WHEN WE WANT to see what a restaurant is like, we pull up Yelp. When we want to explore a city, we look at TripAdvisor. But what do we do when we want to check out a babysitter?
That was what best friends Julia Cordray and Nicole McCullough were thinking when they set up their new people-rating app, Peeple. But very few people are getting on board.
First of all, what is Peeple?
It’s a new app that allows users to review and assign star ratings to everyone they know – from ex-partners, to next door neighbours, to colleagues.
One of Peeple’s founders, Julia Cordray, explained their reasoning to the Washington Post:
People do so much research when they buy a car or make those kinds of decisions. Why not do the same kind of research on other aspects of your life?
That sounds invasive.
That’s because it is. According to the Washington Post, you can’t opt out once someone makes you a Peeple profile, and you can’t delete bad reviews.
Also, Peeple requires users to input the phone number of the person they want to rate, without their consent – the app then sends the person a text to let them know they’ve been reviewed. Grim.
Why do they think this is even going to work?
The Peeple founders appear to think that people are nicer than we give them credit for, citing Yelp reviews, which are 79% positive.
The app also has a few rules to encourage people to play nice – users will be able to report any bullying in the comments they receive, and according to Peeple’s terms and conditions, they are not allowed to swear, share confidential information, or reference health conditions.
What are people saying about it?
The app is, unsurprisingly, massively unpopular. Everyone is comparing it to the Burn Book from the film Mean Girls, which is pretty fair, if you think about it.
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The Peeple Facebook page has been inundated with negative comments about the app - and the founders have (ironically) been accused of deleting particularly bad ones.
There are a host of other concerns about the app, such as how it will affect people with stalkers, victims of harassment, and those suffering from anxiety.
Mostly, though, people are extremely freaked out.
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Peeple is expected to be released in November. But will it even make it that far? We’ll have to wait and see.
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