The man behind Sydney burger joint Burgers By Josh has announced that he is pulling out of insanely popular Facebook group The Fatties Burger Appreciation Society, citing “online bullying” and “fake profiles creating fake negative reviews on social media”. Josh Arthurs announcedt hat he’ll be running promos through his own page from here on out.
It’s a pretty big deal – FBAS , which now has over 67,000 members, has basically become a make-or-break marketing strategy for burger joints, who can often be seen posting photos of their newest creations and offering special deals to ‘Fatties’. They’re a passionate bunch, and if you go to any given burger place in Sydney or Melbourne on the reg, you’re likely to see dedicated members of the page taking photos and compiling their review.
But there’s a shitty element to it, as there is on so many large online communities. If you hold an unorthodox burger opinion, be prepared to be called a fuckwit by approximately 1000 dudes with the exact some moustache and bomber jacket. The administrators of the group, to their credit, have acknowledged this is a problem, and made a post a couple of days ago announcing they’ll be tougher on abuse:
One commenter on Josh’s post decried the culture of the Fatties page, criticising its tendency to swamp burger places with negative reviews if they cop a shit rating from a poster in the group:
The group gets so savage; one person complained about The Stuffed Beaver and multiple people went across and gave them bad reviews using the facebook star rating. The savagery also hinders reviewing, my friends and I had a bad meal at one of the fbas favourites but I wouldn’t dare put it up; everyone will just attack or make excuses. But it’s all ‘banter’ if anyone complains.
There’s a definite issue with some of these big food communities around ‘brigading’ – the concept of swamping businesses with bad reviews, even if the poster has never actually been there. This can actually have a big impact, as more and more people turn to places like Facebook as a barometer of how good certain restaurants and outlets are.
Clearly the FBAS admins are taking a proactive approach to stamping this annoying bullshit out – and with a big gun like Burgers By Josh pulling out, it’s probably a signal for some of the people in the group to simmer down a bit.
C’mon, guys. They’re burgers. Burgers rule, but there’s no point in getting ideological about ’em. For real.
Source: Facebook.
Photo: Getty Images.
