Lou MC Yelps a Lot

Profanity is not allowed in my family. I don't know about yours, but we were taught not to swear in any language. What if you start watching a silly movie on TV, you noticed lots of beeps at the beginning of a profanity word. I would flip the channel to watch something else.  Some people have different tolerance level when it comes to profanity. You are not supposed to swear in class, at work or at church. But people do. Some people even swear in reviews. Not clear why they had to use F-words at Arirang I have seen Yelp bypassed a few reviews with loaded F-words, B-words and A-words. I reported few reviews. They all came back with "We realize that different people have different tolerances for strong language, but our bar is pretty high so that we can allow reviewers to tell their story in their own words even when things get colorful. With that said, we've decided not to remove the review after carefully assessing it against our Content Guidelines, but thank you...

2017 was a thrilling year for me. I spent a lot of time on taking better photos and sharing more with the communities. Not just Yelp, I also Google a lot.  Funky YES! Here is my status on Yelp : Completed 111 reviews in 2017 Updated 14 reviews in 2017 Uploaded total of 8025 media files (7549 photos & 476 videos) since the day I started Yelping, March 2011.   As of December 30th, I had 6 Baronies. Somehow, it's no longer visible in 2018 (Android). I could never broke my record of 300 reviews from 2016. Due to reviews disappearance, I've included a counter at the end of each review. I also saved the direct link to each published review with my archive. This process was extremely time consuming. I completed my 111 reviews in 2017. You can only see 110 reviews because 13th review was removed. Here is my story .  As of January 2, 2018, before I added more stuff. As for Google, I joined Local Guides sometime last year. I am currently Level...

In October, I hosted another meetup to invite Local Guides in Houston. I want to give LG another try on LocalGuideConnection.com website, which is changed to https://maps.google.com/localguides. They didn't tell me that. (this is usual with Google. I'm not surprised.) My event was called National Cookies Month  meetup in Houston TX. I limited 10 guests as I usually do. But I received a message from someone really wanted to attend but there was no more opening. That's odd. Among those 10, there were only 4 replied had reviews in Houston. Jawahir (Finland) - Level 2 - 109176936456734675648 Bunda Imoet (Indonesia) - Level 6 - 114393280060569328492 salvatore porru (Italy) Level 5 - 113940019571382231665 Ericka Flowers ( Houston ) Level 3 - 106689765669046657086 Vito Montanaro (Italy) Level 3 - 102425615440366601261 MrAHMED SAEID (Egypt) Level 4 - 101547467045030028617 William Daniel (Thailand) Level 3 - 115909375203005254472 ...

I tried to like this Local Guide Houston on Google+ Community. It has over 19k members with too many spam messages and unrelated topics. The worse part was my question on meetup was unanswered. Everyone seems disinterested with everyone else. I felt like it's a bot world. So I tried localguideconnect.com, a little better but still many unrelated replies. It seems people just want to get badges. I sent a message and never had high hope for a response back. But it has to depend on how they receive notification. For me, I receive updates on gmail. I get instant alert on my phone. Now, they want to know how my meetup went  Here are my answers to the survey: Any other feedback you’d like to share? The meetup event on LGC site is useless. Only 3 out of 9 showed up from there. I would rather use Google+ Events to be my only source for RSVP.  Please link to a photo album from your meet-up I tried to use Google Photos app. But it uploaded all unrelated photos on my ...

I've been an Elite Yelper for 6 years. I was curious with a constant popup from Google Maps app to join Local Guides. Here is a quick comparison with Google Local Guides and Yelp Elites. Lack of Connection - There is connections with Google Maps reviewers and the readers. If you are a Local Guide, there is LocalGuidesConnect.com to have some sort of conversation. Most of conversations are fillers - users wants to get badges. Lack of Social Interaction - Unlike Yelp, you can't follow a reviewer and read his/her reviews first. The reviews are sorted chronologically with ratings (non-verbiage review) on the bottom. It's meaningless to write a long review on a popular destination. I normally say a few words with dozen of photos. It knows you're here. Some biz don't have one. Content Quality - There's no standard with Local Guides.  Level 5 Local Guides - Unlike Yelp Elites, there is no prestige to be recognized. Anything over 500 points is Level 5....

Did you know my Chinatown Crawl UYE (Unofficial Yelp Event) made one year? It started with a trial last May during Asian Heritage Month Celebration . The response and popularity were increasing on Yelp and Facebook. Managing guests list has been a chore using Yelp Events. I am experimenting a new system by posting my meetup on more event sites like Google and invited Google Local Guides to attend. Extended my invitation to Local Guides The hardest part of hosting a popular meetup event is attendance headcount. It has always been above my original expectation. But by how much? Finding a suitable restaurant with enough seating is important. When my count of 18 guests at December's Night Market UYE grew to 22. Sherry at Yummy Kitchen was able to find solution at the last minute. Again at February's Hotpot UYE , 12 guests became 16. I had to rely on restaurant to accommodate expandable crowd. Speaking of accommodation, creating a good relationship to restaurant owner ...

As much as I love Yelping with my app, I have to slow down on checking in everywhere. Because check-in slows me down with my daily routine. First, I have to take time to pull out my phone. Second, the moment I turn it on, it started to use cell phone data. Third, I don't mind using phone data much but some apps start to synchronize to their servers (such as Google Maps app), which slowing me down. Moreover, I'd rather spend time enjoying life than getting distracted with the apps. I can live without technology when I really don't have the time. This was captured a year ago.  As you may have seen I claimed so many baronies before. At one time, I had 8. Now, I only want to focus on Baron of Chinatown. It's the neighborhood I know best and the area I explore often on my days off. I want to be the go-to person or the Local Guide in Chinatown. If Yelp offered an ambassador position in Houston, I would apply. Starting 2017, I have a few projects lined up to help ...

One of these days, you will see my name attached to a business review or photo on Google Maps . Yes. I'm actively adding reviews, photos and answers to help growing of the community around me. My profile name is Luis M Chen, not Luis Chen. I was adding photos to Six Ping Bakery and I found a tocayo on other photos. Ain't  it confusing? I just want to make a distinction between another Luis Chen and me. So, I changed my profile banner to blue TexDem screen. It came from my visit to Alamodome last June. People asked if I post same photos and reviews from Yelp to Google Maps. The answer is no. Since I don't know my audience, the reviews on Google Maps are shorter. Besides, most people don't like to read long reviews on a small screen. About the photos, I will apply the same courtesy of avoiding people's faces and license plates. I will, however, use photos from Yelp Tips on Google Maps. It's because Tips are not visible on desktop version and not readi...

After I upgraded my Samsung Note 4 to Android version 6.0 - Marshmallow, I noticed significant change on Yelp app. Whenever I want to get direction on Yelp, the only choice is to get to Google Maps. It used to have more choices. (See the image on  Send to car with Yelp  from last year.) Once I get there, Google Maps took the opportunity to capture my interest. The app kept hinting me to upload a photo or answer a few questions, because it knows I was there before. Eventually, it lured me to become a Local Guide. It was nice to know half million views on 9 photos I posted years ago. Just to be fair, I don't post same photo on Google Maps and Yelp. Since I don't know who is reading the reviews on Google Map, I don't share much details like on Yelp. I never find reviews are useful on Google Maps. Besides, it should stay as a map app.