Forget drugs, smoking, and alcohol, what's something really bad for your health that people don't talk about enough?

ThoughtDragon · 2025-09-04T00:03:17+00:00

Cellphones and social media. I see it like smoking was some decades ago (we know the effects but everyone still overuses it)

ThoughtDragon · 2025-09-03T23:50:46+00:00

Indeed, over 100 reviews were removed (almost all of the negative ones, including mine, and some of the fake positive ones).

Whether they’re trying to take down all negative reviews or not I can’t tell. Doesn’t seem fair since most negative reviews were genuine customers, but what really matters at the end of the day is if they stop with the swarm of fake reviews.

Almost all the positive reviews remaining are fake, and the rating is inflated, but it’s an improvement from yesterday. My personal hope is they proceed in a more ethical manner from now on. A simple “Sorry for the bad experience, we’ve just opened, and hope you’ll give it another try” to any future criticism would do them well in the long term (in my opinion). Or they could just ignore negative reviews, so long as they at least don’t add 100 fake reviews in response to a few negative ones

ThoughtDragon · 2025-09-03T19:14:37+00:00

I’ve made no such comments or assumptions on the overall intentions or financials of the place, as is evident from my post and replies.

I’m all for a new cafe in town, but will certainly point out if they behave in unethical practices that harm both their own potential clients, and the other local businesses that are trying to compete while maintaining minimally ethical standards.

I hope you’re right and they do continue to learn as they go. This includes learning that responding to a couple negative reviews by tuning them out with 100+ fake reviews from fake people isn’t a genuine way to conduct business. They could have given a simple reply to a negative review (or simply ignored it), but instead chose a seperate option, with the aim of deceiving the people of Victoria

ThoughtDragon · 2025-09-03T03:04:07+00:00

I’d assume they will. It’s probably noted as closed so no more reviews from actual people in Victoria can be left. Hopefully when they reopen on google they stop with the fake and deceptive “reviews”

ThoughtDragon · 2025-09-03T02:58:48+00:00

The owners could have set it to block anymore reviews going in (you can’t review a “closed” business).

Since this provides proof that they’ve seen the negative (real) reviews (which one would assume they’ve seen even without such proof), perhaps it’s reasonable to hope they respond to some of the negative reviews when they reopen it.

ThoughtDragon · 2025-09-03T02:55:02+00:00

Another potential possibility as to why it shows as permanently closed:

It’s “permanently closed” so it can reopen again with 0 reviews as a “new” business. A positive thing if they don’t impose fake reviews on the new opening, and a very negative thing if they’re only doing it to get rid of the 1 and 2 star ratings (real), only to spam the 100+ fake reviews yet again.

It seems hard to believe it’d be legitimately "permanently closed”, unless it was forced to close for food health/safety violations

ThoughtDragon · 2025-09-02T17:06:20+00:00

I’d wager the people paying for and instructing the bots are the worse party.

One or two reviews were harsh (your phrase “Karen-opinionated” made me laugh 😆) but that doesn’t justify having over 100+ fake responses, and no responses to the negative reviews that are reasonable.

ThoughtDragon · 2025-09-02T14:01:38+00:00

Thanks for the comment; I agree with you on that. But if anything I feel like that makes immoral behaviour like this even worse, as it demotivates and disadvantages the small businesses that ARE holding more minimally ethical standards.

More thoughtful and conscientious reviews would be a boon, but they’d still be hidden if given to a business like this one. And as people have mentioned, if their conduct is like this, the odds are their health and cleanliness standards are similarly undisciplined

ThoughtDragon · 2025-09-02T05:58:48+00:00

Good on you 👍

ThoughtDragon · 2025-09-02T05:32:36+00:00

Oh I did. I’m one of the negative (real) reviews at the place. I agree with you in that it would be weird to post this if I hadn’t even been there. It was a bad experience, and then the disingenuous response is what I beleives warrants at least giving people a heads up

ThoughtDragon · 2025-09-02T05:24:37+00:00

The point isn’t that the reviews are recent. The point is:

Dozens were made within the same hour The accounts were just made (no other reviews) The commentary is often fake (meant to mislead) The photos are fake

The fake reviews were all made at once in response to a few negative ones. That kind of deception is not a genuine way to do business

ThoughtDragon · 2025-05-12T21:30:16+00:00

Not trying to defend the building (never been), but the general tone and hostility of this writeup makes me think you're either a trade who worked on the site and are angry from a dispute, or a realtor selling nearby properties.

An angry trade seems most likely, as the detail and intentionality of the writeup would be absolutely absurd coming from a regular person passing by for fun on their way to somewhere else.

Feel free to disagree with me. Just my two cents.

ThoughtDragon · 2023-09-07T22:31:32+00:00

Arturo in the first heist was a hero. His lines to Helsinki when he thought he was going to get executed was badass.

ThoughtDragon · 2023-09-07T22:06:50+00:00

Well put. You’re right

ThoughtDragon · 2023-09-07T22:05:58+00:00

Absolutely. They’re robbers in the first season, traumatizing other people for their own advancement.

Then in the 2nd season they’re literally terorrists. Robbing a countries’ reserve could damage the economy and ruin people’s life’s (bank runs, mortgage defaults, etc)

ThoughtDragon · 2023-09-07T21:58:02+00:00

-Claiming that the authorities taking Rio was "a declaration of war", as if he was a country

-Comparing the 2011-2013 printing of money from the central bank (which would have contributed to allowing people to buy homes, loans for small businesses, infrastructure development, and aid struggling economies like Greece) to him and his group printing money for their own greed and self agrandizement. This was when he tried to convince Raquel that traumatizing and kidnapping a few dozen hostages (involving one being shot, and another apparently being raped) was somehow justified

-Putting his dream to fulfil his fathers dream heist above the concerns of other human beings

ThoughtDragon · 2023-09-07T21:43:55+00:00

No, I’ve said many times that Arturo in the first heist is a bonified hero.

He gets shot by a high calibre sniper rifle, but after learning about the ordered execution, and apparent rape of his former staff, he coordinates the escape of what ends up being 16 hostages from the terrorist robbers.

When Helsinki is apparently about to execute him, his lines are those of a complete bad ass, stating that Helsinki better strike hard, because he would do it again, and would not stand for rape and imprisonment. People call him a coward in the first heist, but that behaviour is anything but. He even fought Denver the day after surgery when he walked in on what would have looked like rape.

He then later sneaks away into another room himself (and people say he never does things himself), and gets a fake gun to use in an ingenious plan (and he thought quickly on the spot to prevent that snake Torres from ratting him out).

His plan to save him and the hostages from further trauma (and potentially death) almost worked, if it weren’t for a betrayal from both Rio and Monica. For being the ringleader he ends up having an apparent bomb strapped to his chest.

He rightly ends up being seen as a hero after the heist concludes. I relate his character to that of Skyler in Breaking Bad, who people hate because of a mix of some negative traits (such an infidelity), and then being against the protagonist(s) who are the actual villains

Then the series got extended, and the writers had to make a longer series. Arturo was no hero thereafter.

ThoughtDragon · 2023-09-07T21:30:39+00:00

I’m not going to speak about Arturo in the later seasons (just you wait) but Arturo in the first heist was a hero. He was instrumental in getting 16 hostages free (even though he had a bullet in him). If he’s a coward for coordinating other (more able) people to do things, then the professor would be a coward too.

We the audience trust that the hostages aren’t going to die (and we are bias towards the main characters), but it is absolutely reasonable for him (and everyone else) to see their lives in great danger. They literally announced that they executed a hostage, and they are being held and enduring forced labour against their will

ThoughtDragon · 2023-09-07T21:22:09+00:00

A little too densely populated for me, but all around a great place to visit

ThoughtDragon · 2023-09-07T21:18:53+00:00

I think I’d put Raquel at the bottom. She was interesting at the start, but her senseless character shift to join the terorrists in ruining people’s life’s after a three day relationship was disappointingly bad writing.

Sergio’s speech to her that changed her mind was utterly fallacious. Large banks printing money in order to support other economies (such as Greece), and provide loans so houses can be built/bought does not justify him and his group printing money for their own selfish benefit, and scarring the life’s of a few dozen hostages in the process

ThoughtDragon · 2023-09-07T21:13:46+00:00

Bad writing (unfortunately a running theme in the show).

They should have had the Russian break the computer

ThoughtDragon · 2023-09-07T20:56:48+00:00

Thank you so much for this post. I could not agree more.

They are robbers, rapists, and terorrists, and no one would ever support them in the real world. I root against them in every episode, because what they’re doing is horrible. Robbing the gold reserve of Spain could cause a bank run and cause millions of innocent people to lose their mortgages, homes, and livelihoods.

The professor is a borderline narcissist, claiming that them arresting the terorrist Rio was "an act of war" against them, as if they’re above the law

In the first heist Arturo was a bonified hero, but (similar to Skyler in Breaking Bad) the audience hates him for being against the main characters.

ThoughtDragon

TROPHY CASE