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<p>On 5/13/2019 12:35 PM, Martin Koppenhoefer wrote:<br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:B7AF3C3D-902D-4D79-AA7B-EF76824BE5EE@gmail.com">
<div>verifiable facts about a restaurant <span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">(or other
feature) </span>might not always be verifiable in the feature
itself, but still be verifiable for everybody interested in it
(elsewhere). If the URL is accessible for everybody it would
satisfy the verifiability requirement, wouldn’t it?</div>
<br>
</blockquote>
<p>Here's one story from a local restaurant: Fancy place, doesn't
even do takeaway, much less delivery. One day the telephone
starting ringing like crazy with takeaway orders. Eventually (the
callers didn't initially make it clear) the restaurant owner
discovers these are online orders from a delivery service that are
being phoned in by the service's employees. He checks the
service's website and there's his restaurant -- listed as new,
featured on the neighborhood's page, and offering special
discounts. The menu is there -- entirely wrong! Not just the
prices, but the menu at this restaurant changes seasonally and the
dishes were all from six months ago. He couldn't have filled the
orders if he'd wanted to, because the ingredients were not in
stock.</p>
<p>This delivery service never contacted him for permission to be
listed. It never warned him that he was about to be featured. And
now he's angry, and the customers placing these orders are angry
at the restaurant and giving it bad reviews. Explaining the
situation to the low-level employees making the phone calls is not
effective. He spends the rest of the day trying to contact someone
in management at the delivery service to have the restaurant
removed. They refuse. They're doing him a favor. Get with the
times, etc. The fact that he's physically incapable of filling
these orders doesn't sway them. He threatens legal action, they
threaten back!</p>
<p>So he hires a lawyer, who writes a cease-and-desist letter. The
service removes him from the front page, but doesn't actually
delete his listing until weeks later.</p>
<p>If this all sounds like a racket, well yes, it is! But it's a
legal grey area, so instead of being dismantled as a criminal
enterprise, this delivery company is valued at millions of
dollars.</p>
<p>I have another friend who runs a restaurant, and she also
reported being bullied by delivery services. Not as dramatic a
story, but also listed without permission. So that's two data
points, but these are the only two restaurateurs I know.</p>
<p> So this is why I believe that the appearance of a restaurant in
a delivery service's database should not be considered a
verifiable property of the restaurant itself. If it's signed on
the door or the menu, sure! But these services also engage in
restaurantname.com domain squatting, hosting fake restaurant
websites intended to drive delivery, so I wouldn't even trust a
restaurant's website unless it links to more than one service.</p>
<p>(I suppose if you successfully place an order and receive your
food through a particular service, that's another form of
verification. But be aware that the restaurant may have been
coerced into this relationship.)<br>
</p>
<p>Jason<br>
</p>
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