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I think this might be a concern, depending on how the "hapibelly" score is generated: >Don’t aggregate or blend our star ratings and review counts with other p

• deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
• benkarst 10y ago
  Thanks. I should probably contact Yelp if this app gets any traction. Also, I think these are just the terms for using the API. I'm not sure if they can do anything if I don't use the API. Even If Yelp and Foursquare are a no-go, that still leaves 6 other solid review platforms to use. Yelp and foursquare are useful but not the best. The granularity of rating for Yelp is too big. Over 50% of restaurants are 4.0 stars. (That's why the app is useful) Foursquare is the least used platform with the oldest reviews.
  • twalling 10y ago
    What do you mean you're not using their API? If you're screen scraping the content, you're still violating their terms of service. "You also agree not to, and will not assist, encourage, or enable others to:" "Use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application, or other automated device, process or means to access, retrieve, scrape, or index any portion of the Site or any Site Content;" https://www.yelp.com/static?country=US&p=tos https://www.yelp.com/static?country=US&p=tos
    • softawre 10y ago
      Curious observer here. Since he's not a Yelp partner or customer or anybody, why does he have to worry about their TOS?
      • twalling 10y ago
        Whether one likes it or not, simply by visiting or looking at a site, you're agreeing to their TOS. "By accessing or using the Site, you are agreeing to these Terms and concluding a legally binding contract with Yelp Inc., a Delaware corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California ("Yelp"). Do not access or use the Site if you are unwilling or unable to be bound by the Terms."
        • towelrod 10y ago
          Or... what? It says "Do not access or use the Site..." but what would be the penalty for using a site like this outside of the terms of service?
        • benkarst 10y ago
          This article helped clear things up for me. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/07/court-violating-terms-service-not-crime-bypassing https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/07/court-violating-terms-...
  • minimaxir 10y ago
    If you're not using the API, you won't be contacting Yelp, Yelp will be contacting you, and not in a friendly way.
    • michaelmrose 10y ago
      Perhaps we shouldn't be giving our review data to companies like yelp that lock it up then. The user certainly doesn't gain anything from their contributions being sequestered.
      • benkarst 10y ago
        Agree 100%. If a user contributes to any platform, the information should be open for all to use. Including FB, instagram, or any review site.
        • rcorin 10y ago
          Relevant info: the lawsuit of craigslist vs padmapper and 3taps: "3taps claimed that Craigslist was a public website, so anyone, including 3Taps always had authorization. The court disagreed with this..." (Wikipedia)
      • jads 10y ago
        I don't really have any issue with Yelp's terms of service. After all, user reviews are their backbone so I don't blame them for wanting to make sure that any Yelp review information needs to be identified as coming from Yelp / under certain restrictions. Wouldn't seem fair if Yelp did all the work and any app or platform can simply piggyback off of it and present it as their own, or obscure where it came from.
      • ry_ry 10y ago
        Are there any good open review platforms? Because it sounds like a pretty good idea. Freely distributable attributed reviews under non exclusive licence is way cooler than a db full of yelp scrapings.
  • jads 10y ago
    As others have said here, if you're scraping then you're definitely in violation of pretty much every service's TOS, not just their developer one.