Good idea or bad idea? I was watching MSNBC yesterday afternoon and saw one of the creators of a new Web site being interviewed in a brief news blip! Failin.gs will soon be launched in BETA. Stephen Cells and Danny Pecks are the two awesome dudes who are responsible for the idea for failin,gs - a place where people will be able to invite anonymous constructive criticism from their friends.Looks pretty simple, you set up a personal profile and then sit back and wait for your friends to log on and point out what they judge to be your character flaws. I think I'd rather be the target in a dunking pool at the carnival than set myself up for this type of anonymous "honesty" from a friend. This reeks of junior high slam books.
I dunno, maybe I'm not seeing the benefits of such a tool. This seems so WRONG at so many levels. Sure, criticism has its place, but it is important to know when criticism is constructive and when it is hurtful. Also, I'd rather have brutal honesty straight from the horse's mouth, not given to me by an anonymous "friend." Even when given with the best intentions criticism can sting.
It is bad enough when someone purposely tries to insult you, like a person who emailed me yesterday. I opened up my email and read two words "Fock You" - this came from one of my newsletter subscribers. Unsubscribe if you don't want to hear from me. Really! I mentioned it to my sister who laughed about it, she thought it was hilarious because the insulter couldn't even spell correctly. But, I pointed out to her that the person likely misspelled it on purpose so that her poison dart would not get blocked by SPAM filters. In my mind, this actually made the action worse. It was wounding. Hey, if you don't like me, why are you subscribing to my newsletter? You were not anonymous either, I have your email address! All I learned from this is that I need to get a thicker skin, something I already knew and don't need this pointed out to me. Sad when someone feels angry enough to spew negativity.
If I'm understanding the concept of failin.gs correctly only people who know you personally will be allowed to post anonymous criticism about you. So you won't be opening yourself up for insults from all the crazies on the Internet who have never met you. All right, but, let's say you only have five friends. A person posts a criticism and you know it was one of five people... won't that strain your relationship with these five people? I know I'd be wondering who said what.
What do you think about the concept of failin.gs? Be truthful, but not too brutal. In other words, agree or disagree with me, but please say it nicely.
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Don’t like. Constructive criticism is good, but this will let people be cruel anonymously.