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Peeple app for rating human beings causes uproar

bbc.com

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Re: Peeple app for rating human beings causes uproar

#11

Post by CPLX »

adevine wrote: post #8
raymondgh wrote: post #5

The PR effort behind this app is amazing. I feel equally intimidated and flummoxed when I try to imagine how they achieved such marketing success. Why did anyone care about this particular app before it started the frenzy, and why does(did?) it continue to grow so much?

I wouldn't really say it's PR, it's more like it just went viral. As in, I wouldn't say the Bedroom Intruder guy or Charlie Bit My Finger had great PR. They just did something that touched a nerve and people pounced.

> I wouldn't really say it's PR, it's more like it just went viral.

When the seed for something viral is a feature story in the second most important newspaper in the country then that's called PR.

Re: Peeple app for rating human beings causes uproar

#12

Post by rcthompson »

rbshadel wrote: post #2

I'm absolutely wary of any technology that's going to enable/encourage bullying or trolling. I think there's a fine line between censorship and ensuring a safe community (especially in the wake of the Oregon shooting and corresponding reddit thread), but I see this app leading to Bad Things happening. That said, the thing I'd like to see the discourse focusing on is not necessarily an app that encourages bullying, bu…

Bullying is something that people do because it's easy -- picking fights with people who can't fight back. So this maybe be a fine distinction, but I think that anything that enables or makes bullying easier is not just a symptom, but is contributing to the root cause. In any communication tool, certain kinds of interactions are easier than others and are thus encouraged. For instance, the fact that Facebook has like button but not a dislike button is a deliberate choice that affects how easy it is to express different sentiments on Facebook. I believe it's possible to design a communication tool that encourages positive interactions and discourages negative ones.

Other good examples: George Orwell's concept of Newspeak from 1984, a language literally incapable of expressing concepts like freedom or dissent against the government. For another example, consider Journey, a multiplayer video game where the only possible interactions between players are positive or helpful.

Re: Peeple app for rating human beings causes uproar

#15

Post by brighteyes »

gilleain wrote: post #4

They really aren't doing themselves any favours here: 'Peeple co-founder Julia Cordray told the BBC: "With any new concept there is naturally fear. "When the people found out that the Earth was round instead of flat and that we revolved around the Sun instead of the Sun revolving around us, naturally people were upset and confused and they pushed back with all that they had.' Somehow I don't think that the heliocentr…

I understood that to be a joke, and I was amused by it. It's not intended as a literal comparison.

Re: Peeple app for rating human beings causes uproar

#16

Post by croddin »

From the Washington Post article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/09...

> Positive ratings post immediately; negative ratings are queued in a private inbox for 48 hours in case of disputes. If you haven’t registered for the site, and thus can’t contest those negative ratings, your profile only shows positive reviews.

This seems like this would strongly disincentive anyone from registering for the app in the first place.

Re: Peeple app for rating human beings causes uproar

#17

Post by theshadowmonkey »

The advantages this app will be bringing will be very less compared to the creepy features. I don't want to sound like a cliche, but there are no second chances once you are on there. People improve and change over time. But, once you have a history of everything for everyone to see, bad stuff comes back to haunt you.

Re: Peeple app for rating human beings causes uproar

#18

Post by tclark225 »

croddin wrote: post #16

From the Washington Post article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/09... > Positive ratings post immediately; negative ratings are queued in a private inbox for 48 hours in case of disputes. If you haven’t registered for the site, and thus can’t contest those negative ratings, your profile only shows positive reviews. This seems like this would strongly disincentive anyone from registering fo…

Maybe, but on the other hand it appeals to the darker curiosity of being able to see the bad things people say about you, not just the good.

Re: Peeple app for rating human beings causes uproar

#19

Post by codingdave »

This just sounds like a bad idea overall. Even if they resolve issue with negative reviews and bullying, why would we want to rate people? This is not rating their skill at something, or even their appearance, it is rating them as a person. That goes against everything that most people stand for.

Most of the time, we strive to live in a world where every person has value. Everyone is their own unique person, and we respect who they are. Although society often fails to live up to that ideal, I cannot fathom why someone would write an app to explicitly avoid it.

Re: Peeple app for rating human beings causes uproar

#20

Post by Kristine1975 »

rcthompson wrote: post #12
rbshadel wrote: post #2

I'm absolutely wary of any technology that's going to enable/encourage bullying or trolling. I think there's a fine line between censorship and ensuring a safe community (especially in the wake of the Oregon shooting and corresponding reddit thread), but I see this app leading to Bad Things happening. That said, the thing I'd like to see the discourse focusing on is not necessarily an app that encourages bullying, bu…

Bullying is something that people do because it's easy -- picking fights with people who can't fight back. So this maybe be a fine distinction, but I think that anything that enables or makes bullying easier is not just a symptom, but is contributing to the root cause. In any communication tool, certain kinds of interactions are easier than others and are thus encouraged. For instance, the fact that Facebook has like…

>Journey where the only possible interactions between players are positive or helpful.

There was a GDC presentation a few years back where the lead designer Jenova Chen talked about how difficult it was to make only positive/helpful interactions possible. In playtesting even the ability to collide with another player was used against them, e.g. to push them off a cliff.

The presentation should still be online for free at http://gdcvault.com very interesting from a game-designing point of view.

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