Peeple: A New Network to Rate People
http://recode.net/2015/10/26/the-people-behind-peeple-the-internets-most-hated-app-arent-going-away/
This app takes the idea of networks and combines it with the basic premise of Yelp. The nodes are people and they are linked to each other through mutual connections and similar interests. The strength of these ties is not only determined by the number of mutual ties, but rather by how a particular user “rates” another person out of 5 stars. This takes the idea of strong bonds and weak bonds to a literal sense; a user can identify others as either a friendly or malevolent presence on a public platform. The backlash has been immense ever since the idea was introduced; the naive creators believed that this app would create an outpouring of positive ratings from users, but they failed to understand the narcissistic human nature. Outrage resulted in changes being made to the app, which are discussed in this article.
Due to a large number of threats and the completely negative view of the app, the creators have gone to a far less flexible rating system which only lets users rate each other in a positive manner. The five star rating system has been replaced by a binary rating system that links to services like Linkedin. It essentially serves as a recommendation or endorsement service for business or personal purposes. Julia Cordray, cofounder of the app argues thus in favor of her app:
“Let’s talk about Yelp, and the many ways you can game the Yelp system and hurt business owners in the process. I can hire a third party to do that all day long … There is very little credibility there, and very few fail-safes,” she argued. “We’re really confident that we’ve taken online reputation management and opportunity — and we’re not rating people, we’re recommending them — … to a whole new level.”
It remains to be seen whether such an idea will actually gain credence in the harsh social media of today. Such a network depends immensely on how people rate each other and how many people will be willing to use the app itself for it’s actual purpose. Personally, I believe that it will fail because it does not offer a stable backbone for a network to flourish. The links and nodes are too fickle and the app too gimmicky for it to take the world by storm.