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Comment on Yelp Extortion Allegations Stack Up (March 2009)parent

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See timcederman's post below. Reviews can, and do disappear apparently. Yelp admits the "spam algorithm" can be aggressive on new reviewers.

>>"[The] spam algorithm can filter based on how established user is. [Your post was] not deleted & can re-appear on biz page. Still live on your profile."

It sounds fishy to me. Who cares if the review is "still live on your profile" if it's not live on the business page. It doesn't sound like a spam filter to me, it sounds like selective removal of reviews.

There's a lot of spammers on Yelp. I have no problem with this on new users as businesses will often post reviews of themselves to drive up traffic.

But why not tell the user that it was flagged as spam and/or delete it from their profile page? Why let the user believe that their review is still there when it isn't? Maybe this is a way to fool the spammers into believing that their spamming is working, but it really is a poor experience for legitimate users, no?

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