Yelp For People To Launch In November 447
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."
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."
Let's get this out of the way (Score:5, Interesting)
What could possibly go wrong?
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What could possibly go wrong?
Oh, nothing, absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong with this.
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds good. Perhaps everybody on slashdot should start with a review of Bennet Hasselton.
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds good. Perhaps everybody on slashdot should start with a review of Bennet Hasselton.
Is it true that Bennet Hasselton smokes crack and molests children?
I'm not saying it's true, I'm just asking questions.
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe you've just demonstrated the point .... the ability for random people to review other people without their consent is going to lead to libel and slander.
You can't just say "well, someone reviewed you, tough".
This is going to lead to lawsuits and all sorts of crap. What an idiotic thing to be building. I just don't see this being anything other than a series of bad outcomes, all because someone thinks they have a business model.
Trusting the founder of an app who stands to make money from it telling us this will be used responsibly is like having an oil company tell us there will be no spills .. you simply can't trust them to be doing anything other than serving their own interests.
"positivity app for positive people" is a nice slogan, but it's competely bullshit.
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:4)
Yep. and while I'm generally against meddling lawyers and all...THIS is one online app I'd like to see crucified by the legal types out there.
This can hit and hurt people, and not being able to OPT out (or better yet require you to OPT IN) is going to potentially be able to hurt a LOT of people. There's a reason I and many others don't do Facebook or other social media. I don't want connections to others, friends or foes at all, much less have them rating me on my personal traits and habits.
If others was to participate in things like this, sure, ok..have fun. But don't include ME in there if I don't want to participate.
If I find myself mentioned on there at all, I for one will be immediately hiring an atty and begin legal proceedings. In this case, it is easily justified.
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Yep. and while I'm generally against meddling lawyers and all...THIS is one online app I'd like to see crucified by the legal types out there.
To play devil's advocate, what's the legal basis for "crucifying" an app like this? Random people already have the ability to review anyone without their consent. To my knowledge, there's no law that prevents me from starting my own personal website and publishing my personal opinions about you or anyone else I might care to "review".
If what I say is untrue or grounds for harassment there are already laws in place to deal with that (as the GP suggested, that's what libel laws are for), but you would (as f
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Well I think the law would be able to prevent somebody from extorting you in a manner I've seen mentioned. Basically if somebody uses spambots to shit on your reputation and extorts you for money to have it removed, and if you've got proof of that occurring, then you have the right to ask the site admin to remove the sham reviews, and if they don't, then they can be held liable for extortion.
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem I see right away with this app is the problem of anonymous reviews. If the app only allows people to review each other but from real-name accounts, so you know exactly is criticizing you, that's free speech, and it still allows you to sue to reviewer for libel. However, if the app allows anonymous reviews, I can't imaging how it won't be immediately bogged down in libel lawsuits against the company itself, considering how damaging this can really be to people.
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:5, Informative)
Is it true that Bennet Hasselton smokes crack and molests children?
I'm not saying it's true, I'm just asking questions.
I read the article, and apparently, only positive reviews are visible for a person until that person signs up. Fortunately, I suspect there's a workaround... continuing with your example:
Of all the accused crack-smoking child molesters, Bennet Hasselton is by far the best!
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:5, Funny)
I rated Bennet Hasselton 5 stars in Professional "delivered crack to children in a professional and timely manner"
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I rated Bennet Hasselton 5 stars in Professional "delivered crack to children in a professional and timely manner"
Exactly. Who decides what a positive review is? Anything ranked 5 stars? So, if I mark 5 stars and say terrible things, it is open for all to see?
Also, how can I look at the bad reviews about myself in order to determine whether I want to risk them becoming public? Sign up? Which automatically makes them visible for all?
And then there is this:
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.
So the only people not in the system are the ones who violate the terms of service? Well, plan on your terms of service being flagrantly violated.
And, the founde
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:5, Insightful)
I read the article, and apparently, only positive reviews are visible for a person until that person signs up. Fortunately, I suspect there's a workaround... continuing with your example:
Of all the accused crack-smoking child molesters, Bennet Hasselton is by far the best!
What's stopping someone who wants to write a review from signing up under the persons name in order to get the bad reviews to show?
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Or people with duplicate names.
Poorly organized systems give lots of problems to people with duplicate names. My friend named John Smith shares a birthday with another John Smith, who happens to be a felon. According to the DMV, my friend and the felon are the same person, in spite the fact that they live in different states, and have different skin colors, eye colors, different SSNs, etc. This means my friend has to go through hell every time he tries to renew his license.
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:5, Insightful)
Correct. The plan is to create a massively controversial site that millions will rush to in order to check their own profiles, slander their enemies and astroturf themselves. Owners rake in advertising revenue, then shut down once the lawsuits become impossible to ignore and walk away rich.
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:4, Insightful)
Owners rake in advertising revenue, then shut down once the lawsuits become impossible to ignore and walk away rich.
Yeah. The thing about litigators is, they don't stop coming after you when you decide to "walk away". They only stop once you don't have any more money. I'm sure that this Peeple thing is set up as a corporation, and thus has "limited liability", but in practical terms I'm not sure that phrase really means anything anymore.
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:5, Insightful)
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Almost
The correct plan is to find some other company stupid enough to believe the above and buy out the one that proposed this idea......
Getting rich on the internet doesn't require that you have a good business plan, it only requires that you convince someone else that you do.
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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It's got zero credibility and is never going to get any.
It could have plenty of credibility if accusations are backed up by links to the evidence (photos, arrest records, etc.).
I can see checking this site becoming part of standard due diligence before hiring someone.
What could go right? It could encourage people to behave better.
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:5, Insightful)
Every ex-GF is about to have a fucking field day.
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:4, Insightful)
. . . As well as every Men's Rights Activist.
But you can't say that on Slashdot.
Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:5, Informative)
Chinese Communist Party recently implemented a people "rating" system similar to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Did Yelp just get bought out by China?
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Re:Let's get this out of the way (Score:5, Funny)
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Hay Yelp, bite me.
Trillions to whoever figures it out. (Score:5, Insightful)
I doubt these people have the answer but whoever can figure this out will be rich beyond belief. The real problem with this idea is it seems like it's like Yelp which just accepts and store reviews. That is pretty meaningless in real life. There are people in my life who seem to be well loved by many but I can't stand. On the flip side there are some real jerks that I get along with fine depending on what we are doing. Going fishing is great but working on a project not so much.
The real goal would be something like the Netflix recommendation algorithm. If I get along with someone it should see who else that person gets along with and I may get along with them even if not too many other people like them. And that is just for one type of activity and it's not always a one - one relationship.
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I think within 10 years there will be ubiquitous information and facial recognition that will utterly transform our society.
For good or bad, probably both, we are all going to lose our anonymity. Imagine how different things will be if everyone can glance at you and their phone will tell them who you are, give a few metrics about what you are like, etc. Now when some
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The real goal would be something like the Netflix recommendation algorithm.
Interesting, considering that everything Netflix recommends for me is something I think absolutely sucks.
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"It looks like you're looking for a job. It'd be a shame if potential employers saw these reviews calling you a racist. We can help you out with that, for a small fee, of course."
My first review of Julia Cordray (Score:5, Funny)
My first review of Julia Cordray on Peeple:
"Peeple co-founder Julia Cordray is a greedy bitch who sees noting wrong with a platform that allows reliable, anonymous character assassination. I have it on good authority that she also has sex with dogs while smoking crack and watching kiddie porn."
A horrible vicious libel: (Score:5, Funny)
Now, now. Stop insulting the dogs like that.
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He never said it was consensual.
That's right. Since a dog cannot give consent, it must have been rape.
I only hope the dog wasn't underage as well. Tsk, tsk.
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Dog years or Peeple Years?
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Useful, cool and funny.
Re:My first review of Julia Cordray (Score:5, Insightful)
You should modify it to say In My Opinion, because your opinion is free speech. Hearsay "I have it on good authority" means that they can compel your source in court, when suing you for liable or slander. And if you are knowingly spreading false reports (made up shit) you are subject to libel and slander tort.
In My Opinion, Peeple co-founder Julia Cordray is a greedy bitch who sees noting wrong with a platform that allows unreliable, anonymous character assassination. She is a worthless twat and a horrible human being who cares nothing for her fellow humans.
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I predict that slander litigation will be a booming business for what were previously ambulance chasers.
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That's still pretty thin ice if you get nasty enough, saying "in my opinion" isn't a panacea.
Back on topic, this is the most completely insane and frankly evil idea I've heard in a long time. There is no possible good that can come from this, and a whole lot of bad. I was pretty unhappy with the surveillance society up to this point but it just got a great deal worse. May they be sued into the dictionary as a salutary lesson regarding the fate of those who implement really bad ideas. I want future generatio
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If you use Qualitative terms and epithets you're fine, because one man's ugly is another man's Julia Cordray. Oh wait, I'm being redundant.
Re:My first review of Julia Cordray (Score:5, Interesting)
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.)
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Go on, advance from libel/slander to conspiracy to rob a bank.
1) Conspiracy normally requires the active cooperation of two or more people (usually 2 or more, but not always). If I'm acting on my own, there' s no "conspiracy".
2) Don't like it? Then sue me. See how far you get. :)
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Ah, but now the rest of us can say:
... and be perfectly truthful and thus not libelous at all!
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She's kind of chunky and wears to much jewelry.
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Fairly sure it was cats. She's obsessed with cats, and rarely bathes.
Yes, that's what peeple say....
Obligatory Jeff Goldblum... (Score:5)
[social network entrepreneurs] were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should
This is truly a terrible idea that can serve no good end except to that segment of the population that judges itself on popularity through conformance. My HOA would love this. I can't wait until this starts being used on job interviews.
I for one intended to get out my personality pink plastic flamingos and get ready for the apocalypse.
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Eh, I'm not a great judge of character, so I would find this useful.
If this was the exact same service except for drivers instead of "people", I'm sure everyone would be saying this is the best thing since... campaign finance reform? Well, probably even better than that.
Imagine an overlay on your windscreen that highlighted other cars that would drive recklessly, or get into lots of accidents, or drive too slowly. You'd be able to deal with them much better by knowing how careful to be around them and th
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The difference there is that your driving record could be based on verifiable facts taken from the public record. "You had an accident in 2013 where at trial you were found 50% at fault." "In 2012 you pled guilty to driving 75 on a 55 road when you paid your traffic ticket." This is purely random digits, assigned out of spite, fear, hate, love, admiration, or whatever. Worse, it might be digits that are bought and paid for by the account owner (hire a sock puppet army to boost your score) or as a result
This should be fun (Score:5, Insightful)
"once someone puts your name in the Peeple system, it's there unless you violate the site's terms of service"
Can't wait to violate me some terms of service!
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"once someone puts your name in the Peeple system, it's there unless you violate the site's terms of service"
Can't wait to violate me some terms of service!
Came to say that. Can't get outta the system, get kicked!!
Problem solved (Score:2)
Problem solved.
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"it's there unless you violate the site's terms of service."
Problem solved.
(Sloshdot ate the first quote)
Drown it in crap (Score:3)
This seems like a great opportunity for legions of civic-minded people to give one-star ratings to everyone and make the service useless.
Originally "Festival Mobile App" (Score:5, Funny)
Let the airing of grievances begin! It's a Festivus miracle!
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[grumble, grumble...adds to grievance list]
Direct your grudge appropriately (Score:2)
That's about as much of a grievance as a Game of Thrones fan complaining that "Dothraki" isn't in a spell checker's dictionary. If you'll be making references to holidays invented by the writers of Seinfeld, you could just add it to the personal dictionary instead of your list of grudges. If you do choose to hold a grudge, make it against the trademark and copyright laws that discourage addition of well-known elements from popular non-free media franchises to spell checking software in the first place.
Re:Originally "Festival Mobile App" (Score:5, Informative)
It's Meowmeowbeenz [wikia.com] from Community.
Cyberbullying amped up to 11. (Score:3, Interesting)
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. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
All You Need To Know About Peeple (Score:5, Informative)
...is right here in this screenshot [twitter.com]. Irony alert.
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Would that I could mod you as informative, anon, but I've already commented on this. This screenshot is utter gold.
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That's from a fake account - https://twitter.com/JuliaCordr... [twitter.com] .
Did they run this past a lawyer? (Score:2)
This seems like it was specifically designed to to generate libel lawsuits.
No opt out? (Score:4, Funny)
Challenge accepted!
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The WaPo article claims that negative reviews will be delayed for 48 hours in case of disputes, and that if you haven't registered for the site (and therefore can't contest negative reviews), the negative reviews don't get displayed. I'm not sure I can swallow a salt crystal big enough for this. And even if your negative reviews are hidden if you're not registered, there's no way you can complain unless you take it to them outside the app, because the moment you register for the site so that you can complai
I predict libel cases will bleed Yelp to death. (Score:2)
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This is why you write things like "mindmaster064 is a cunt that did not read the article and thinks Yelp is involved with this".
There, nothing legally actionable about that. :)
Let's Crowdsource an app solution (Score:2)
Rank On the 'Good Idea Scale' (Score:3, Funny)
The simplest solution... (Score:3, Informative)
Just don't use their crappy app. From TFA...
If you haven't registered for the site, and thus can't contest those negative ratings, your profile only shows positive reviews.
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"newbie_fantod rapes children and uses Apple products exclusively" -- 5 STARS
Re:The simplest solution... (Score:4, Informative)
An attacker can just register an account in your name to get them to show up.
How could this be bad? (Score:2)
If this takes off, my guesses on what will happen. (Score:2)
Because human nature for many lets me down more often than not, my thoughts on where this will go.
I'm gonna refer to the Han Solo quote on this one (and I'm
This is private competition to NSA et al (Score:5, Insightful)
This new website will be a private competition to NSA (or other agency) databases. Or a complement. Peeple will complement everyone's profile with the insights that would normally never be recorded on internet.
Currently US intelligence community "does not" have the files for absolute majority of the citizens. What they do have is databases, available to be queried and the profile of the websites visited, people contacted, or other activities. Imagine this as an old fashioned address book, supplemented with the key interests, ranked by popularity of the connections.
Privacy becomes a privilege. It comes with the cost.
Peeple? (Score:4, Funny)
Totally Useless At Best (Score:2)
This sounds like it'll be totally useless at best and a source of libel at worst.
From the Washington Post article:
I guess the "establ
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So if I don't register for the site, then only positive comments about me get posted but if I register the negative ones get posted too? What's the incentive to register? Why not just stay unregistered and tout that 100% positive rating on Peeple?
Sounds like an innovative and forward-thinking way to make sure I never, ever register!
And god help them if they allow someone to falsely register as me, because if that happens my lawyers will be feasting on their entrails.
Ratemyprofessor.com (Score:5, Interesting)
The college professors of the world say "Ha ha, now let's see how much YOU like being secretly judged!"
Had potential (Score:2)
Zach Weiner Thought of it First (Score:2)
Libel... libel everywhere (Score:2)
Is October Fool's Day a thing now? This has to be a joke. No lawyer or investor with any sense would get anywhere near this.
This idea is worse than MeowMeowBeenz.
Welcome to the Panopticon .. (Score:2)
change petition (Score:2)
There is a petition on change.org to ban this app:
https://www.change.org/p/apple... [change.org]
As an attorney. (Score:3)
Somebody funded these airheads? (Score:3)
New business for attorneys! (Score:3)
Right to be forgotten (Score:3)
This makes me really happy to have a dual citizenship in one of the EU countries. The right to be forgotten law will be awesome for this site.
FaceYelp predicted by Cracked.com in 2012 (Score:5, Informative)
"FaceYelp" was predicted by Randall Marsh of Cracked.com in 2012 [cracked.com]. Cracked.com later ran an entire Photoplasty contest of online customer reviews for people [cracked.com].
The downside is that it would make life very hard for people on the autistic spectrum in a world of people who don't understand the autistic spectrum.
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Probably because autistics are more likely to accidentally offend somebody, in turn because they find it more difficult to pick up social rules that aren't explicitly taught.
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Is it also a great time to be a Turk?
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"Is it also a great time to be a Turk?"
Only for the mechanical kind.
JD (disambiguation) (Score:2)
Did you mean a Juris Doctor? A juvenile delinquent? Or a Juris Doctor retained by a juvenile delinquent [miraheze.org]?
Re:Who will be first? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Thus if you never register, you're invulnerable to bad reviews.
What an innovative way to make sure I never register!
However...what's to stop other people from registering as you? How can they be sure it's really me registering?
If they don't / won't / can't verify it's really me, that certainly sounds like a lawsuit just waiting to happen.
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