Talk Montréal

How come Montreal Yelp isn't very active?

Category: Yelper Shout-Outs

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Photo of Melissa F.
4/14/2010 Melissa F. says:

who is the community manager?
how come there are no yelp events = (

  1. Photo of Mathieu B.
    4/14/2010 Mathieu "MJ" B. says:

    There's one big trouble honestly and it's that Yelp is mostly yelpless in here.

    Restaurant wise, the website http://www.restaurantm... covers all that needs to be known about good places. Plus we got some cultural magazine that is free called Voir (in French) and Mirror (for the english equivalent). voir is online and pretty active on the cultural ground (music, bar scene, underground scene, restaurant scene, etc. name it!) Mirror is very much alike in English. Now in terms of good places to go out there's the papers (The Gazette, La Presse (in French)) that will cover lot of cultural ground as well in terms of movie and theatre's schedule to come, same for Opera and Classical.

    Yelp is not implanted that much in Montreal (second of all) for the language barrier. Mostly everybody is bilingual in Montreal, but there's like a 65% french community, 25% anglo, 10% non-english/non-french. So there's a large group that doesn't participate to this website because it's in English only. Some people kind of had the guts to present some french thread which weren't censored but the point of the website is to suggest tourist and locals some place where you've been that you liked and some that you didn't like that much. So if you want to be sure to be understood, even if it's gutsy, it doesn't get everybody, together. Also, i find that there's a lot of place that you need to create a file to present an underground cool places.
    So there is the eternal problem with Montreal and Yelp. You would have thought that with Apple / I-phone advertising yelp on some north american commercials  would have impacted everybody, but when I ask some friend to register and come here to let a comment, a review, just chill around and read some place, look some cities and cool spot that you want to visit. etc. Well they'll say: I got this website, i don't need another one.

    In my opinion the fact only half of Montrealer would only be interested on sharing here cuts the activity by a lot. And people seems to have a hard time getting it, what's yelp about.
    The way I was hook to it myself is by checking out Boston, MA which has an extremely active yelper community, it felt the reviews were more human, less technical somehow. So that's why I promote Yelp to people around here more and more.

  2. Photo of Alexandra D.
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    4/16/2010 Alexandra D. says:

    There's no community manager for Montreal, but doesn't mean we couldn't organize our own events!

  3. Photo of Sarah A.
    4/16/2010 Sarah A. says:

    Yup, in Boston we have UYE (Unofficial Yelp Events) organized by regular yelpers.

  4. Photo of Mathieu B.
    4/16/2010 Mathieu "MJ" B. says:

    I think I'd participate. I'm too lazy to be an organizer. First because I don't know what I would organize. But having one in MTL would mean having Elite etc. ?

  5. Photo of Alexandra D.
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    4/17/2010 Alexandra D. says:

    I'd be up to organizing something. Would be cool to meet other Montreal yelpers, even if it's only a small group to start.

  6. Photo of Melissa F.
    4/17/2010 from Yelp for iPhone Melissa F. says:

    You guys should organize something !  In fact I think I will organize something when I get into Montreal. I'll be there from may 31 to jun 4th.

    Any suggestions for a Montreal yelp event? Along the lines of casual drinks and food? Since you guys don't have a community manager I'll ask the Toronto manager if I can bring over some shwag for y'all
    !

  7. Photo of Alexandra D.
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    4/17/2010 Alexandra D. says:

    Awesome! I'm still fairly new to the city so not sure about what venue would be good. Any suggestions?

  8. Photo of Mathieu B.
    4/17/2010 Mathieu "MJ" B. says:

    some shwag = cheap canabis. You want to bring weed to a meeting?  We can get our own! ;)

    No kidding what does it do? Like it's like a meeting site where we...get drunk or just come over some people, act shy, 'Cause we don't really know each other and we all have different habits and use to go to some particular place?

  9. Photo of Stephen T.
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    4/22/2010 Stephen "Steve" T. says:

    I think all of the local newspapers mags etc..are good things, however, Yelp will eventually catch on as is has everywhere else. It's simply a natural progression. Give the locals time to catch up and find out abut Yelp and will certainly begin to use it. In the meantime, write reviews!!!

  10. Photo of Alexandra D.
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    4/22/2010 Alexandra D. says:

    Well said, Steve!

  11. Photo of Mathieu B.
    4/23/2010 Mathieu "MJ" B. says:

    That's propably right, but the problem is that look at http://restaurantmontr... . They're so efficient and have a site is really business oriented. There's some review but I don't think it serve the same purposes that Yelp does. That's why I think, Yelp is great. But the lack of communication with others is definetly something that we need to improve. Right now, Montreal Yelper is pretty much a bunch of people helping tourist from active region that looks into Montreal Yelp. It could be cool if we'd go to Restaurant opening or Club opening and be the first to review it with other website. That could be cool if we'd have an event planner that check into those opening and then summons a meeting for all food lover to join a new restaurant. Anyway, that's just an idea.

  12. Photo of Martin J.
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    4/24/2010 Martin "Phallus Nocturne" J. says:

    But Yelp is not only about restaurant. I guess that http://Voir.ca is more attractive to Montrealers. Also it's pretty much that way on lots of communities when it comes to Montreal it seemed that webtrend don't work to well on us?

  13. Photo of Mathieu B.
    4/26/2010 Mathieu "MJ" B. says:

    Hmm I disagree. There's a lot of webtrend that works with us. It's simply that reviewing a restaurant/ merchant  takes time and not everybody is willing to put some time into this. The issue is that we're consumers that doesn't share their spot amongs other then your close group. This website promote sharing your secret spot for shopping - and normal spot too - with others from North America which is pretty neat.

  14. Photo of Melissa F.
    4/28/2010 from Yelp for iPhone Melissa F. says:

    I think a first to review place would be a great idea. For th publicity of yelp and to give yelpers a chance to review.

    Any suggestions on a bar available for an uye?  Preferably in the dt area for the benefit of me- an out of towner?  : P

  15. Photo of Arlene W.
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    4/28/2010 Arlene W. says:

    yes, i agree the Montreal community is not very active.  I'll be going to Montreal in June - would like to know what are the hottest restaurants/clubs there now?  I checked out the Mirror and Restaurant Montreal & it wasn't much help.  Also, can someone recommend a nice spa to go to as well & any must see places.  Thanks so much!

  16. Photo of Timothy G.
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    5/5/2010 Timothy "Psycho" G. says:

    Hopefully the bilingual aspects they've added with Yelp Paris will get expanded here as well.

  17. Photo of Mathieu B.
    5/7/2010 Mathieu "MJ" B. says:

    but the issue is that most reviews are done in English for the benefits of everybody. I don't think having multiple languages will make it easy for people who wants to travel in Paris for example.

    If i go to Boston, i check out boston group, if i go to San Francisco I check out San Francisco group. If i wanna go to Paris, I'll check the Paris yelp too. I speak French and English so it's no trouble for me but what about the very large majority of other yelpers ? It's something to know what a Boeuf Bourguignon is but reading a review is a bit more deep.

  18. Photo of Dawn E.
    5/7/2010 Dawn "Feathers and Sunbeams™" E. says:

    You can write your reviews in French.   Yelp just added Paris and the reviews are half and half.

    Frankly, if you're traveling to a place where the primary language is not English, then you should at least be willing to translate text and learn a few basic sentences when communicating.  It would be like Boston writing it's reviews in Chinese because that the language more people globally speak.  Do Yelp for us, Yelp for yourself!!

    Why don't you start a French language thread and see who that attracts?

  19. Photo of Melissa F.
    5/7/2010 from Yelp for iPhone Melissa F. says:

    I agree that the French language is a benefit to Montreal yelp.
    Yes, English helps tourists. But if that's all you considerbit defeats the purpose of yelp. Yelp is a community of people new and old to the city who want to support good businesses and do buyer beware for others. It's also a place for locals to post events and get together with likeminded foodies or activity based events.

    My command of French is pathetic. But it would be proper for Montreal yelp to be biligual.

  20. Photo of Mathieu B.
    5/22/2010 Mathieu "MJ" B. says:

    But nobody really understands french other then French speaking. Plus what if there's some info for everybody that can't be spread because it's only in French? It's kind of selfish for the others. Politically, saying those things kind of discuss me because I'm proud of speaking French but I make the difference between a website and a political view (which is also a way of life, to speak french in a city where more and more French is no longer the main language). If it really appears to be it's because most of touristic area is French speaking. Anglo lives in the Suburbs and the ones that live downtown, of near downtown aren't that big compare to the city itself. Anyway, the fact is that promoting yelp is mostly promoting your citie's jewels. But since it seems it's going more and more global, I'm willing to give it a try.

  21. 5/25/2010 Dave Y. says:

    Montreal Yelp needs to be bilingual.

  22. Photo of Imaad M.
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    6/3/2010 Imaad M. says:

    well you guys can call start by adding your facebook friends to this website. thats how it started. if one person tels 2 people, you can cover the poplaution

  23. Photo of A b.
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    6/6/2010 A b. says:

    I'm barely functional in spoken French, but I understand written French fine, plus if I don't understand it, I can just get a web translator to do it for me. It's not entirely precise but it works. Most Montreal anglos are like this, you really can't get much out of the city if what Mathieu said was correct: "Nobody really understands French other than French speaking".

    I agree Montreal Yelp needs to be bilingual. But getting Francophones interested in this site would take some effort.

    It also seems that Montreal Chowhound is more active than Montreal Yelp in many ways for the English speaking community. And I never see "People love us on Yelp" stickers on restos here that I see all over my hometown. So, obviously the marketing department hasn't put much effort into making Montreal Yelp as viable. Actually they would have to translate their stickers to French, so maybe that's why I never see them.

  24. Photo of Mathieu B.
    6/10/2010 Mathieu "MJ" B. says:

    Anne, you bring a good point. But the issue with web transaltor, you know that québécois translate bad but anyway. Plus when it comes to who's more bilangual than who; it's an eternal debate. French will say it's us, but they'll argue that they are. But this debate is totally useless in my humble opinion. But another good point is that the laws for advertising is that French need to the as big as the english message or bigger. French is Official language, therefore, ads are in French, even the English radio have ads that are bilingual.

  25. Photo of Olee D.
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    6/26/2010 from Yelp for iPhone Olee D. says:

    On dirais tlm est de toronto up in here

  26. Photo of Mathieu B.
    6/28/2010 Mathieu "MJ" B. says:

    Entk une chose est certaine, je pense que la seule place ou ça commence à fonctionner en France c'est genre Paris pis c'est pas mal ça alors c'est quand même un peu chiant. Tsé l'idée de ce site est est vraiment géniale mais il n'y a personne pour vraiment en faire une promo franco et anglo mais sans ...comment dire..«complexe identitaire» si je peux m'exprimer ainsi. Ce que je trouve chiant c'est que nous sommes quand même pas mal voyageur au Québec mais j'ai remarqué que les américains voyageaient quand même en grande proportion à l'intérieur des états-unis et même l'amérique du nord. Au Québec les grosses destinations américaines c'est en premiere place la Floride, La Nouvelle-Angleterre et Texas/Arizona (c'Est comme la version de la Floride pour le monde de l'ouest canadien) et biensur la Californie.  En tout cas, s'il veulent du français et bien en voila.

  27. Photo of Karl H.
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    6/29/2010 Karl H. says:

    For local Montreal events, you can go to the following websites. http://www.meetup.com.

  28. 7/8/2010 Dave Y. says:

    Really cool, guys....thanks for all the info and links....

  29. Photo of Dave H.
    7/23/2010 Dave "http://goo.gl/avfD8" H. says:

    Great thread!

    Just tested out the ability to leave a review for a business in French (go to http://www.yelp.fr, look up your desired business, then review en francais), and it works like a charm. Shame my French is so poor. =P

  30. 7/23/2010 Dave Y. says:

    Merci, Dave!  (Please don't respond in French since I don't know too much beyond that.)  :-p

  31. Photo of Dave H.
    7/23/2010 Dave "http://goo.gl/avfD8" H. says:

    You're welcome! I can read French, just not very good at crafting logical sentences. =X

  32. Photo of A b.
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    8/8/2010 A b. says:

    That is cool Dave.... http://www.yelp.fr/sea...  Same great Montreal Yelp, only the menu is en français!

    Also today I was checking out urbanspoon, and there seems to be a lot more activity over there... is this because it also functions as an aggregator?

    I still like your guys' reviews better, and I'm so partial to Yelp because it is really big in the states. I find it does lead to interesting experiences, and urbanspoon, chowhound, etc. are just not as simple to use and friendly to the user. SO here's hoping we can somehow make Montreal yelp take off! :)

  33. Photo of Dave H.
    8/8/2010 Dave "http://goo.gl/avfD8" H. says:

    Anne B.: Urbanspoon has existed longer in Montreal than Yelp, as far as I know - that could be one reason?

    I love Yelp since there are more "real" reviewers than shill ones. It's heartening to read reviews from Jamie G. versus jamie4040 (for example), and to see actual photos of a reviewer. Yelp writers tend to be more prolific I've noticed, versus a fire-and-forget mentality on other sites: Dave Y. and yourself have more than five reviews, which is an investment already!

  34. Photo of A b.
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    8/8/2010 A b. says:

    I didn't know urbanspoon had existed longer...

    I actually used Yelp a lot in the states to find good places because the reviews are so down-to-earth, but I never reviewed anything until I moved here and noticed there was no Yelp activity. So I thought it might be nice to participate a bit more, and share some real experiences.

  35. Photo of Dave H.
    8/8/2010 Dave "http://goo.gl/avfD8" H. says:

    I read that Urbanspoon started in 2008. Yelp Canada opened Q3 or Q4 2008, so they can't be THAT much older...

  36. 8/9/2010 Dave Y. says:

    Just a couple of comments about Chowhound.  I use it regularly, across various boards, and side by side with Yelp.  I have not had any problems.  Of course, CHers tend to be focused, naturally, on almost exclusively on the food aspect as opposed to say, overall experience, so the audience will be slightly different.  One advantage of CH is that some of the discussions can get very detailed and very knowledgeable, especially by those reviewers that have actually studied a subject.  For example, I was reading this thread about Japanese ramen.  The level of information is almost scary.  You can get a whole education from reading some of the threads.  I've come to realize that Yelp has more of an overall social aspect, so I'm trying to tailor reviews accordingly.  Also, I've found that a lot of CH reviews will be found very prominently on Google searches, for better or for worse.  (I tend not to like that aspect very much.)
    I have not used Urbanspoon but would like to try it out.

  37. Photo of A b.
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    8/9/2010 A b. says:

    I hate chowhound!! It makes my head spin it's so chaotic. The reviews have led me astray many times as well. I prefer the more detailed format of Yelp and urbanspoon.... but Yelp in particular! :) Sorry I just had to get that off my chest! :)

  38. Photo of Dave H.
    8/9/2010 Dave "http://goo.gl/avfD8" H. says:

    Reviews from any site tend to lead me astray - more often than not I just ask local friends that I trust where to go rather than read reviews online... (unless those reviews were written by those very same people)

  39. 8/10/2010 Dave Y. says:

    OMG!  What is that....like almost 6 total posts on the Montreal board within 24 hours?!  I'm blown away.  Let me sit down...LOL

  40. Photo of Dave H.
    8/10/2010 Dave "http://goo.gl/avfD8" H. says:

    Seriously, that's pretty awesome!

  41. Photo of Stéphane S.
    8/10/2010 Stéphane S. says:

    In Quebec for sure language is a big issue. I have been away from Montreal and came back last year. Living for 4 years in San Francisco, I got the habit of using Yelp, Craigslist and other sites which I like.

    The penetration here is certainly far less even if the alternative and inferior from a technical standpoint. All those social sites needs to reach critical mass and it is at that tipping point that it rally gains momentum.

    Yelp is getting more and more useful here as it is in the bay area and I think it will be increasingly.

  42. Photo of Dave H.
    8/10/2010 Dave "http://goo.gl/avfD8" H. says:

    Heh, Stephane said "penetration"

    But seriously, I agree!

  43. Photo of Stéphane S.
    8/10/2010 Stéphane S. says:

    Did not know that my comments will get notice by writing "penetration"... then it made me doubt of my usage, thinking that I may have confused french usage with english usage (something many do) and I checked wikipedia:

    http://en.wikipedia.or...

    and it appears that it was a correct way to use it.

    And BTW, I think that the issues of Yelp with other languages are somewhat similar to Wikipedia's issues. Not only there is less content in other languages on Wikipedia, but the content is also different.

    In someway, that could become a good think for Yelp as they can have graphics that compares means and average of the same place in different languages which would be useful information!

  44. Photo of Dave H.
    8/10/2010 Dave "http://goo.gl/avfD8" H. says:

    Stephane: you're totally correct in your usage, I was poking fun. =)

  45. Photo of Eliah H.
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    8/20/2010 Eliah "on the run from Thinkpol" H. says:

    Curious if there is perhaps translation software that could break everything down bilingually? Surely in this modern age we can have a Yelp française and a Yelp anglaise.

  46. Photo of Phillip H.
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    8/23/2010 Phillip "Lion Heart (Strong but Tender)" H. says:

    When you live in such an awesome place like Montreal, I guess you don't need to Yelp about it :) Otherwise, your American cousins will move up there in droves. It would be nice for tourists like me to meet fellow Yelpers in Montreal. It would be cool to hang out where all locals do so I can get a better sense of Montreal. I so love the underground city you guys have -- what a marvellous invention.  (I also have to make a stop at this one Lebanese food stall in the food court because they serve the most delicious food at a very reasonable price.)  We in the San Francisco Bay Area have no such place to escape to during incriminate weather.

  47. Photo of Phillip H.
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    8/26/2010 Phillip "Lion Heart (Strong but Tender)" H. says:

    Wow.  Melissa is right.  Folks in Montreal don't Yelp as much.  Folks in San Francisco can't stop Yelping.  :)

    Wow. Melissa est juste. Les gens à Montréal ne Yelp autant. Les gens de San Francisco ne peut pas arrêter glapissements. :)

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