Day: October 1, 2015

You may have heard about this, you might not.

I just heard about an application that runs on IOS, slated for release in November that allows you to rate people in the same way Yelp rates businesses.

The applications name is “Peeple” 

Uhh…

WTF?

Apparently, this is the brainchild of Julia Cordray & Nicole McCullough and they’re presenting this as if it’s a good thing to be rated publicly.

Perhaps I’d agree if it was totally consensual.  —- It’s not

I might agree if everyone who is rated can affect, delete, or refute a rating —- They Can’t

All that’s needed to rate someone is the Peeple app and the person to be rated’s cell phone number. The other person does not have to be a member of Peeple. *(at least as it was explained yesterday)

The person that’s been rated will receive a text message saying someone on Peeple just rated them.

Okay.

The requirements to have a Peeple account are as follow. 

• You have to have a facebook account that is older than 6 months.

• You have to have a cell phone number

• (I’m assuming there has to be some kind of minimum age?)

• You have to have an IOS device.

So here’s where this whole mess falls down and I’m absolutely sure someone must have pointed this out in a developer design or SQA meeting.

This application (Service?) is based on a set of flawed assumptions.

Not everyone is nice.

There are in fact a lot of very nasty people for whom anonymity is not a gating factor on their nastiness, (Lena Dunham, Al Sharpton). Lots of people would take great delight in posting all the flaws of their most recent date, up to and including deficiencies in sexual prowess. 

“He didn’t take me to a nice restaurant.”
“She needed deodorant, and was still 1.5 hours late”
“He wouldn’t buy us wine and picked me up in a beat up car.”
“She had no clue how to behave in a nice restaurant, she drank too much, then threw up on the waiter.”
“All she wanted to do was talk about her last boyfriend.”
“We’d barely gotten our clothes off and he’d already gotten off.”
“Couldn’t give a blow job that didn’t feel like my dick was in a blender.”
“He couldn’t find my clitoris with landing lights, and me putting his finger in the right spot!”
“I’ve had better sex with fruits & vegetables.” 

Do we really need this kind of information?  

Not everyone has a facebook account.

If someone is rated unfairly, and doesn’t have a facebook account they’ll have to wait six months to even start to refute what’s being said. By that time, the damage is pretty much done and it’s irrevocable.

Imagine what happens if a guy is accused of rape, and doesn’t have a facebook account? The peeple application would be the least of his worries because in todays world a male is guilty of rape because a female says he is, regardless of the outcome of investigations, or trial.

Not everyone has an IOS device 

It’s probable that this app will be used to harm those who have no defense. The woman who’s using an Android device, The guy who doesn’t own a smart phone because he happens to like the simplicity of a flip phone. These people will be easy targets for victimization because they don’t own an Apple product. Talk about elitism and demanding conformity.

Speaking of no defense;

The Peeple CEO says that there’s safety in the fact that for you to be a peeple user, you can’t be anonymous. Okay, that will probably make some people think about what they’re saying.

BUT

Those same people will have no trouble badmouthing someone they think will not be able to respond.

“Oh right, that bastard had an android… He really pissed me off so I can tell everyone else that he’s cheap, has a small dick, and doesn’t know how to kiss. He won’t get a date ever again!”

While I too wish that people would follow the angels of humanity’s better nature, you can’t read five minutes of any twitter timeline, or read any comments section at the bottom of any news article without learning that humanity always descends to it’s baser nature.

I’m pretty sure that this application will create another outlet for the basest and cruelest of our impulses.

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Updates:

Peeple CEO defends new app after backlash from critics – Oct 2 2015