Yelp For People To Launch In November

HughPickens.com writes: Caitlin Dewey reports in the Washington Post that 'Peeple' — basically Yelp, but for humans will launch in November. Subtitled "character is destiny," Peeple is an upcoming app that promises to "revolutionize the way we're seen in the world through our relationships" by allowing you to assign reviews of one to five stars to everyone you know: your exes, your co-workers, the old guy who lives next door. You can't opt out — once someone puts your name in the Peeple system, it's there unless you violate the site's terms of service. And you can't delete bad or biased reviews — that would defeat the whole purpose. "People do so much research when they buy a car or make those kinds of decisions," says co-founder Julia Cordray. "Why not do the same kind of research on other aspects of your life?"

According to Caitlin, one does not have to stretch far to imagine the distress and anxiety that such a system will cause even a slightly self-conscious person; it's not merely the anxiety of being harassed or maligned on the platform — but of being watched and judged, at all times, by an objectifying gaze to which you did not consent. "If you're one of the people who miss bullying kids in high school, then Peeple is definitely going to be the app for you!," says Mike Morrison. "I'm really looking forward to being able to air all of my personal grievances, all from the safety of my phone. Thanks to the app, I'll be able to potentially ruin someone's life, without all the emotional stress that would occur if I actually try to fix the problem face-to-face."

Comments

Let's get this out of the way

[smooth wombat]

What could possibly go wrong?

Re:Let's get this out of the way

[Kjella]

Let's face it, what could possibly go right? They won't ever know if you've really been in a personal / employment / neighbor / whatever relationship so this will be just random unverified garbage. You could have random spam bots keeping you at a steady 5 star or 1 star average depending on what they feel like. And that's just until somebody sues the hell out of them. It's got zero credibility and is never going to get any.

Re:Let's get this out of the way

[Archangel Michael]

Oh, I can see a whole cottage industry of bots available for both character assassination and support.

For the low price of $9.95, you can have 100,000 positive reviews (good). For an additional $9.95, you can personally select up to 50 key words to use in our reviews (better). and for the low introductory price of $95.95, you can have our select crew develop a fully personalized review of your profile, including 200,000 random positive reviews, and personalized management of your Peeple Profile.

Re:Let's get this out of the way

[njnnja]

tl;dr This is why we can't have nice things.

Even without any credibility this can still hurt people. But beyond just being a troll magnet and a great way for the company to extort people to get good reviews bumped up, the backlash to this service could be a change to internet liability. I could easily see a law being passed that would force liability on site owners for things that individuals post (at least publicly). It would mean the end of free expression on the web.

Cyberbullying amped up to 11.

[BenJeremy]

This has bad idea written all over it, and I hope they get raked over the coals in courts around the world for it, not just for the harassment angle, but also the potential for defamation.

I feel for the kids of the future.

[Anonymous Coward]

My children's generation will never the immense empowerment that comes from being able to tell someone you're likely to never, ever see again in your life, exactly what you think of them, face to face, without repercussion. I spent the last week of my High School internment doing just that, and the empowerment that came from it is exhilarating to this day -- as is the fond memory of telling the 'jock star' of High School who was also Bully #1 to me from elementary age on, "That's right bitch, put the bread on top." right in front of my mother as we checked out of the local grocery store five years post graduation, where that son of a bitch still bagged groceries.

I wonder, how long will it take for this to turn into a shit-storm, where you can easily identify the cocks and cunts with poor people skills that have nothing better to do with their life than to trash other people on yelp. WTF.

Re:My first review of Julia Cordray

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Hearsay "I have it on good authority" means that they can compel your source in court, when suing you for liable or slander.

No problem, god spoke to me in a dream and told me it was true.

You aren't going to fuck around with my religious liberty AND my right to free speech, now are you? Because that would be bad. Almost as bad as creating a website or application that encourages free-flowing libel.

(And finally, for the sake of all the wannabe lawyers, I never actually made that review, I only said that it would be my first review. It's like saying "I'd like to rob that bank over there and someday I'll do it." As far as I know those aren't actionable statements.)

Ratemyprofessor.com

[goodmanj]

The college professors of the world say "Ha ha, now let's see how much YOU like being secretly judged!"