Thank god for Andrew Menendez. He’s the recent Georgetown grad in my APOC class who asks a somewhat cynical question that I too am pondering but would never utter, because, well, if I ask it, it makes me seem like an old fuddy-duddy.
“What would happen if all the Elite Yelpers out there demanded to be paid for their reviews?” asked Andrew of Yelp Community Manager Christina Yoon. Yoon’s answer hinted at what Clay Shirky talks about in his book, “Here Comes Everybody: ” Gosh, that would just never really happen, was Christina’s reply. “I mean, hey, people are cool and overwhelmingly positive. It’s a cultural thing.”
The Yelp phenomenon Yoon alluded to is similar to Shirky’s point about the effect of “mass amateurization.” Ward Cunningham, Wikipedia’s founder, bet that people with a common collaboration goal would trust each other enough to self-police. If the aggregate cares enough, they’ll protect the product, in turn building up the community. It’s a matter of pride. This paradigm has yelp all over it.
Julie Epstein writes more than 6 free reviews a month. For her trouble, she gets a little badge icon posted next to her profile picture and an invitation to an occasional party.
Now I don’t know whether to laugh or to yelp (ouch!). I’ve been observing Yelp from over the shoulder of one of my co-workers for more than a year. He and Julie are probably yelpmates. Yelp Boy multi-tasks between editing and designing his pages and yelping. When hears my footsteps behind him, he’s minimized.
There’s a dotted line on the org chart between me and Yelp Boy. So, I play it cool. I’ve read the studies that say that employees who spend some company time on the internet are less stressed. And this guy has stress ball potential. Full-time job, part-time student, full-time business owner (a family-run bakery in Van Nuys). So I give him a long leash. Maybe it’s the yelping that’s keeping Yelp Boy sane. But, I’m disappointed that yelp is getting his attention when what I really want him to do is go out there and break a story.
As a student of social media, I am fascinated by elite Yelpers and by how mass collaboration has taken the wind out of the sails of expert restaurant reviewers. In my employee’s case, the drive to make a mark on the Internet is stronger than the fear of being caught at work.
As an employer, I think I’d like to send a bill to Christina Yoon, who in turn could send it up to Yelp HQ. Wonder if I’d get a reaction?
Hey, Yelp Boy! Who signs your paycheck?
Yelping is definitely a cultural, social thing for me. In some ways, it’s a diary of my foodie adventures that I kindly share with Yelp readers. People can take it or leave it. People blog about their ideas for free…how is Yelp any different?
Julie, after listening to you and Lloyd tonight after class, I understand that you are most definitely a foodie! I don’t begrudge your right to blog about food, but I do wonder about Yelp’s right to take it for gain. And the idea that people are more dedicated to their yelping than to their careers (my employee) is just mind-boggling to me. BTW, did you see that Yelp has a class action suit against them for “selling” the push down of negative reviews…
I definitely see where Julie and the other yelpers are coming from – Yelp is just for fun, and sharing your experiences shouldn’t be something you do for personal gain. By yelping, you get to help out your community and take an active role in the local culture. In some senses you ARE the local culture (especially Julie – amazing amount of reviews!).
But on the other side of the coin, why does Yelp get to reap crazy profits from everyone’s collective work? I know that they set up and maintain the site, but they also are effectively using the public, community wisdom as a commercial bargaining tool. I never thought I’d be making this argument, but it seems strangely crass to me. The foodie culture is so strong that I’m sure an organic site would do just fine – the profits from “yelp” could go to solving the sustainable farming problem that is the holy grail of foodie activism. What would Michael Pollan Say?
Furthermore, I do think that Yelp would have a big problem if elite Yelpers went on strike. I dont think this will ever happen, barring something bizarre like Yelp changing their logo to a swastika, but ultimately, the power is in the hands of the reviewers, and the money is in the hands of the admins.
Speaking of Skirky (interesting book btw) – I was fascinated by his point that there where some chaotic years after the invention of the printing press. My point is that the internet is still in its infancy, and realistically, in a state of chaos. Many things we take for granted about the internet could change quickly – what if every word you wrote online was legally your property? Don’t yelp reviews represent your intellectual property? Usually when we submit our work to the creative commons, there is a provision that whoever uses it does not do so for profit. Yet yelp is very profitable…
Anyway, I’m glad to hear that you appreciated the question. I felt like I was coming off like some crazy marxist!
My opinions Re: Andrew’s comments about Yelpers going on strike.
* Well, MySpace users effectively are or have gone on “strike.” And that’s costing them a lot.
* While Yelp maybe need not pay for reviews, it does need to provide value equal or greater to the “cost” of participating (some privacy, time). And that value is largely dependent on the community having some size, authority, closeness. Community sites (like Yelp) really do need to “invest” a lot of money in keeping the community up to snuff.
* To the core Yelpers, I’m guessing this community is more valuable than getting paid a few dollars. If not, Julie and others would replace their Yelp time with moonlighting gigs to write SEO content for AssociatedContent and the like.
* It is peculiar that more uber reviewers don’t start their own sites and post their reviews there. They’re already creating the content, right?