Category: Things that make you say hmmm?

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From the really BAD idea column

peeple

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.

Chilloutslut

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.

humiliation

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.

Updates:

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

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This is one of those things that reboots my brain.

I’ve been scouring ads pretty much everywhere for jobs and ran across this one on Craigslist.

Please be seated, take a deep breath and then read this ad.

Screen Shot 2015 09 16 at 1 43 23 PM

So what exactly does one’s dietary choice have to do with the addition of a pipe to someone’s pool?

Unless this is code for sex.

It’s my understanding that we carnivores smell different to vegans.

I’m assuming that would be problematic to a vegan who was interested in the addition of my pipe to their system.

People are very strange…

 

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Less attractive Women of the world Unite!

BruceCaitlyn

I think Caitlyn Jenner has done a disservice to all the “plain” women in the world.

There! I said it, we’ve all been thinking it for a while, someone had to be the one to break the tension!

I was watching a documentary last night and paused the video to inspect an apparently female journalist because she looked like she might have been a man. As it turns out, maybe it was just a little too much botox, and a bone structure that looked more like John Lithgows’ in his performance as Roberta Muldoon in “The World According to Garp”.

Lithgow did a great job with the character but there was no way you could overlook that Roberta had at one time been a dude!

robertamuldoon

That’s unfortunately the way it is with Jenner.

The consequence of Jenner’s  highly publicized transition, is that every woman who’s tall, or has an overly strong jawline or higher than expected forehead, or has a touch too much botox is looked at far more critically. Before Caitlyn, we knew that there were transgendered people but we weren’t sure if we’d met one, moreover, it generally didn’t matter if we had.

After Caitlyn we’re sure that any woman that doesn’t meet an idealized version of womanhood is a transgendered person.

GladysCravitz

I felt bad that I’d paused the video and clinically examined the journalist, but with the constant Kardashian fueled drumbeat of Caitlyn’s latest antics I’m far more likely to be curious, even judgemental (I know…Me?).

It’s a case of unintended consequences, and perhaps a lesson in why it’s best to keep some aspects of your private life private.