Brighton Qype
The relationship between Brighton’s press and media involves congratulatory backslapping leading to heavy petting them frottaging with happy finishing for all. All except us, the consumer. The media and businesses are left sticky but happy, whereas we are left aching and unfulfilled.
For a short time I took over a phone number from a cafe that had closed. The majority of phone calls that came through were trying to sell me stuff, the most interesting ones were trying to sell me advertising. The offer usually went something like this.
1. I book and advert.
2. They write a glowing review of my cafe.
3. We all jump into bed together for a special massage.
The third point was implied, but not actually spoken. The fist two were a given.
The end result of this fine and incestuous bargain leaves both parties sated. But the problem is that it means you can’t trust the reviews you read. Newspapers are obliged to label adverts to differentiate them form news, but at a local level this seems to be ignored and doesn’t apply to magazines anyway.So, other than word of mouth, how do you find out what is good/shite in Brighton?
I have recently fallen in love with www.qype.co.uk it is a user submitted review site. Most importantly it allows everyone to say what they really believe about the service that they use. There is the obvious issue that a venue/cafe/pub could give itself positive reviews but the more people that use the site the more the majority opinion will out.
The idea isn’t new ( toptable, tripadvisor, yelp, etc) but Qype is tryinget the to involve a social networking aspect to it all, which might encourage some of the FB/twitter fans to join in the fun. The Brighton part of the site has mushroomed since the start of this year.
If you fancy contributing then look me up - my qype ID is hartingale
Join a democratic movement to kill the advertorials…
Tags: Brighton Restaurants Reviews, qype
