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True.com Wants Warnings On Personal Ads
An anonymous reader submits "News.com.com is reporting that personals company True.com is behind a push in several state legislatures to require everyone but them to include scary looking warnings above personals ads. I'm sure they're not the first, but this looks like a particularly slimy way to corner a market. And the unintended consequences look big, too: by my read of the proposed law, even Slashdot would need to include the warnings above user profile pages." In just a few weeks, this would sound like an April Fool's joke. I hope every legislator to whom this is being shopped is sent a copy of Declan's counter-example.
So I won't be a 20-year old stud with massive guns anymore? Those were the days...
Oh, I gotta go... The warden says my turn's up.
With my fancy new sig.
WARNING:
Personal Profiles may contain personal data. Be warned.
"WARNING: WE HAVE NOT CONDUCTED A FELONY-CONVICTION SEARCH OR FBI SEARCH ON THIS INDIVIDUAL." Who would want to set up a date after reading that?
If Slashdot put up "WARNING: WE HAVE NOT CHECK IF THIS ARTICLE IS A DUPE", I'm sure we will still be happily reading and discussing it.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
I worry about all those Foes and Freaks-- I worry about the Fans too. I mean, they are just stalkers in the making-- putting their little colored dots around my name.
I asked my mom what I should do and she said not to go to 'slushdort' any more but uncle troll said if I don't log in every day and keep visiting him at the holiday inn on week-end he'll hurt mister chips.
These laws can only make the world a better place. If you are against them, you are against everything that is good.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Especially about themselves.
No reasonably sensible person "needs" a warning to remind them of this fact.
...Also, I didn't know Buggalo could fly.
Warning we haven't conducted a background check on Herb Vest of True.com to ascertain whether or not he is an ass-hole.
He is suggesting that if the bill is passed that true.com be required to post a similar "truth in advertising" notice.
Great civilizations have lived and died on false theories. Don't mess up mine with a few facts.
- Verified that the claimed physical attributes bear any relationship to reality,
- Verified the claimed income bracket,
- Verified the claimed IQ
- Verified the claimed negative STD status
- Verified the claimed unmarried state of the individual
- Verified the the included photograph is the individual in question or even of the same race, gender, or species.
As Jules the C once said, "Caveat Fornicator." Meet in a public place and go armed.Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
1. Create new laws and impose them on yourself.
2. Influence new legislation that will force your competition to abide by your bogus laws.
3. Create a new market by having the government eliminate your competition.
Sounds like the American way to me...
even Slashdot would need to include the warnings above user profile pages
There is no dating on slashdot, and the only thing people are going to get here is "carpal tunnel" from too much "wrist action."
If you do have a girl, go away, we don't like you.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
By stating that they *have* done a background check on a person, aren't they assuming liability (at least partially) if the person turns out to be a psycho?
Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
If my "Let Darwin sort them out" proposal would gain a little traction we'd all have a great deal more fun with our lives....
We've tried that approach. He mostly just lies there, dead.
Personally, I won't use an online dating service until they assign a chaperone to every date. I would like my grandmother to sit on the couch between me and my date, just to make sure that nothing bad happens, like touching hands or getting pregnant.
I'm an innocent girl and I lose my head when the date goes past 8PM.
Can true.com make sure that my date washes his hand after using the bathroom?
Oh, now I'm all flustered. I need to sit down. true.com, can you please give me a ride home?
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
I believe that what's being referred to is Declan McCullagh's (the author of the above article) counter example:
- It would be just as easy to argue that True.com should be required to post labels on each page: "WARNING: TRUE.COM'S BACKGROUND SEARCHES WILL NOT IDENTIFY CRIMINALS USING FAKE NAMES. AND THE COST TO RUN THEM MAY BE PASSED ON TO YOU."
in response to True.com CEO Herb Vest's proposal:Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
How many of you are in a successful relationship that would have never gotten off the ground if you had been required to reveal all of your past upon meeting your mate? When we first meet someone, most of us would like to keep some of our skeletons in the closet, at least until the other has grown to know us as we are now. It would be unfair if a potential new mate's opinion of me were based upon horrible mistakes that I made early in my life.
Even better, I've seen some (clear) jars of peanuts state "THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS NUTS AND/OR PEANUTS"
When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
California Sponsor: Asm. Fran Pavley (assemblymember.pavley@assembly.ca.gov)
Michigan Sponsor: Rep. Jim Howell (jhowell@house.mi.gov)
Texas Sponsor: Sen. John Corona (john.carona@senate.state.tx.us)
Virginia Sponsor: Rep. Joe T. May (Del_May@house.state.va.us)
Let your voices be heard!
Back when I was single I wished that there were warnings like:
WARNING PERSON IS USING PICTURE FROM 3 YEARS AGO AND HAS SINCE BECOME ADDICTED TO CHOCOLATE CAKE
or
WARNING PERSON HAS NOT BEEN SCREENED FOR EXCESSIVE BODY ODOR
and finally
WARNING PERSON HAS AN IQ BELOW 50 AND LOVES TALKING ABOUT THEMSELF
I checked. He is.
Now people will have yet another reason to sue someone for not informing them of what they should figure out by themselves.
Soon everything will come with a warning label, making warning labels as such obsolete and personal responsibility a thing of the past.
This is just another instance of "hot coffee; do not spill!" and it truly saddens me to know that some people actually have to be told these things.
Best regards, A.C.
> Even if some of the states listed passed
> True.com's desired bills, anyone(probably the
> owner of a rival site) could sue them.
No. Someone would have to violate the law, be convicted, and appeal the conviction.
> If it reached the supreme court, the supreme
> court would clearly have the power to overturn
> the law...
Yes, of _course_ they have the power to overturn it. They "have the power" to overturn any law.
> states can't regulate interstate commerce,
> etc.
However, it is not at all clear that the proposed law would violate the interstate commerce clause or be overturned for any other reason.
Are you prepared to create the test case and pay the fines if you lose? How about the legal costs?
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Name: Jane Q. Public
Background Info:
Previous Addresses: 123 Main St.
Previous Names: John Q. Public
Problems are like gifts, it's better to give than to receive
I'd certainly like to see that sort of warning on electoral posters.
My sig is too lon
I saw this one close up. True.com's hired a professional lobbyist to try to push a bill through in Virginia, and it resulted in this: The Online Dating Safety Act, HB2467
I was bird-dogging the House Science and Technology Committee meeting the day they dealt with it, and had a front-row seat on the results. Even among the most socially conservative legislators, it was seen as a company trying to legislate their business model for competitive purposes. Gotta hand it to the lobbyist, he took the True.com reps to all the right people. But in the end, it didn't really matter. When the bill came up, there was lots of snickering, and the bill died a quick and painless death.
Good Lord! This proposal makes as much sense as the 20th century physics warnings:
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
...where the men are men, the women are men, and the little girls are FBI agents?
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
I wrote to my state senator:
I read with tremendous dismay that True.com has managed to bribe at least one assemblymember into introducing their special interest legislation. I assume it will be crushed immediately, it's just so astonishingly moronic. My confidence in democracy would be somewhat improved if Fran Pavley is removed from office as expeditiously as possible. It's incomprehensible to me that anyone could be so naive and stupid as to believe that this legislation is in the public interest or anything but a bald-faced attempt to create legislative favor for a specific company. I would think that unless Fran Pavley has some plausible excuse, it would be appropriate to investigate him for ethics violations.
I know god exists. I read it on the internet, so it must be true.
On a box of "I love you" candies:
WARNING: CANDY MAY NOT BE IN LOVE WITH YOU!
On a mirror:
WARNING: OBJECTS ARE NOT ACTUALLY IN MIRROR!
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
I disagree about them "not being the greatest idea". Back when I was single I used to use online dating services all the time. I met a fair number of people online, and went out on dates with 6 or 8 of them over the course of a couple of years. They were all nice people. Some of them were better matches than others. There was this one woman who forgot to mention that she was an ultra-conservative who was offended by everything the least bit progressive (and of course I'm an advertised ultra-liberal) but overall it wasn't too bad. No serial killers, no stalkers, no married women, and no psychopaths. We would usually go on a few dates and then decide that we weren't quite right, and then I'd meet someone else. Overall it was really much different than "normal" dating. The biggest difference with a service is that you're selecting from a pool of people who are looking to meet someone, whereas with normal life that woman at the coffee shop who's cute may have no interest in meeting someone.
While there's no guarantee that you won't meet some psycho using a dating service, there's also no guarantee that that you won't meet a psycho at the bar, grocery, laundromat, office, friend's house, church, or anywhere else you pick someone else up. As long as you are careful (don't give out too much personal info, take it slow, meet in public places until you get a good feel for the person, follow your gut instincts, etc) then there shouldn't be problems.
If you're allergic to peanuts and you need that warning (that is, the big label on the front that says "Dry Roasted Peanuts" doesn't quite drive the point home) then please, eat your fill.
Refusing to do so will make Baby Darwin cry.