Many peoples' personal weakpoint: Listening too much to what other people think about them.<p>This website has all the attributes to become a viral Facebook/Twitter hit, and it's clearly been designed to achieve this.<p>But why not give it a miss, and focus on what you're doing in your life instead of on what other people think of you. Especially when they don't even have the courage to say it to your face.
In the old days of LiveJournal (decade ago) there was some brutal honesty meme which was supposed to be 100% anonymous. I made like 50 (exaggeration) different surveys and then made 50 different "private" posts of the link to each individual friend. Of course to everyone it looked just like a friends-only link and they assumed everybody was going to the same anonymous /aggregated survey.<p>I told them all pretty quickly afterwards about my silliness and put only mildly incriminating questions in the survey, just enough to make them worry about the other memes they'd been filling out.<p>Of course I also confirmed that one friend was head over heels in love with me. I so happen to be married to that darling girl nowadays.<p>Moral: If you're filling these out, don't assume it's 100% anonymous to the person you're writing about. They could be sneaky.
This reminds me of the old Calvin & Hobbes strip where Calvin is selling "a swift kick in the butt" for $1.00. Business is slow and Calvin says, "I don't understand it, everybody I know needs what I'm selling!"
I helped co-create this site and was surprised to find it linked here. It started as a fun project with a friend: a humorous idea that, as the attention it's gotten has shown, is apparently controversial, as well.<p>I have to say, though, that what's surprised me most about its reception is that anonymity doesn't make users as vicious as many might think. I've been pleased with how many "failings" posted are sweet compliments; playful inside jokes; and well-worded, well-meaning suggestions.<p>If anyone would like to try it out, I've made a promo code, "HACKERNEWS". We'd love any suggestions and/or feedback.
I love the idea. It's very good for people who can take criticism. It's up to you after all which criticism to ignore and which to take seriously. It should be made easier for other to post opinions about you by integrating this into some famous application (e.g. facebook app, blog widget, etc).
Possibly the unhealthy thing about this is the anonymity, and it might not be very successful either, because of human nature.<p>I think most people are subject to being categorised one of two ways.<p>CATEGORY 1 (Confident Achievers): Largely oblivious to their own flaws (This won't easily help them because they'll challenge the answers). If the truth does break in it can be very painful for this type of person.<p>CATEGORY 2 (Reflective Thinkers): All too aware of their own flaws (And this won't help them; it will only make them feel more insecure).<p>I'd have to admit to being in the second category, and wouldn't for a second believe it's superior to the first (just different).<p>Which category are you, or are there more categories?
I remember how reading that Facebook was engineered to give you the most positive experience. This feels like the total opposite sort of thing.<p>I don't think it will be a huge success, though, because as much people say that they want constructive criticism, what they really want to hear is how great they are. Going to this site would just be disappointing and frustrating for most people.
Formspring, but in a different context. And that's no bad thing.<p>(See also: <a href="http://jonathandeamer.com/2009/08/19/daily-booth-4chan-importance-context-restrictions/" rel="nofollow">http://jonathandeamer.com/2009/08/19/daily-booth-4chan-impor...</a>)
This seems like it would be an all too entirely unpleasant experience. :( The thing is, the way I see it, for me, the friends whose opinions I really trust and value are the same friends who are going to straight-up tell me to my face if I have some flaw that needs addressing, whether I want to hear it or not, because they have my best interests at heart. As for everyone else's opinions, or the nit-picky little things that we all tend to overlook in each other, anyway, then I just don't see those as needing to be brought to the surface, because it serves no good.
Signed up to have a play around, and was happy because for once I managed to get the "dan" username. Hooray!<p>Then I realized my profile was at failin.gs/profile/dan. And they automatically picked up my gravatar. Yikes.<p>Deleted the account and rejoined with something more obscure....
Great idea. I think I'm still too self-absorbed to actively ask for critiques on my personal character though. Maybe I'll be mature (brave) enough to do this in a couple more years.
What's stopping a person from creating a profile for someone (maybe someone who's "unpopular")??<p>Seems like it could devolve into juicycampus.com for... everyone.