If you’re looking to set your New Year’s resolutions, you know that there aren’t any checks and balances to make sure you’ve completed them, unless you’ve published them to the web and fear the backlash of being called a failure or quitter.
One site wants to blackmail you into completing a task, while holding a compromising photo over your head during the process. The twist? You set your own goals, upload your own photos, and your friends get to decide whether you’ve successfully completed the task or not.
Aherk!, a simple web app, wants you to set your own ticking time bomb and achieve your goals out of pure fear of public humiliation. Will anyone actually do it though?
Lose 10 lbs or post a pic of your arse
Accountability might be the last piece of the puzzle that’s holding you back from reaching all of your goals. Aherk wants to be that accountability, and then some. You can add as many tasks with deadlines to the site as you want, and for it to be effective you’re supposed to upload a photo that you really don’t want anyone to see. Up until the deadline, your friends can vote on whether you’ve hit your goal or not.
In regards to the photo that you’re supposed to upload, Aherk refers to it as “The Bomb Photo”:
This is the photo that we will upload to Facebook if your friends tell us that you’ve failed to achieve your goal. For Aherk! to be effective, it needs to be something that you really don’t want to see posted on Facebook.
And if you think that you can just change your mind later, not so fast, Aherk won’t let you edit or delete the goal or photo once you’ve added it:
While it’s a cute idea, I don’t think this is something that I’d actually do. As Alex Wilhelm, our in-house prankster at The Next Web, puts it:
What if your friends are &$#&@, and just say no to &%@# with you?
Good point. But if you do trust your friends to vote on the up-and-up, this might be a fun way to get some of those goals out of the way that you keep skipping over every year. Beware of what you upload though, because if your fail your goal, the photo will be posted publicly for all of your friends to see.
In the end, it might be worth it.
➤ Aherk!
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LikeIs blackmail a good motivator for someone to achieve one's goal? If I'm not mistaken, study shows that you have higher chances of achieving your goals when you have some kind of "team" support. @Goalstribe have a program wherein a group of people sets the same goal and support each other to achieve it. I believe this more effective than blackmail.
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LikeClever.
I wrote an iPhone app that helps you meet goals, but doesn't involve shame or blackmail: http://thinklegend.com/commit Two different methods for the same goal.
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Likeloophole: why would any of your friends vote "yes"lol
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Likehttp://shamealarm.com
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Likefunnily enough, it also gives Aherk the opportunity to blackmail you :) New business model?
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LikeAlex has some harsh friends!
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LikeConversation from Twitter
Maakelijk gelukkig waren mijn studentenjaren van voor de digitale camera dus dat gênante deel blijft achterwege ;-)
myjoydy Hahahahaha! Tot nu toe heb ik die blotebillenfoto niet nodig. Nog 100% gehaald. Met vandaag lichte smokkel. Gaaf idee wel...
Elja1op1 was je al begonnen dan? #voornemen2012
D__cup 大雪?下雪？
tabibito777 超大的雪
helenrice lukees stickk is a great site too, no voting. just money on the line & you pick a friend to be the judge http:\/\/t.co\/KZBGF4Zw
Jimparedes It's silly!
Jimparedes Sir Jim, good morning and Merry Christmas! May I DM you Sir again? i just want to share with you sample song of my wife.. tnx.
Jimparedes of all the years of singing, what was your most memorable? I remember APO the best at the height of the first EDSA. Yours?
Jimparedes karma lang dayta!!hahah
Jimparedes My "arse" can only fit screens 42" or wider.
Conversation from Facebook
If you have to resort to blackmailing yourself with technology, there's more wrong with you than an app will fix.
Interesting, but too fearful. I have a similar idea. Am working with a jewelry designer friend to see if we can pull it off: purchase a gorgeous piece of jewelry with "charm" type stones. Each milestone you reach, we send you a stone.
This sounds like the plot to a movie. I could see this going wrong. being blackmailed by a machine. No thanks.
I totally would but if they decide that you can choose the friends that vote!
wooha! Hold on! I won't use it!!! Never!