How a threesomes app penetrated The Washington Post

Employees from The Washington Post were confused when a bot suddenly sent a message to their Slack newsroom, asking them to confess their workplace crushes.

The Washington Post's Slack just sent this to the entire newsroom.

Democracy dies in thirstiness. pic.twitter.com/2Rj8rNm9zv

— Gene Park 3DS XL (@GenePark) May 1, 2017

Writer Lisa Bonos revealed she was the one who invited the bot, called Feeld, into the chat. Turns out it’s designed to encourage workplace — or at least Slackplace — romance. And it’s got an even more salacious history.

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Know why Feeld’s logo looks like three pills laid over each other? It began life as 3nder, an app for those seeking threesomes. It only rebranded last year after a lawsuit from Tinder, claiming 3nder was profiting from its similarity to the Tinder name.

So it seems that the devs have just switched from one slightly-unconventional form of romance to another.

Slack is explicitly a workplace app. There might be those who circumvent the system and sign up for it with personal use in mind, but it’s tagline on the main website is “Where work* happens.” The asterisk adds, “*Whatever work means for you, Slack brings all the pieces and people you need together so you can actually get things done.” I could see it being adapted for maybe a few extracurricular activities, but … dating?

I’ve used Slack every day for over two years, and nothing about the site’s forum-like layout makes me hot and bothered. Orderly and neatly-compartmentalized chats don’t do it for me, but hey — whatever floats your boat. I won’t judge. If you’re interested, Feeld has their own global Slack group/presumably ad hoc dating site.