
Yelp deleting negative reviews for Dentist who killed Cecil the Lion - RyanMcGreal
http://www.yelp.com/biz/river-bluff-dental-bloomington
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jburwell
To be clear, I think this guy is complete scum, and he should go immediately
to jail. That being said, I think Yelp should removes reviews of a business
from people who have clearly never used the business' services. The purpose of
the site is to review the performance of the business -- not pass judgement on
the owners' unrelated activities. In this case, reviews should about the
dentistry provided. While this case is well-known, trending, and the actions
of the owner quite clearly repugnant, if they don't generally cull such
reviews then the ratings will become untrusted as people will wonder whether
or not the business' ratings are the result of actual experiences or based on
completely unrelated factors.

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bpodgursky
What crime would you send him to jail for? You can't jail people for being
"scum". That isn't rule of law.

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jburwell
He violated the Zimbabwean anti-poaching laws by killing a protected animal.
Extradite him and let him rot in one of their prisons.

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trevin
Yelp's statement[1]:

"Media-fueled reviews typically violate our content guidelines. One of these
deals with relevance. For example, reviews aren’t the place for rants about a
business’s employment practices, political ideologies, extraordinary
circumstances, or other matters that don’t address the core of the consumer
experience."

Agree with their decision. Just because he's a heartless poacher doesn't mean
he is a horrible dentist. Plus, there are a dozen or so others who work at the
practice. If he goes to jail, this type of social media vigilante justice only
harms the innocent.

This reminds me somewhat of reddit's DIY investigation into the Boston
marathon bombings. The justice system works well but is slow. Social media
vigilante justice is fast but not fair.

[1][http://www.marketwatch.com/story/yelp-pulls-reviews-of-
lion-...](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/yelp-pulls-reviews-of-lion-killing-
dentist-2015-07-29)

~~~
MrZongle2
_" Social media vigilante justice is fast but not fair."_

That's because "social justice" isn't about justice. It's about punishing an
entity with a real or perceived advantage, in order to appease a victim-
mentality group. Righting any possible wrong or establishing true equality has
nothing to do with it.

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27182818284
I think this is correct for Yelp to do. It is brigade-voting / spam.
Similarly, if a bunch of folks from Fox News saw something about Y Combinator
controversially and started dumping things in the threads I'd expect it'd be
deleted.

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Grue3
They are right. If you haven't actually visited the establishment and used its
services, you shouldn't be able to review it. Same with products reviews on
Amazon or app reviews on phone app stores.

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allsystemsgo
Business is closed and the comments don't have anything to do with the
business itself. While I don't condone him killing the lion, I have no issue
with them deleting the comments.

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MrZongle2
At this point, I don't know what's more disgusting: the poaching or the
slavering, bloodthirsty mob who wants to punish the dentist without due
process.

~~~
dennisbest
Excellent question. Poaching is worse. Glad to help. :)

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heifetz
well, he closed his practice, so does it really matter what the reviews say,
positive or negative?

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paulhauggis
Why shouldn't they?

This is the shitty, mob mentality that needs to stop.

