Urbanspoon And Their Response To Feedback

Feedback from leebemrose@hotmail.com
>
> Hi there.
>
> Just wondering if you can consider only giving thumbs-up/thumbs down
> rights to people who are prepared to leave a few words to say why they
> are voting. It's quite pointless for completely anonymous people to
> simply say yay or nay without saying what their problem is.
> Constructive criticism is a great thing, we just need to know what the
> negativity is about so that we can do something about it.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Lee Bemrose,
> Grumpy & The Dreaded One's Little Cafe Of Awesome.
 From: janet@urbanspoon.com
To: leebemrose@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Urbanspoon Feedback
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 12:41:19 -0500

We appreciate your feedback! We do have an anti-fraud system in place that removes fraudulent or patterned votes. I’m attaching our guide for owners to this email. Best, Janet
My reply:
Dear Janet,
 
 I'm not talking about your anti-fraud measures and nothing in the attachment sent is in any way relevant to the issue I raised in my initial email.
I think the thumb-up or thumbs-down should ONLY be available to people willing to say why they are voting the way they do. Currently it is completely anonymous and utterly pointless; what good is it to get a positive or negative vote if you don't know what you did to get such a vote?
Unless I am missing something, I don't see how any dialog can be entered into if someone simply goes to your page and gives you a thumbs down. Please let me know if I am indeed missing something here.
I realize that this was probably an automated response and that you don't really appreciate such feedback and that you have no intention of addressing this issue, but I'm a dreamer.
I don't think any restaurant or cafe owner would have a problem with a negative vote if they knew what they had done wrong. The anonymous voting system is just plain stupid and should be the privilege of users willing to offer feedback. What safeguards do have in place to ensure these anonymous votes are from genuine dissatisfied customers? It would appear, none whatsoever.
Wouldn't it make more sense and be more use to at the very least have a few boxes to tick (service, food quality etc) if people couldn't be bothered writing a few words to express their experience. But I still feel they should have to sign in and there should be a way of ensuring that they are genuine customers.
I look forward to your reply.
Regards,
Lee Bemrose.