I think Yelp Jail has its place. The first time I was sent there, I felt it was justified. I said many things that were definitely over the line and warranted the consequence.

However, since coming out I have not even raised my tone in the threads.

Today I made the Yelp Weekly Newsletter:

http://www.yelp.com/weekly?editorial_id=PJQ2v64dSaudc2J9g-uVvA

I received a compliment from one of our CMs congratulating me on making the newsletter. Then shortly thereafter I realized that no one was replying to any of my posts. I did not get a banned message, and I did not see one when logged in on the threads.

So I logged out and visited the site as a guest, then searched the threads. None of my entries were showing up. Nothing, not even the post I created about making the newsletter. Feel free to create one on my behalf, friends.

I then asked some allies to check if they could see my posts. No response. It turns out I am in some special kind of Yelp Jail again.

I reached out to our CMs on Twitter, directly, and also submitted feedback through Yelp. I have not said or done anything nearly as out of bounds as some things I have personally read on the platform. I have joked around, sure, but kept it clean, and yet here I am again.

After doing some research with allies, it seems there are small groups that coordinate flagging certain users together. I had heard of this before but never paid it much attention, since I do not go out of my way to bother anyone. I figured no one would bother me either.

It appears some people may not want me to reach Elite status, may be unhappy that I made the newsletter, and may take issue with the fact that I am becoming more recognized on the platform. It seems they are using the flagging system to silence certain users, which is a frustrating misuse of a tool that is meant to keep the community clean.

The frustration behind this situation is what bothers me most. I apologize for going quiet, friends. It looks like I will be silent for an unspecified amount of time due to these circumstances.

I am tired of this kind of behavior on Yelp. However, I will not give anyone the satisfaction of making me walk away. I will be back, and hopefully the situation gets sorted out in time.