Today’s story is a goody. A law firm faked its own online reviews on Yelp.
And Yelp SUED THEM.
On the surface, this is a big red flag: don’t fake online reviews! Yelp might sue you!
Of course, they are right: you shouldn’t fake anything. That’s immoral, bad, and likely to cause you a lot of problems (as these guys have seen!).
But lets dig below the surface.
First, these guys are morons. Doing it from their own office? C’mon, at least go to the cafe down the street, or do it from your home! Lesson: don’t be a moron.
Second, these guys PREVIOUSLY SUED YELP. Ummm, okay, lets think about this. You sue Yelp. Do you think Yelp would continue rewarding you?
Lets use a metaphor. Say, I own a shop that makes cakes. You buy a cake, and then sue me because, say, it was different than the cake you expected. Then, a few weeks later, you come into my cake store and ask if we would want to sell your cakes to the public. If it were my cake store, I would think, “F YOU, I just spent a bazillion dollars fighting off the lawyers — and now you want me to help make YOU MONEY?”.
Conclusion: if you think you might want to work with someone in the future, then try your gosh darn hardest to not sue them.
Remember, don’t think that these companies have objective algorithms. They don’t. It’s their own property, their own formula. You’re just using it because it’s helpful. You’re probably not even paying for it. They can do whatever they want. As they say: “if you’re not the client, you’re the product.” Which are you? Which do you want to be?
