Legal Disclaimer - I am an avid weekly reader of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, East Bay Express, SF Bay Guardian and the SF Weekly. I am a Yelp Elite member and I have attended their events sober. I have eaten Pork in Danville. There's already an active thread and I'm sure more review posts will be forthcoming in response to this week's SF Weekly article on Yelp. Heck, some business owners who feel that they have previously been wronged by Yelpers might throw 5 Star "pay-back's a bitch" review grenades, while hiding relatively anonymously behind their profiles. I am of course disappointed that my reviews were not mentioned or that as a 50-ish single father, my life wasn't reduced to a cartoonish stereotype (like being labelled a narcissistic twit). At the same time, this me-too article (the first appearing in the East Bay Express) doesn't pretend to pass as journalism. And when you consider the SF Bay Guardian's relatively recent success in litigating some of the SF Weekly's business practices, it is often useful to consider the source of your information. One Yelp "friend" recently questioned my Yelp objectivity, based solely on my Elite Status. And over time, after having 3 of my own reviews pulled and complaining long and loud not only to the Yelp HQ, but once to Jeremy himself, I guess he forgot to tell me that to some, Elite Status might also mean Yelp Toad. Not this time. read more

I have read SF Weekly every Wednesday for as long as I can remember. Highly recommended over the Guardian or East Bay Express, both of which I find incredibly boring and bland. My favorite aspect of SF Weekly is for discovering upcoming live shows, be it a big stadium gig, or some obscure band that is playing Cafe Du Nord or Bottom of the Hill. This is what I used before the " interwebz" and gosh darn it, this is still gonna be my go to for " useful" " funny" or " cool" events in the Bay Area. read more

The first time I picked up the SF Weekly, I threw it away immediately. There are SO MANY ads for hookers. This epitomizes the low-quality of the publication and journalists - who *earns* money from hookers anyway?! Pimps aren't respectable. Lauren Smiley's choice of sensationalism over journalistic integrity is not respectable either. read more

One star for the extra absorbency of this news rag. It is so packed full of advertisements - I mean "articles" - that it's sheer thickness saved my keyboard once when I spilled my tea. Also, the star is for the time I found a copy on the street when my dog had some serious diarrhea and I was able to cover it with something so no one would have to step in something nasty. Other than that, I regularly use this paper to clean off my windows. That's gotta count for something I guess, right? I mean, no one actually READS it, do they? read more

On the ranch where I grew up, there was an artesan spring located in a pasture full of sand dunes and scrubby brush. Next to the spring was a grove of cottonwood trees, where I occasionally idylled for ten minutes or so before getting back to work. The bark of the trees was smooth from decades of cows rubbing against them, in search of curing an itch the way animals with no opposable thumbs must. If you know the sound that wind makes in the leaves of cottonwood trees, and can add in the occasional call of a meadowlark, you can closely approximate what I experienced while leaning against those trees, eyes closed. And it occurs to me that there are maybe 9 people in the world who know where this place is. You can add this to the immense wealth of worthless knowledge I've accumulated during the years and can't seem to find anything to do with. Now, why do I mention this? First of all, I mention it because it is, apparently, the sort of detail the folks at SF Weekly hate. Second, I mention it because I happen to think that, in order to understand the review, you need to understand the reviewer, at least a little bit. I'll never have rave reviews for vegan or raw-food restaurants, and that has more than a little bit to do with the fact that I view grilled T-bone steaks as perhaps nature's most perfect food. And unless you knew that, you'd be in danger of misunderestimating my review. Not that I'm alone on this one. Alan Richman, the celebrated food critic for GQ for the past 20+ years, seems to have no problem peppering his reviews with some historical and personal notes. I can only assume SF Weekly views Mr. Richman's restaurant reviews as crappy (since they hate that kind of thing), although I haven't seen anything in SF Weekly that qualifies them to carry Mr. Richman's notepad. Alternately, you can read Roger Ebert's reviews, and see how much personal information he tends to include (a lot). And Ebert managed only to win a Pulitzer Prize for his writing. How many of those has SF Weekly won, I wonder? Now, one can't help but feel a little bit bad for people who toil in a rapidly dying medium. Print newspapers have got maybe a few decades left in them, tops. Weekly rags, much less than that. And if they hope to compete on the intarwebs, they're going to have to draw a lot more readers and a very different ad protocol. So, perhaps we ought to forgive them their tantrums. But while we may all be willing to cut them some slack, we can't forget the primary, underlying problem: the inherent anger traditional media has towards what might be broadly called the Blogosphere. A vast cadre of unpaid amateurs, many of whom write more intelligently than your average hack. Most vulnerable to this incursion of amateurism: the weekly rags that garner little critical acclaim. Like SF Weekly. So, I tend to view their front-page rage as a desperate attempt to stake out territory they are rapidly loosing to other, BETTER performers. And viewed thusly, it's a bit childish, really. read more

This weekly gets two stars on its own and 3 stars for Savage Love and my personal favorite Bouncer. I do not support Bill Graham Presents or Clear Channel. I know that the mere mention of either raises so much ire from my fellow yelpers. The Weekly is a free paper and by reading it the only people I feel like I'm supporting are Katy St. Clair and Dan Savage. If I were looking for real news I would certainly go elsewhere. If you drive, eat foie gras or vote Republican what you ought to do put that condescension in check and get back to telling folks where the good spots are for seein' and bein'. Jokes! Just jokes. For chuckle and a push in the right direction I go SF Weekly's Bouncer. Before I had Yelp, I had Katy St. Clair. (Not in the Biblical sense the word of course) Who loves you baby! Update!!! Today I found out that Katy is now using YELP to find new places to review. Now I just don't know how to feel. I'm so confused! read more

I love to read free newspapers. It's a rare day that I'm caught without one on public transportation and I feel naked without it. I read them on work breaks, lunch breaks, bathroom breaks...I like them because they often provide an insight into a subject I wouldn't otherwise know much about, or a POV from an angle I hadn't considered before. It's brain food. Usually. What I like about the SF Weekly is the "Bouncer" column - I've generally been entertained and interested in what Katy St. Clair has to say, even if it's a little mean at times. I love "Savage Love", and I appreciate Meredith Brody's habit of including public transportation info in her restaurant column. However, the articles are often either bland and lazy, or sensationalized and inaccurate. The SF Bay Guardian can get both screechy and preachy, but overall the writing is superior and they're unapologetically political, even if I don't agree with them much of the time. Yes, the Yelp article angered me. But, all it did in the end was confirm a couple of suspicions I already had about their business and journalistic practices, and prove how truly hypocritical some of the reporters can be. Some of the points made were valid. However, having seen her conduct "research" for this article firsthand, I can say that the reporter is more interested in being the next Nancy Grace than having journalistic integrity. Considering that many of her previous articles have generated similar complaints, I can't say I'm surprised - only saddened that she's worse than I thought. So, I'll keep reading because it's free and for the other reasons I stated, but if they go bankrupt because of the SFBG settlement, I won't be particularly upset. Let the better reporters and columnist find jobs in the Bay Area, and the rest go back to journalism school. read more

nothing to do with a yelp article, which isn't necessarily a way to create integrity on a site by having site users lamblast something that isn't about the business, but just an article. Guys come on....... be mature. We need you to suck it up and make yelp look better in light of the one or two drunken scenesters who are giving a bad name to *you*. So my review? The Bay Guardian is the most sensationalist, conspiracy driven, pseudo countercultural rag I have ever read, and it saddens me the paper in this town with any semblance of investigative journlalism or integrity is the SF Weekly, clearchannels billboard. But, that yelp article was pretty bad. Playing at expose. But not very well. read more

Sometimes Rob Brezny's Free Will Astrology won't run for weeks on end. Then it'll be back. Frustrating. SF Weekly, we all appreciate Savage Love, but don't bogart FWA. Bump a couple "escort" ads to make room and consider it a public service. read more

3 words. Cover Story. Harsh. ouch. not big fans-o-yelp, i can see. "They shouldn't call it Yelp; they should call it Yap." "There's the core of Yelp which is in their 20s and 30s that drink a lot and like to hook up. They're basically a bunch of self-centered twits." both barrels. right in the chest. hello. ah, the image in the mirror is so ugly. the truth? not interested in hearing it! if that's the truth, then lie to me, baby, lie!! :) on the one hand, the SF weekly competes for the same 20's and 30's audience, the same advertising dollars, publishes the sames types of restaurant reviews as yelp .... so it's hardly an unbiased observer. on the other hand, we are just self-centered twits. there really is no arguing that. hahaha. read more

This paper's feature stories are among the best in the city. I like that this paper doesn't seem to have an obvious slant, and instead lets it's features writers dive into what they would like to explore. Most, if not all of these features are about issues that affect a large cross-section of the San Francisco citizenry. A good example of this is this week's cover story, "The Muni Death Spiral." This is an issue that affects us all. It's covered in a straightforward way, and proposes a fix to the issue. The other two free papers with large distributions in San Francisco, the Guardian and the Examiner, both read like personal political mouthpieces for the extreme views of their wealthy owners. The yellow journalism embodied in the pages of the Guardian and the Examiner make me glad to have the SF Weekly in town. Finally, props for their new magazine format with a laminated cover that stays together when I read it. read more

Faux Stars??? Really, how 'bout NONE! SF Weekly staffers are lucky to have a job in the first place. How many jobs are in the world even exist where people get PAID to do something or create a product that's given away for free? "Oh, I'm just your friendly factor worker, trying to make a buck building this car but GE gave it away for free." NOT -- Get Real! SF Weekly staffers are simply jealous WE can spout off and they have to try to preserver their whatever it is agenda. If anything is true about businesses trying to buy off bad reveiwers, then I've never heard about it. I've been on Yelp since 2005, Elite for 4 years and NOT ONE BUSINESS HAS EVER CONTACTED ME EVER bad or good starts in hand! The Weekly is more frequently used as "bachelor man emergency TP" than actually read in 95% of the entire SF Bay Area. Fact Checkers at the SF Weekly, get a stat on that, OK? ~ Damn! Ms. Ali told you! read more

Thanks, SF Weekly! Today my dog took a poop on the sidewalk and I didn't have a bag. I was able to grab one of your highly regarded journalistic, integrity-driven ( & free!) issues and use it to scape her poo off the walkway. I wish I could teach her to drop a few right on your newsprint...hmmm.. we'll have to work on that. read more

Katy St. Clair also rules my world, buddies. She's my black and white 2 dimensional friend, who is normal, smart, and hilarious. Plus Free Will Astrology predicted my relationship with my boyfriend. OH YES IT DID! Minus star because the music reviews still veer a little close to "OH you've never heard of this band?! I'm not surprised!!!" read more

A decent magazine letting you know about upcoming events and info on restaurants,housing and etc...I find it very benefical. If you need a massage or something extra look in the back of the paper. read more

Okay, yelp story aside, here's my assessment: The Weekly was a great paper when I moved here in 04. Hideous Harmon Leon was finally ousted. (Thanks!) Then the editor pulled the crosswords and taunted his readers. (No thanks!) Katy St. Clair started writing the 'Bouncer' article, which reviews bars and entertains us with wisdom and bits of Katy's life. In a yelper paradigm, it's sort of a weekly well written and cohesive yelp review. She's fabulous. Dan Savage's Savage Love is there weekly. And Rob Brezny's Free Will Astrology makes the trifecta complete! Now, Since being bought up by what, the Village Voice, the writing has declined. SuckaFree City is boring. The stories have a decidely "this is the official story so don't bother finding out the real story" flavor. Not a fan of the cheesy sidebar. Bring back the Fixie Bike. Or the Apologist for god's sake! Also, the Weekly ran back to back stories on class predjudice and racial predjudice. I waited for the story on gender predjudice, but it never materialized. Instead, just more ads for forced masseurs appeared in the back of the paper. Will the "BEST OF" once again feature a woman draped on favorite landmarks? I was horrified to move to the city and find this sexist piece o tripe had infiltrated SF. An anemic version of how a woman should look was used to sell papers. How boring. How unenlightened. How not San Francisco! Where were the fat girls? Or the girls actually participating in something? Girls who weren't window-dressing ! Katy, could you get on that please? There are some good stories, and great regular features. But they've got to lose the lazy corporate reporting. And sexism, because it ruins their credibility, and promotes bile, allowing alleged "progressives" to still treat women like wierdos. read more

HA! Screw the Yelp Nazis who dish it out on a whim, and crumble and fold when someone dishes right back. Any idea how it is to run your own business, to be intimately aware of every buck that comes into and out of your life? Payback's a bitch, and so may be you. read more

So the SF Weekly was promoting the Cirque du Soleil Ovo show at some restaurant (The Colonial) on Friday 11/13. They reserve one of the rooms upstairs for the raffle. When I come in at about 7pm, it was lively and bustling. One of the SF Weekly reps noticed me, and asked me if I was here for the Ovo raffle. I said I was, and she started telling me to fill out a form and put it in a raffle box. You also have to be present to win. I asked her how many tickets are they raffling off. She seemed to not want to tell me and hinted to me there were several tickets. I also asked her when the raffle was gonna start, and she said about 7:30pm. I decided to go out and come back near 7:30pm for the drawing. I come back about 7:25pm and noticed one of the reps walking around with a stack of filled-out forms looking for winners already?!?! WTF?!! No announcement was made that there were gonna start drawing. So I had no idea what was happening, and neither did some people standing nearby me. After about 8 lower-end prizes were given out, then there was an announcement that the final 2 prizes will be awarded. One was a gift certificate to the restaurant while the grand prize was one pair of tickets to the Ovo show. WTF again!?!?! just one pair?? and obviously it wasn't me. Not trying to be a sore loser, but no one explained how the winners were being chosen. I felt like an idiot just standing there. It just seemed so disorganized and "set-up" as I tried to figure out what they were doing. What would have made it better is if they had started at the time they told me they would start while making a big announcement loud enough for everyone to hear that the drawing will begin. Big disappointment. read more

I'm a small business owner and as a requirement to officiate the business, City Hall requires that your FBN statement (Fictitious Business Name) be printed in an approved publication for four consecutive weeks before filing proof of printing with City Hall again. I chose the SF Weekly because it's a well-known publication whose cost for printing wasn't the lowest cost, but most affordable for popularity of publication. The cost not only covers the four weeks of printing, but they also file the proof of printing with City Hall. There is no additional cost to you, the business owner. Cost is covered in the initial amount to print for four weeks. I worked with the amazing Jennifer Otten who helped me out and got it done in a timely manner even though she was out of the office. I didn't have to double check with her or remind her. All my invoicing, printing, filing, and receipt of filing was done quickly and efficiently. There are all kinds of people working for the SF Weekly and there is a lot more involved than writing articles. This review is for the business as a whole and extra kudos to Jennifer Otten. read more

Yep, still sucks. The format looks better. but other than that still crap

Pretty good, but the bay guardian is much better

SF Weekly's reporting is often unprofessional and totally inaccurate. They have been sued before and lost big time. As an advertising executive emeritus I would suggest that no one even advertise in this publication. They just slammed a company called Scenetap and their postions were without any merit. Forbes just wrote an article slamming them and they are a quality business publication. SF is Trash! read more

last month, SFWEELY VOICE of the day, there's an event "EYEHeartSF's "XOX" Experience", we wanted to buy the discount ticket $17 for 2, but at the end the result showed we bought 6 tickets on line, then we mailed them at the very 1st time to correct the error from their website and cancel the purchase. but nobody gave us any feedback, we even call them, but nobody answered!!! nobody reply us, not even a mail!!! then we waited for the tickets, but at the end we never got any ticket or any feedback!!! but the credit card bill showed we were charged for $68, wow, got nothing but need to pay $68? for what??? then we tried to tell them this unfair and illegal charge, they called us, they canceled the $68 charge, but told us we still need to pay for $34!!! for what??? we never got anything from them, why we need to pay $34??? just for visiting their website??? this is the way they earn money i think!!! I just want to warn everyone that the website will charge u even it's their fault, even they never sent u what u purchase, u still need to pay!!! just bcuz u were cheated from them!!! what a sucks experience about SFWEELY VOICE of the day!!! should be a fun day to have the tickets to have fun, but at the end we never got any tickets and need to deal with them about all the faults from them, and still need to pay!!!!!! just be away from that website, it's a falsity!!! read more

hah... a plethora of 3+ star reviews... and a bunch of 1 star reviews that all spew the same diarrhea. "boycott the weakly!", "the guardian is jesus's paper of choice!!", "go back to phoenix!" sounds to me like rather than put out a worthwhile product, the SFBG staff likes to waste time making phony and lopsided reviews on yelp. don't get me wrong, i pick up and read both papers. the weekly is just the obvious superior of the two. on its own merits, the SFW gets 4 stars from me. the articles are off the beaten path and well written examples of in-depth journalism. the restaurant reviews, and especially the geographic search functions on SFWeekly.com (i want a thai restaurant in nob hill that is only $$, finds it) are very worthwhile. they throw great parties, most of which are free and involve an open bar and free food (Xmas party at the aquarium!), it offers savage love, and the best of issue is a great city guide to hang onto. in comparison to the barely-worthy-of-being-a-bird-cage liner known as the guardian, there is no comparison. you can summarize almost any issue of the guardian in 3 points: 1. hi, i'm tim redmond and i don't think the city wastes enough money on "forgotten" individuals. ps, i love paying taxes, i've adopted a homeless person to live in my extra bedroom, and you all should be more than eager to do the same. 2. pg&e, blah blah, tax dollars, blah blah, not fair, blah blah, cronies, blah blah, we are the voice of truth. if by voice of truth you mean a voice of nonsense. 3. this is our town, we are an institution (most of the staff belong in an institution), local this, local that. want an example of the constituents who still subscribe to this archaic belief? look no further than the gutter punks on haight street who beg for money while smoking $7 a pack clove cigarettes kinda funny how in one sentence, a one-star-reviewer will pee their pants in delight because the sfbg is the "local choice"... and in another sentence decry the weekly for having "too many ads". 95% of which are there to promote local businesses.... the sf weekly is almost twice the size of the guardian, and yes that includes some ads. the guardian would barely last one trip to the bathroom after eating at los coyotes. sounds to me the real locals have spoken. read more

Articles on student loan & credit debt in SF Weekly expose useful information to consumers which are rather difficult to find in other news sources. read more