Hacker News Reader

Comment by chasing | Hacker News Reader

Yes. And because of this you should definitely go to Yelp and give them a one-star review. And destroy their Facebook page. And maybe go take a shit on their doorstep. That's definitely the answer when a small business makes an error like this. They're frustrated by something they don't feel is fair and made a ham-fisted attempt to fix the problem. Ruin them.

(The ice machine thing, though -- that actually seems like it's much more indicative that it might be worth staying somewhere else...)

View on HN

In fairness, I'm guessing a lot of the people virtually stomping on this hotel are doing so in an attempt to nip a potential Overton window shift in the bud. If this hotel were to get away with such a policy, other hotels and perhaps other types of businesses would likely follow suit; that's how changes in what's considered normal behavior come about. Punishing the first defector can be an effective way to forestall that.

I think you're being way too generous. They're trashing them because they can and it makes them feel powerful. A virtual vigilante mob without any risk.

"makes an error" and "makes a malicious policy" are two entirely different things.

You forgive accidental mistakes, but you should punish intentional morally unacceptable behavior.

My sarcastic point wasn't that they should be forgiven -- or that they shouldn't be punished. I was joking about how after reading an article like this some People on the Internet feel saying retributive things on Yelp and Facebook = social justice.

These hoteliers have a stupid (and likely unenforceable) social media policy. And they might be assholes. Fortunately they have almost no sway over your life. Fry bigger fish.

$500 bucks a pop for reviews posted by people who are not under financial obligations to me is not small fish in any dimension.

And recovering money via the court system is another huge waste of time and effort for everyone involved. Stomping down on this hard is exactly what should be happening.

"An error" suggests a lack of intent - a mistake, if you will. This isn't a mistake. It's a blatant attempt at gaming a review system.

"An error" can also mean an error in judgement or an error in business.

I'd call insulting people in response on the yelp page "ham-fisted", but that really seems a bit of an understatement when they're trying to charge people hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for bad reviews.

Sarcasm doesn't always translate well on the Internet.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com