Judge: Yelp Reviewers Are Not Employees

It looks like this crazy case has finally come to an end. I have no idea how these people ever thought they were "employees" in the first place.

A reasonable inference to be drawn from the complaint, and from plaintiffs’ arguments, is plaintiffs use the term “hired” to refer to a process by which any member of the public can sign up for an account on the Yelp website and submit reviews, and the term “fired” to refer to having their accounts involuntarily closed, presumably for conduct that Yelp contends breached its terms of service agreement.

People need to learn that they are a product when they spend their time on something. However good or bad, if it has actual output and distribution like a Yelp review, then it's a product.

Next step is to understand how Yelp operates, which is advertising revenue, which Yelp receives because it's getting a lot of hits because, ta-daa, of people's reviews.

And then a simple decision is to be made: do I want to donate my time to the Yelp company, yes or no? If yes, continue and if no, stop.

Where it becomes kind of wicked is the "Elite" status, which has multiple tiers apparently. It gives Yelp reviewers perks like invitations to parties. I can only imagine what those are like but no matter, those people pump out a lot of reviews. And for what, a Yelp party? Recognition of being an "Elite" member on Yelp?

I can't say I like Yelp or don't like Yelp. I have had plenty of restaurant visits that had nothing to do with some of the "reviews" I've read, both good and bad. I still mostly go by word of mouth from people I know, and by how busy a place is, among other things. I think if somebody bragged to me about being an "Elite" Yelp member, I'd spit out my drink and laugh.

Stupid is as stupid does. You volunteer your time to write reviews, The icing on the cake is that you sue the company for money for your own action.