I don’t think a whole lot of people spend as much time on Yelp as I do. I’m not a regular community member, but I like to think I contribute to the community.
One of my favorite things to do is paint a picture of a business and my experience there. More often than not, I write about restaurants or coffee shops, and since I love them all so much, my reviews are usually pretty effusive. You have to mess up big time to get fewer than four stars from me. And even then, I’m still pretty nice about it.
Would I say that Yelp is a hobby? Probably. It’s an added bonus that it has the potential to help people connect with local businesses that they too might fall in love with. It makes me feel like the fairy godmother to the city, dropping in, being a regular person, writing a review, and poof! More people find the business! That feels like magic to me.