton in her sniper post waiting for you. Or just call the main number, 408-996-1010, and ask for me, and we’ll make an appointment. We can meet on the heliport out back. I gotta warn you, I’ve been doing tai chi for like 30 friggin years. I may have to do the Dance of the Panther on you. If you wanna make it a real rumble, bring a couple of your tie-dyed candy-ass Berkeley friends, and I’ll bring Larry Ellison and T.J. Rodgers. Think you can handle three middle-aged billionaires? Well do ya, punk?

Our new favorite Yelptard: Butt Plug Girl

admin — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 14:09:00 +0000

Don’t get me wrong. I’m still in love with Bike Helmet Girl and she’ll always be my Number One. But I’m sending out much love to reader Joeyjoseph who sent in this link to our new favorite Yelptard, a hot Asian chick who calls herself Scarlet but is considering changing her Yelp name to Anne, Charlotte, Madeleine or Marianne. Check out her reviews which are almost entirely nasty. She’s also a bit obsessed with sex, especially butt sex. And she’s mightily impressed with her own intellectual abilities, as displayed on her ridiculously pretentious blog “Sartre & Heidegger.” (I’m not kidding, that’s really the name.) Some must-read entries include this one about her dream jobs which include wrapping gifts, decorating cakes, running a sex shop and writing for The New Yorker. (Ahem.)

She also has some strong and hilarious opinions on
how math is taught in schools and appears to be slightly obsessed with butt sex, butt plugs, and sadomasochism.

Folks, welcome to the Bay Area. It’s crawling with people like this. Frigtards who think they’re “intellectuals” and spend a lot of time in cafes “journaling” and figure they can get back at their parents by having butt sex. That’s why I love it here. Honestly.

By the way the runner-up in Yelptard of the month award goes to Scarlet’s pal Stormi C, whose review page gives high marks to “Yelp booty” and would lead you to believe that Yelptards do nothing but go to parties, get drunk, and have low-IQ group sex with other pretentious strangers. No wonder Yelp is doing so well! Check out such nuggets as this description of a recent Yelp party:

As usual, Todd E. expertly picked a venue for us yelpers to engage in utter debauchery. As usual, I did my part to contribute to said debauchery. As usual, my little chocolate hands engaged in yet another episode of grab ass with my fellow yelpers, increasing said debauchery ten fold! As usual, I have a problem with the drink! I blame the Pineapple Martinis and Ketel One Lemonades at this place. My addictive personality could not resist them.

This ebony sistah also appears to do some modeling. Check it out here. In fact a pal of mine who’s a doc at UCSF Medical Center says they’re treating so many Yelptards that the hospital’s STD clinic now posts alerts around upcoming Yelp events and puts extra docs on duty on days following these parties. They’re also coming up with new names for certain diseases to use on patient charts, eg, “Yelpamydia” and “Genital Yelps.” Much love, kids!

Friggin Yelptards

admin — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 12:41:00 +0000

So it was all a setup. I’ve been wondering whether to even blog about this. But I know people are gonna ask. So whatever. I feel kinda sick about the whole thing. But anyway, they’re the ones who look like a-holes. They showed up on time, acting all flirty on the drive up to the city, and all flirty during the show and during dinner. So I go into the men’s room at Brandy Ho’s and take the Viagra. By the time we hit the apartment in Pacific Heights I’m walking with a limp and my nose is all stuffed up and it’s all good. I get out a bottle of champagne. They go change into these sexy pajamas. We kick back on the couch. I start to make my move and suddenly they leap up, all offended, like, Oh my God, you didn’t think this was a date, did you? And they’re acting sort of mortified and amused at the same time. And then sad. Like, oh, you poor old man, you really did think this was a date, didn’t you? Then they started talking about Death in Venice and talking about this crush I have on Bike Helmet Girl who looks like she’s 14 years old and how it’s one of those mortality things where you see the end of your own life drawing closer and what you’re really in love with is youth and life but it gets transferred into sexuality, this kind of base desire, and they started calling me Aschenbach and then Catriona started reciting Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium,” with this stuff about old dudes still feeling sick with desire and whatever.

In other words: Yeah. Excruciating. No doubt the whole thing was recorded somehow and is gonna show up on YouTube in the next day or so. Well, I feel like an ass. Kind of. Bigger problem was that then it was one in the morning and I’ve got a raging Viagra boner and if you’ve ever taken Viagra you know it can have some side effects including some not-so-pleasant things involving your digestive tract. Add to that the effect of super-spicy Hunan food, the kind that “burns three times” as they say in Mexico (hint: the third time is the dog’s nose) and you’ll got the picture. The girls went to bed, and I spent a memorable hour in the bathroom, groaning, and staring down at Little Stevie, this evil bastard of a third leg which wouldn’t go away. Finally at about 4:30 I got back into disguise and drove down to the Tenderloin and had Stevie Junior taken care of by some “woman” who was taller than me and had bigger hands, and who had the nerve to say, as she was getting out of my car, “Dude, nobody is gonna buy that iTV thing. Seriously.” Then when I pulled my jeans back on my wallet was gone. Nice, right?

On the bright side, Bike Helmet Girl’s performance was amazing. I am even more in love with her now than I was before. Seriously. I was gonna go out back after the show and try to meet her, but the Make Out Girls insisted on leaving early. All part of the plan, I realize now. Not sure but I think they were all in cahoots on this, like it was some kind of Yelptard conspiracy to get revenge or something. I dunno. I’d like to think that Bike Helmet Girl is being sincere and really likes me as much as I like her. Christ. Jobso, get a grip. I mean, will ya listen to me? Here I am, just after getting played like a frigtard by the Make Out Girls, and I’m still hoping that Bike Helmet Girl might be sincere. Hope springs eternal I guess. So does Little Stevie, who’s still under the influence of Vitamin V and standing at attention. Worse yet, I get to the office and there’s an urgent message from Peter Oppenheimer saying we’ve got to meet with some lawyers and finance guys today. Great. I’d rather have a friggin colonoscopy than listen to those idiots.

Anyhoo. That was my big night out. Tiffany, I still have the MacBook Pro in my car. And you were great. Honestly. Amazing. You really are talented. And beautiful. I don’t care if I’m making a fool of myself. You’re the best. I mean it.

God sometimes I am such a putz.