This week, we bring you the buzz from ONE 215 blog... namely, Philadelphia Will Do.

We've featured PWD in Blogged Around Philly on numerous occasions because, hey, we often like what editor Daniel McQuade has to say. But this time he basically said this Phillyist is a whiny elitist. That's right: the unattributed chicken wing quote was courtesy of yours truly.

The chicken wings in question were served at a Yelp Elite event at the Mexican Post near Love Park. There were probably 80 or so people invited to this event, and as far as this Phillyist could tell, the wait staff at Mexican Post served two orders of those chicken wings, two orders of nachos, two quesadillas and two plates of fries to those 80 people. This was at dinner time, at an event that was promoted as having plentiful—and yes, free—food and margaritas because, presumably, the management at Mexican Post wanted Yelp reviewers to sample the menu and rave about it to their friends and to the community at large.

From a marketing standpoint, it's not that different from offering customers a coupon or a free gift. The restaurant or retailer gives something away in order to get future business from the customer. And if all goes well, that customer will tell friends and family about her positive experience with the business, thus netting additional sales. But when a business takes this "give to get" tactic, it better make sure that it's giving something good. If not, the whole approach can backfire, as it did for Mexican Post.

Here's the thing: when you invite guests to a dinner party, you give them more than an oyster cracker and a Dixie cup of Schlitz served with a scowl. And if your guest is, say, your future mother-in-law whom you're meeting for the first time, you're probably going to pull out all the stops to serve delicious food with a smile, because her opinion matters (and more than likely, she'll be quite vocal about it). Yelp Elite members are vocal; that's how one earns Elite status. Do their opinions matter? That may be open for debate, but consider this: when googling a random sampling of local restaurants, Yelp reviews consistently ranked higher in the results than Zagat, which is arguably the gold standard of restaurant reviews.

Really, McQuade and the commenters on his blog seem to miss the most important point of this ridiculous story: a restaurant hosting an event specifically for people who review restaurants in a popular public forum, then providing sub-par service and such a minute amount and limited variety of food and beverages that those reviewers can't even sample them in order to write about them.

McQuade wrote, "If you give Yelp free drinks and promotion, you get great reviews on the site." That's not true. If you provide Yelp reviewers GOOD food and drinks (and good service), then you get positive reviews, regardless of whether it was free or the reviewers had to pay. A cursory reading of the myriad positive reviews of other establishments on the site clearly demonstrates this. Would he have taken issue with the reviews if the writers had been attending a corporate gathering (at which the food and drinks would also have been free to attendees) rather than a Yelp one?

Yelp isn't a "pay for play" site. And let's be honest: it's essentially a social networking site. We're not talking about a paid staff of Craig LaBans here. People eat, they shop, and they write about their experiences—for FUN. It's that simple. Most of the regular reviewers on the site are conscientious enough to provide full disclosure of personal associations with their subjects as well as any special treatment. Responsible irreverence, as one prolific yelper calls it, is a hallmark of the site. Unfortunately asshattery, as this Phillyist/yelper calls it, also occurs sometimes (as it does on virtually any public internet forum). It helps to know the forum and the members before making a snap judgment on the things people have written.

Perhaps it's because the Elite moniker is offputting to some. Would commenters on PWD have been as harsh in their criticism of Yelp reviewers if Elite status was called something else, like "senior member"? At least one PWD commenter has written multiple negative, one-star reviews on Yelp, leaving us puzzled as to why he felt the need to complain about Yelp, its events and its members on this other site.

McQuade himself is a yelper. He hasn't contributed many reviews, though—and that's a shame, because he's a good writer and if he had, he probably would've been at the event in question and experienced the absurdity firsthand. Then perhaps instead of interpreting attendees' reactions as elitist whining, he might realize that they were just offering honest opinions of their disappointing experience with this establishment, with a healthy dose of hyperbole and snark.

Image Credit: Flick user Merelymel13 (not from Mexican Post).