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posted by martyb on Wednesday April 29 2015, @01:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the APPropriate-measures dept.

Andrew Marantz has an interesting read in The New Yorker about Lulu, a mobile app already downloaded five million times that allows female users of Facebook to make positive and negative evaluations of male users on the basis of their romantic, personal, and sexual appeal. Lulu is rigidly heteronormative—only women can rate men—and women tend to use Lulu the way someone investigating a potential mate a generation ago might have sought out the town busybody.

“It’s one of these rare products that evokes only strong reactions,” says Sam Altman. “No one feels ambivalent about it.” To rate a man on Lulu, a woman selects from a battery of pre-written hashtags—some positive (#LifeOfTheParty, #DoesDishes), some negative (#Boring, #DeathBreath), and some ambiguous (#DrivesMeCrazy, #CharmedMyPantsOff, #PlaysDidgeridoo). Those responses are distilled into a harshly precise numerical score. Alexandra Chong calls her startup “a community where women can talk honestly about what matters to them.” Others have called it Yelp for men. “Of course people on Lulu talk about sex,” says Chong. “Sex is part of what women talk about.”

A man must grant his permission for a Lulu profile to be created on his behalf, and, perhaps surprisingly, most men consent, says Chong. “We try to tell men, ‘Women on Lulu are building men up, not just tearing them down.'” Many women use Lulu for caveat-emptor purposes, such as managing expectations before a date. “One guy I went out with had a lot of hashtags like #OneTrackMind," says Sarah Burns, "so I dressed conservatively, didn’t drink too much—I tried to send the message, I’m not going home with you tonight. Which I didn’t.”

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by splodus on Wednesday April 29 2015, @01:59PM

    by splodus (4877) on Wednesday April 29 2015, @01:59PM (#176607)

    If this sort of thing takes of;

    1. If you don't 'opt in', the assumption will be that there's something about you that you want to hide.

    2. One or two unfortunate incidences (transport trouble, lost your wallet, cancel a date due to illness) could leave you with a poor rating.

    3. If you don't 'date' lots of different people (to dilute the bad reviews), then a couple of bad ratings may well dissuade someone from meeting you who would otherwise find you good company.

    4. Those who are good at manipulating first dates will garner more good reviews than those who are socially awkward meeting the first time; doesn't take into account what people are like when you get to know them.

    5. Anyone that dates someone with lots of 'supportive' girlfriends may find themselves getting bad reviews from people they've never met.

    6. If someone is getting lots of really good ratings (and is therefore someone most people would like to date), why are they wanting to date yet another person? (Ok if you're only interested in one night stands, I suppose...)

    7. I can't really see an upside to this at all... Perhaps I've misunderstood it. Maybe I should get create a FB account with a girl's name and join so I can see what this all about. Oh wait - how do we know that half those 5 million users aren't actually men doing just that?

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  • (Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:11PM

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:11PM (#176611)

    Well, if they are men then those dates could get awkward (or interesting).

    --
    SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
  • (Score: 4, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:25PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:25PM (#176617) Journal

    Where's the upside?

    My guess? In the erection and/or stiffened nipples, if/when it happens.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday April 29 2015, @07:37PM

    by Nuke (3162) on Wednesday April 29 2015, @07:37PM (#176799)
    Splodus wrote :- "Those who are good at manipulating first dates will garner more ............. doesn't take into account what people are like when you get to know them."

    As ever in this world. The part I have replaced with dots was not needed.
    • (Score: 2) by splodus on Wednesday April 29 2015, @11:56PM

      by splodus (4877) on Wednesday April 29 2015, @11:56PM (#176876)

      One day, perhaps, there will be an app, or a social network site, that caters for people who struggle with the 'dating'. It's not just boys - there are plenty of girls that struggle with the way things are.

      I read a book once, I think it was 'Microserfs' - Douglas Coupland. One of the characters corresponded with someone on line, and over time they fell in love. Subsequently they arranged to meet - he didn't know if the person he'd fallen for was male of female, young or old. He didn't care.

      Wouldn't it be nice if there was a place to go, anonymous, declare your gender or not, offer your geographical location perhaps (because it makes sense if you hope to meet at some point). But to know that everyone there was looking for someone, for a partner, or just a friend. No pressure, no societal rules, no judgement based on appearance, no need to 'perform' in the social arena.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by scruffybeard on Thursday April 30 2015, @03:17PM

    by scruffybeard (533) on Thursday April 30 2015, @03:17PM (#177105)

    One upside is that it might filter out women who are shallow enough to dismiss a date with me because some other anonymous person tagged me as #Boring or #DrivesMeCrazy.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 01 2015, @01:47AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 01 2015, @01:47AM (#177342)

    One upside is knowing how to avoid a lot of desperate shallow people.