Some friends in Miami built this same concept 8 years ago. It was called TheGorb.com (Good or Bad). They hired PHDs to come up with algorithms for ranking, and all sorts of complex variables to factor. In the end no one cared or wanted to rate others enough to make it stick.
Peeple sites 'disappear' from web after backlash over app
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Re: Peeple sites 'disappear' from web after backlash over app
#22John Oliver talked about this site last night on his show. What caught my attention is that it seemed like the founders were clueless, but I only know it from the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnZa18F8QW4
submitted here:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10331184
Re: Peeple sites 'disappear' from web after backlash over app
#23Why do people seem to overwhelmingly consider this such a bad/despicable idea? Doesn't it seem like it would prevent some motivation for people not to be assholes? Are people worried about inevitable misuse (bullying?)? We all do this rating in real life. Sometimes people talk about their ratings of other people with each other ("yeah, I know john, he's really annoying"). You know which of your friends are good and w…
People are more likely to be assholes behind the veil of anonymity.
Re: Peeple sites 'disappear' from web after backlash over app
#24Why do people seem to overwhelmingly consider this such a bad/despicable idea? Doesn't it seem like it would prevent some motivation for people not to be assholes? Are people worried about inevitable misuse (bullying?)? We all do this rating in real life. Sometimes people talk about their ratings of other people with each other ("yeah, I know john, he's really annoying"). You know which of your friends are good and w…
Because it is not knowledge, it is mostly opinions.
Re: Peeple sites 'disappear' from web after backlash over app
#25Why do people seem to overwhelmingly consider this such a bad/despicable idea? Doesn't it seem like it would prevent some motivation for people not to be assholes? Are people worried about inevitable misuse (bullying?)? We all do this rating in real life. Sometimes people talk about their ratings of other people with each other ("yeah, I know john, he's really annoying"). You know which of your friends are good and w…
People are more likely to be assholes behind the veil of anonymity.
Anonymous people can't leave bad reviews was their plan to curtail that.
Also, anonymity means people are less likely to self-censor. So you get more honesty. Sometimes honesty isn't nice. If you want statements that are only ever nice things to say, you'll have to accept that many of them are lies.
Re: Peeple sites 'disappear' from web after backlash over app
#26Why do people seem to overwhelmingly consider this such a bad/despicable idea? Doesn't it seem like it would prevent some motivation for people not to be assholes? Are people worried about inevitable misuse (bullying?)? We all do this rating in real life. Sometimes people talk about their ratings of other people with each other ("yeah, I know john, he's really annoying"). You know which of your friends are good and w…
> Why not make this open knowledge?
Suppose Alice tells me that Bob is flaky and can't be relied on. I need a lot of information in order to be able to evaluate that claim.
* Maybe Alice and Bob were in a relationship a few months ago, and there was a bad breakup. Alice's experience of Bob would probably be different from my experience of Bob.
* Maybe Alice also told me bad things about Carol and Dan, so I think that Alice just has a dim view of people in general, and isn't willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
* Maybe Alice heard everything from Eve, so I need to consider whether I trust Eve.
* Maybe Bob got chosen over Alice for a promotion at work, even though Alice has seniority. So Alice might have an axe to grind.
* Maybe Alice hangs out with Frank and Grace, who bully Bob. So Bob naturally wouldn't want to be friends with people who bully him, even though Alice isn't doing anything wrong.
When I get this information from Alice in person, I can ask questions or just listen to Alice's tone of voice to figure out the kind of things I want to know about Bob. Putting the information in text form in an application makes it much harder to evaluate Alice's claims, because it only make's Alice's opinion open knowledge.
Re: Peeple sites 'disappear' from web after backlash over app
#27Why do people seem to overwhelmingly consider this such a bad/despicable idea? Doesn't it seem like it would prevent some motivation for people not to be assholes? Are people worried about inevitable misuse (bullying?)? We all do this rating in real life. Sometimes people talk about their ratings of other people with each other ("yeah, I know john, he's really annoying"). You know which of your friends are good and w…
People are more likely to be assholes behind the veil of anonymity.
From what I understand, you can't rate people anonymously. Of course, this probably doesn't prevent someone from going to the effort of creating a fake profile, but I don't think anonymity is the primary factor here.
Re: Peeple sites 'disappear' from web after backlash over app
#28This app was a really really bad idea from the start. PG and YC often tell people to look for ideas that "seem bad" but this is a whole new league. Even if used properly by 100% of people 100% of the time it would still be a bad idea and fundamentally could never have worked. I"m just surprised someone ponied up the cash to see it realised - perhaps theres an ulterior motive. I don't know.
> Even if used properly by 100% of people 100% of the time it would still be a bad idea and fundamentally could never have worked. Then how do you explain the success of Yelp, which is basically the same thing but for businesses? Or the school system, which is already designed around rating people? Or safeorscam, which was the same thing but for drug dealers? Or LinkedIn testimonials? Certainly there are a ton of cha…
> Then how do you explain the success of Yelp, which is basically the same thing but for businesses?
Yelp is successful as a business, but I consider its impact on businesses to be negative, because Yelp has a perverse incentive to let businesses influence Yelp reviews. Naturally, businesses complain about Yelp, even though consumers like it. For the same reason, people would complain about a rating system for people.
> Or the school system, which is already designed around rating people?
This is perhaps the most toxic and least successful part of the modern education system.
Re: Peeple sites 'disappear' from web after backlash over app
#29Was it ever real? Starting to think the answer is 'no'.
Re: Peeple sites 'disappear' from web after backlash over app
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Even if used properly by 100% of people 100% of the time it would still be a bad idea and fundamentally could never have worked. Then how do you explain the success of Yelp, which is basically the same thing but for businesses? Or the school system, which is already designed around rating people? Or safeorscam, which was the same thing but for drug dealers? Or LinkedIn testimonials? Certainly there are a ton of cha…
People are extremely sensitive about being judged. If someone had posted something ruinous for someone else's reputation, which also happened to be false, there's always libel lawsuits. Beyond that, to quote Mrs. Feynman's question to her famous husband, "what do you care what other people think?"
It's a whole lot more than 'sensitivity'. It's an anonymous abuse engine which holds no merit to begin with. What, exactly, would be the benefit of such an app?
"Hey, I just met this great girl and she seems nice - oh, here on Peeple I see that 27 people in high school said she smells funny and one person says she murdered a baby."
With no verification or checks, what exactly is the point of this app, other than to be used to abuse people to suicide, ruin marriages, get people fired or other similar nefarious tactics? Are people really going to be all that interested in using an app to say 'hey this dude seems swell'.
What's going to prevent people from accusing random men of pedophilia, or random women of cheating on their husbands, or saying some person uses cocaine all of the time at their employer, without proof of any of these things or even a real connection to someone?