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...

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 ...

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 ...

I began to notice this magazine called The Weekly Yelp http://www.yelp.com/weekly_yelp . It's pretty neat, I started to follow the topics published every Wednesday.  It's very different from ROTD. There are 5 businesses featured each week. Only one review get picked from each business. I don't know how long this has been in existence. According to the Houston's Weekly, it started on November 4, 2015. I find some reviewers are very talented but they aren't Elites. I hope they become Elites one day. The Weekly Yelp is best viewed on computer. I prefer reading The Weekly Yelp on a computer. I can't handle long review on narrow phone screen, even when my phone is bigger than before.

Wait. What is this? Is it a math problem for me to solve? No way, who put this thing in the middle of my profile? This is a new feature for app users only - Last 90 Days. No worry. This is a new tool to show how your Yelp contribution being viewed. It's like a website counter for each element: reviews, photos and profile. So, I captured the images from iPhone and Android to share with you. It appears the website has same info. Woohoo! I captured some Q&A from my Beta App Group: It updates once a day. Only shows other users' views, none from me. Everyone can see it. Yes, everyone. Here is how the number crunches: Someone looked at your profile multiple times within the 90 day period counts. But someone looked at your content repeatedly in a short time won't count. HQ has a blog to share  http://officialblog.yelp.com/2016/01/how-many-views-do-your-reviews-get-find-out-now.html So far, I only find one news helpful. I think we are going to hear more about i...

List is a feature on Yelp and mainly used to group reviews with related topic. It could be anything from Best Places for Dim Sum to Worst Places to Get Wasted. You can title the list any way you want and be sure to write a description to explain to the readers. I love this List feature, which helps me to be more productive with my Yelping experiences. As for readers, they can follow my story better, like " Auto 'n Mobile of Houston ." It's about everything that moves with an automobile. I purposely grouped my biz reviews on dealing with my flat tire experiences in the spring of 2014 and car shopping experiences in the fall of 2014. In case you don't know how to make a list, here is my easy to follow instruction: First, you must use a computer. Yelp app does not have such feature and mobile web browser does not have proper encryption in security and permission to allow authoring. (Sorry about the jargon.) Log in at  www.yelp.com  and make sure you are at yo...

I was approached by a few acquaintances who were not familiar with Yelp. They often ask, "you had so many check-ins. How much do you spend to eat out?" Yelp is not just a review site for restaurants, it is a resource for different types of businesses in our community. Really, I don't eat out much. However, I like to cook my own food. So, I'm always shopping for good values.  I'm out there searching for outrageously low prices. As I said in my check-in chat: Don't go broke when you think you have to eat out to be active. Don't think eating out often is the ticket to be an effective Yelper. If you can't control your spending, try to log your spending and tally up at the end of day. 

Once I asked HQ if "ass hole" was appropriate in a review. I got a reply from Yelp HQ, "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." I found this review helpful, even with F-words.