This article was published on October 5, 2015

Peeple’s app has pivoted and is now completely pointless


Peeple’s app has pivoted and is now completely pointless

After her app garnered hate from around the world before it even launched, Peeple co-founder Julia Cordray decided it needed some changes. Unfortunately, they won’t make users like it any more than before.

Peeple was designed to allow you to rate just about any person you know — friends, coworkers, neighbors and everyone in between. It may have had good intentions behind it, but it creates the possibility for people to be defamed quickly and easily — potentially hurting their relationships and careers in the process.

Cordray took to LinkedIn to explain how she plans to make Peeple a ‘100 percent positive’ app:

You will NOT be on our platform without your explicit permission. There is no 48 hour waiting period to remove negative comments. There is no way to even make negative comments. Simply stated, if you don’t explicitly say “approve recommendation”, it will not be visible on our platform.

So essentially, it’s a network of personal billboards with positive testimonials. Who needs this? What’s the point of scouring through a person’s profile to read vetted comments about how wonderful they are? How would it help you to spend time researching people this way?

Cordray started with a bad idea, and has now morphed it into something that fails to solve any real problems. Her attempt to salvage Peeple is an exercise in futility.

In the title of her post — I Became a Trending Topic for the Wrong Reasons. Here’s Why We need Peeple, the Positivity App I’m Building — Cordray notes that she rose to fame on a negative note. Peeple isn’t going to fix that, no matter which way she pivots.

Cordray added, “I want the world to be positive and this is how I’m going to inspire it by creating the world’s largest positivity app.”

If it launches in the vein she’s now suggesting, we’ll likely see one of the loneliest social networks ever to exist.

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