14 ms·
A Gossip App Brought My High School to a Halt
- alecsmart1 13y agoIt's truly a sad case of cyber bullying. I don't see how the school can ban the app they can probably ban it from their network but most kids would still be using their cellular data to access the app.
- angersock 13y agoWonderful quote: "Suddenly, the social 1 percent was subject to the same sort of cyber torment that had in the past been directed at the students at the bottom of the pyramid." I love the way technology brings about democracy and levels the playing field! :)
- daeken 13y agoWe tend to think of technology with the "a rising tide raises all boats" line of thinking, or at least I do. But this is a pretty clear case of technology dragging everyone down. Yes, it may be an equalizing force, but we don't help the blind by taking the eyes of those with sight; it's equalization in the wrong direction. I wish there was a solution, but there just isn't one. I think it just needs to run its course; maybe once everyone gets a black eye, they'll realize that it sucks and stop giving them to others. But I don't think it's quite that simple.
- dublinben 13y agoThe solution is to teach young people how to behave properly, and not denigrate their peers.
- zhemao 13y agoI'm sure most of the students at the school do know that. The app is completely anonymous, so for all we know, the nasty comments could have been made by just a handful of students.
- theorique 13y agoI don't think it's a lack of knowledge that is the problem here. Almost all kids are taught the basics of "be nice", "don't be a jerk". But if someone treats a person badly, and they have the option to get revenge anonymously ... a lot of people find it hard to resist the temptation to hit back. Just this once.
- bloaf 13y agoThe solution is to let them be terrible to each other so that by experiencing how bad that feels, they learn to be more sensitive as adults.
- wdewind 13y agoRead up on the tyranny of structurelessness.
- crassus 13y agoDemocracy killed Jesus and Socrates
- dragonwriter 13y ago> Democracy killed Jesus The Roman province of Judea was a number of things, but a "democracy" wasn't one of them.
- waqf 13y agocrassus may be referring to the crowd shouting for Barabbas: that would be in keeping with the implied interpretation of "democracy" as "mob rule".
- dkhenry 13y agoSo kinda like exactly what Community portrayed in their MeowMeowBeanz episode http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3278596/?ref_=tt_ep_ep9 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3278596/?ref_=tt_ep_ep9
- coffeecodecouch 13y agoThat's one of my all time favorite episodes because no matter how ridiculous "MeowMeowBeanz" is portrayed to be, it's totally possible. People will try to validate creating these apps, but at the end of the day they're profiting from bullying ("cyber" bullying is redundant these days) and young people's inability to ignore what's being said about them. It's pathetic.
- dkhenry 13y agoWell I think the resolution is the same too. The only way to deal with this specific issue is to not participate. Implicitly all those people who are being effected by this are enabling it by participating in the activity. I actually think this is easier to deal with then its non digital counterpart. Sure its easier to spread the gossip in a digital forum, but it should be known to be false. When gossip spreads through physical networks ( and is therefore not anonymous ) there is a much higher perception of reliability, and its much harder to shake then a completely unreliable and anonymous post on a gossip site which is not ever for a second pretending to be accurate
- jqm 13y agoSimilar stuff was written on bathroom walls or passed around in notes when I was in high school... And everyone had to see it on the wall as opposed to having to be informed about and go look for it. The point? this isn't novel and don't blame the medium.
- skore 13y agoBullshit. The dose always makes the poison.
- jqm 13y agoIn this case a flood is likely to soon be taken less seriously in my opinion. If anyone even still thinks it's cool or checkworthy in 6 months.
- skore 13y agoThat may be your opinion, but humans don't work like that. It's a question of which human folly you magnify with your technology. Whether it dies out quickly does not matter once the damage is done. Also - keep in mind that what you dismiss as a flood could be mistaken for popular opinion by others.
- jqm 13y agothat may be "my opinion" but you know how humans work? seriously? I predict this thing will die of boredom before long. There will simply be too much junk on it.
- avmich 13y agoIt is novel partially because the medium is different. The difference in medium isn't irrelevant.
- ewoodrich 13y agoTrue, but you didn't see every bathroom wall, or the contents of every note at the same time. This sort of app would be much more effective at school-wide dissemination of gossip.
- matheist 13y agoWrite a script to post awful things about everyone. Then write a script to post nice things about everyone.
- jamesbritt 13y agoIndeed. If you cannot stop information, or take it back, then the next option is to degrade its value. If a negative comment about is then echoed over and over but with X replaced with a series of other names then the idea that it's targeted starts to go away.
- DSMan195276 13y agoThe fact that something like this exists really shouldn't surprise me this much, but it's still disgusting. And really, the app itself isn't a horrible thing by any means. But, if this was around when I was in High-School I doubt I would have had a good time. I'm not sure there's much you can do really, there isn't any way to ban it as a service, nor do I think that's the best course of action. The internet can be a truly scary thing, people aren't afraid to say really hurtful things and lies when they're anonymous. IMO, the Principal's suggestion of not looking at it, while a decent suggestion, doesn't make tons of difference when you're walking through the halls and everybody's staring at you and their phone and quietly laughing.
- sage_joch 13y agoThis made me realize: Reddit/HN wouldn't be nearly as valuable without usernames. They allow you to scan someone's posts to see if they have a history of being mean, intellectually dishonest, etc.
- ewoodrich 13y agoAlthough throwaways are generally considered acceptable, especially on Reddit. Without some means to enforce single account registration or a real name policy, the same problem exists.
- sage_joch 13y agoThere are a lot of good use cases for throwaways (suppose a former cult member wanted to share their experiences, for example). And the fact that an account is brand new is also a data point. You'll notice that Reddit/HN have produced a lot of insightful/informative comments from throwaways.
- bicknergseng 13y agoI would argue the voting system at least partially alleviates malignant throwaways. Trolls, etc, typically get downvoted into oblivion.
- wwwwwwwwww 13y agoWith the karma system, there is no difference between "trolls" and "people whose opinions you disagree with".
- Goronmon 13y agoBut that's a completely separate issue.
- bicknergseng 13y ago"people whose opinions the majority of voting members disagree with" Still true, but I think it is probably easier to allow controversial or less popular opinions in a ranked system than it is to deal with harassment in an unranked system, given the propensity of the voters towards "good." The harassment seen on reddit is very different from the harassment on Yik Yak, Juicy Campus, etc. That guy they thought was responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings, for example. Of course, Yik Yak and Juicy Campus were designed for this LCD speech.
- gldalmaso 13y agoA thought for the school: maybe flood the app with good things about their students and encourage them to do the same. A sort of happy uplifting DOS.
- Guvante 13y agoI dunno, history has shown that the negative people will win out unless you filter them out. Most unfiltered communication channels online are known for being horribly negative, not to say there isn't positive content, just that it is minor. Unfortunately the negative posters have more to gain. By putting down someone they get a minor lift up in their own self-image, while boosting someone does not provide nearly such a strong reaction. Adding user names can help, as your history becomes public and scrutinizable, allowing you to be proud that you are positive.
- fidlefodl 13y ago> Unfortunately the negative posters have more to gain. By putting down someone they get a minor lift up in their own self-image, while boosting someone does not provide nearly such a strong reaction. I'd like to disagree with you, but in the end we're all selfish, and clearly anonymous communication is often a channel for negativity. I feel like your explanation is wrong, but the end result is the same heh.
- Goronmon 13y agoUnfortunately the negative posters have more to gain. By putting down someone they get a minor lift up in their own self-image, while boosting someone does not provide nearly such a strong reaction. I think it has more in common with the phenomenon where in general most feedback is negative because people who are happy with a product/situation tend to not bother looking for ways to express that opinion, where people with a strong negative opinion generally want to find a place they can vent.
- pkfrank 13y agoI used to run a similar service (CollegeACB.com, sold in 2011), and spam was one of the only effective deterrents. In particular, posting spoilers to popular shows seemed to really impact usage.
- dsugarman 13y agogossip apps are new but gossip websites did the same thing to college campuses. for example juicycampus and collegeacb
- angersock 13y agoAnd before that, bathroom grafitti.
- waterfowl 13y agoHa I forgot about both of these. Yeah they were pretty vicious. There was some other app that facilitated anonymous on campus chat with fruit pseudonyms(i.e. "you are now chatting with Blueberry") but I can't remember what it was. I was anti shutting them down, even though I think they were mostly posted on by horrible vindictive people.
- esbranson 13y agoThe modern legal system was made for this. Subpoena the information from the app creator. Don't know the app creator? Subpoena the information from the app stores. Can't serve process on (can't get a hold of) the app creator because he's out of your jurisdiction or whatever? No problem. Enjoin Apple and Google from providing it in their app stores. When the app creator's lawyer comes to contest the injunction (to get their app back), hit him with the subpoena. "Equity will not suffer a wrong to be without remedy." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_defamation_law#Defamation_per_se https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_defamation_law#D...
- brubaker 13y ago"We do not log that information"
- angersock 13y agoThe modern legal system is an authoritarian whimsical piece of garbage. I'd much rather the kids learn not to be assholes to each other.
- esbranson 13y agoI'd much rather be a billionaire. You can have legal justice or you can have street justice. Yik Yak is an example of street justice.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mindslight 13y ago^ Every self-respecting app developer should be thinking about and mitigating the security vulnerabilities outlined in this comment.
- npizzolato 13y agoHow long do you think it would take to get an app removed from the iOS and Android app stores? How long do you think it would take a replacement to get made and publicized on the app store?
- sciguy77 13y agoMy problem with Yik Yak isn't that its anonymous, its that I cannot conceive of a way that it could be used to do anything but hurt people. I read an interview with one of the founders who described a story of how Yik Yak was used for good. A user needed a place to stay and another user offered a spot on his dorm room floor. The problem with this example is that it breaks the design of Yik Yak: in order for this "good" example to occur the users had to give up their anonymity, effectively ruining the point of the app. Last month I visited a new city and was curious to see what their Yik Yak was like. It was essentially a stream of abusive posts like those featured in the article. While refreshing the app I saw a glimmer of hope. Someone wrote "X is a really nice guy." The post was down voted to invisibility in literally less than two minutes. I have my beliefs about the importance of freedom of speech and safe, anonymous places for whistleblowers etc. But this is something else. It makes my stomach churn. I'm readily admit that I am biased on this issue, I've seen first hand how much pain this app causes people. I'm told that at my old high school there is at least one student on suicide watch who would not be without Yik Yak. Putting aside arguments about freedom, if taking down an app could save a kid's life then shouldn't we do it? If Formspring didn't exist then it is very possible that the four minors who committed suicide in connection to the site[1] might still be alive today. [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formspring#Controversies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formspring#Controversies EDIT: Keep in mind there is a difference between free speech and hate speech (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech). Ditto for libel (ex the article's quoted posts accusing the school principal of molesting children).
- freehunter 13y agoThere's a great use for an app like this, and it's something I've wanted forever. Unfortunately, the only people who download and install it seem to be assholes. That reason is alerting people around you to things going on. If I see a firetruck going past my office, I'm going to want to know where it's headed, for a number of reasons (is there anyone I know involved, are people safe, am I going to be delayed getting home, am I in any danger). Local news isn't going to pick up every fire department response. Or in more positive ideas, a spontaneous block party is happening down at the local ice cream shop. I'd love to walk down there, but I don't know it's happening. Hyper local services would be incredibly useful with leveraging technology to bring a community closer together. Twitter could solve this problem, but I need to know who to follow. With hyper-local services like Yik Yak, I wouldn't need to follow anyone. The information would just be there. >if taking down an app could save a kid's life then shouldn't we do it? It's not technology's problem, it's society's. We could save millions of lives by getting rid of cars. Thousands by getting rid of cell phones. There's a reason we don't do that. There's a much easier answer to the problem of how to protect children from being bullied on Yik Yak: teach your kids the value of walking away.
- callmeed 13y agoI think the Online Disinhibition Effect [1] and Greater Internet F*wad Theory should have some kind of multiplier based on age. Online anonymity–while necessary IMO–has a dark side. You can say "don't blame the medium" all you want, but I don't think it's that simple. When the medium increases the volume/frequency of bad behavior, there will be more bad consequences. Some poor kid will commit suicide because of an app like this. Being a father of 4, that makes me grieve. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_disinhibition_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_disinhibition_effect
- jqm 13y agoso what is your proposed solution? I read about suicides from internet harassment from time to time.. and although sad, we don't shut down the internet. Top poster has it right I believe. Fight it and simply get more attention. Leave this thing alone and it will be so clogged up with nonsense it will be almost unreadable in few months...imop.
- callmeed 13y agoI don't have a good one off the top of my head. But you have to understand, school administrators are going to be under pressure to do something soon. Solutions like spamming such apps with spoilers aren't going satisfy them (IMO). These situations are why crappy, overbearing laws get put in place by sixty-something year old politicians.
- hvoiiita 13y agoI live by a major American university and all Yik Yak is used for is Greek rivalries ("Sig Eps eat butt") and recording their "tfm"s
- Gobiel 13y agoIf it is anonymous and unfiltered, it is possible to shit-spam it. Write some server that can find proxies and write random words from dictionaries to fill up so that it becomes impossible to filter the mean from the nonsense. Gotta take them by their game ! However, if it grows with too many people that have the free time to post (ala 4chan) this strategy becomes too difficult. For a highschool, shouldn't be too difficult ? Btw, I don't know the specifics of the "app", but it could be done, even, with basic captcha imo.
- FD3SA 13y agoI've said it many times before, but humans are primates. No matter what we say to the contrary, if we act like primates, look like primates, and have the DNA of a primate, we are most likely primates. Why are adults still surprised when they see young primates act normally? Adult humans spend an incredible amount of time trying to prevent children from behaving in the ways their natures dictate. Are we so surprised that they viciously fight to establish a status hierarchy in high school? All primates do this. Adults do it too, but in a more nuanced way (money, fame, power). The sooner we start dealing with the reality of what we are, the easier it will be. The more we deny it and sprinkle it with feel-good nonsense, the worst it will become.
- junto 13y agoWhile i don't disagree with you, I'd like to share something that recently struck me. Although I hated the film Tree of Life, there was a pertinent line that has resonated with me since. "The nuns taught us there were two ways through life - the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you'll follow." "Grace doesn’t try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries. … Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it over them. To have its own way." The penny dropping moment is when you question nature "goodness". Nature is often perceived to be "the pure way", but we often forget that the pure way can be brutal and unforgiving. Nature is the route of the shortest path, highly optimised to survive and flourish often at the cost of others and without compassion. Grace balances nature. Some of that is quoted from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis (see Book 3, Chapter 54): http://www.leaderu.com/cyber/books/imitation/imb3c51-59.html#RTFToC290 http://www.leaderu.com/cyber/books/imitation/imb3c51-59.html...
- FD3SA 13y agoThis may surprise you, but I absolutely agree. I am very much in favor of a religious lifestyle. I have come to understand that humans need to feel that there is a greater purpose for their existence in order to temper their destructive desires. Of course, this was probably the insight that led to the creation of the very first religious writings. Our ancestors are not as stupid as we are led to believe. Religious writings are absolutely the greatest works of literature known to man, having been so widely preserved and distributed. However, there is a small issue. I want to live in a religious society whose morals are practiced, not just preached. I am hard pressed to find such a society. I have no preference of religion, just a preference for a society where people are united in a community and behave cooperatively. Unfortunately, most capitalist democracies do not work in this fashion. Ruthless competition is the name of the game, and the usurious practices which reduce most men to beasts of burden are rampant. The elected leaders and their elite masters sing songs of virtue, yet ruthlessly undermine the common working man at every step. What good is the gospel when it is only preached and never practiced? Addendum: For those interested in the evolutionary history of religious practices, please see Darwin's Cathedral [1]. 1. http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Cathedral-Evolution-Religion-Society/product-reviews/0226901351/ref=dpx_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1 http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Cathedral-Evolution-Religion-S...
- mattgreenrocks 13y agoWe are part of the problem. We incentivize creation of net-negative utility apps like this in the hopes of procuring the ever elusive VC funding (proof that you've made it). We chant the lie of 'progress' and 'disruption' for it's own sake. We tolerate a nascent celebrity culture not unlike Hollywood. What other app-trainwrecks are to come?
- jqm 13y agoWell if it's anonymous there might be a simple solution... Get a list of all highs school students, write 20 or 30 standard insults and flood the the thing by script. Make those who want to read gossip really work to pick it out.
- andrewflnr 13y agoBetter yet, boring compliments. "X is a nice person". "X helped me with my groceries".
- ChuckMcM 13y agoI expect it would be useful to have such an app that suddenly "unlabelled" and gave out everyone's identity. The blow back would be pretty huge and it might make an impression on some of the teens that their outlook was not just wrong, it was counter productive.
- bluedino 13y agoWhere in the hell did we decide phones were okay in schools? In the 90's only drug dealers carried pagers, or so the school boards thought, so nobody was allowed to have a later or cell phone on school grounds.
- yan 13y agoThere was also a great bit on last week's This American Life on anonymous gossiping on the Internet: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/522/tarred-and-feathered?act=1 http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/522/t...
- mynewwork 13y agoWhy would anyone worry about being anonymously slandered, on a stream of nothing but anonymous slander? It seems like it would take about 1 day for this to go from truths and half-truths to just a contest for who can write the most shocking or offensive statement. At that point, who cares if it's your name being used on a made up shock-value joke or story? Any real information would be safely obscured by a mountain of false accusations.
- yesiamyourdad 13y agoClearly you've never been bullied before. A bully doesn't get bored after a day, it's a continuing pattern of behavior. I had a kid in high school who would say degrading things to me on a daily basis, for months, until I finally realized that I had to get in his face if I wanted it to stop.
- mynewwork 13y agoBut this app isn't a bully picking on you every day. It's every potential bully standing behind a curtain yelling non-stop insults against every person in the school. Surely it takes most of the sting out of the insult when everyone is getting continuously insulted anonymously.
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoThe parent comment bears repeating: "Clearly you've never been bullied before." You can't logic away emotional pain.
- nsomaru 13y agoCan't you? Or to put it another way: in the face of Reason, can the emotion even remain? If you rationalise and understand the triviality of the situation and the ultimate stream of nonsense that the App apparently is, would this affect you? It seems one would be emotionally affected upon _failure_ to make this rationalisation.
- stonogo 13y agoThe app didn't bring the school to a halt; a bunch of assholes did. This is only marginally different from writing shit on restroom stalls.
- wmeredith 13y agoHow is just ignoring this shit not an option? Am I that far removed from HS culture at 33? My HS was full of asshole bastards that would say anything about anybody just to get a reaction. We didn't have social media, but if a juicy rumor got started it only took about half a day to spread to the whole school. Hands down the best way to beat them was to not give a fuck. Just don't feed the trolls. Bullies are motivated by a reaction and as long as you're not being physically harmed you shouldn't give them one.
- CocaKoala 13y agoI think part of it is the anonymous nature. When a juicy rumor got spread in your high school, you could figure out who was saying it and write them off: "Oh, whatever; that kid's an asshole and is just out to get me, anybody who's my friend knows to ignore them." But with this, you don't have that. Maybe the bully from your math class is telling everybody you suck dick for money; maybe it's the kid you just started sitting next to at lunch. All of a sudden it's not just the mean kids who might be spreading rumors, it's everybody in the school and that's pretty hard to ignore. also, it's worth noting that the way you feel about anonymous slander at 33 is going to be heavily coloured by your maturity and perspective: You've been out in the world for a while, and you know that there's a bunch of bullshit that just doesn't matter. That's an admirable attitude, but let's be fair and recognize that 16 year olds are not really well known for their ability to put high school in context. It feels like their entire life for them because at that point, it is.
- yesiamyourdad 13y agoEven more, you can confront the person doing you wrong. My daughter recently confronted a girl who was spreading rumors about her and that was that. It takes no courage at all to act out online. It used to be that if you wanted to spread lies, steal money, run a confidence game, you had to at least have the courage to face your victim. Anonymity can be used for noble purposes but the vast majority of the time it isn't. Whatever noble purpose might be available to someone using Secret or Yik Yak, it's going to get lost in the noise.
- wmeredith 13y ago
- pkfrank 13y agoI used to run CollegeACB.com, which usurped JuicyCampus.com and was one of the most popular anonymous college "gossip" sites ever. >20M monthly pageviews and sparse usage at 500+ schools, intense usage at 100+. I sold the business in 2011. Yik Yak is heavily protected by the Communications Decency Act, and articles like this (generally) just serve to fuel the fire. After Time Magazine, Mike Huckabee, Chronicle of Higher Ed, et. al. tried to draw negative attention to CollegeACB, it only served to strengthen our brand and broaden our footprint. One needs to understand that sites / services like these aren't going anywhere. They'll continue to enjoy legal protection and benefit from the virality of anonymity and mean-spirited gossip. One of the most effective forms of dissent I experienced while running CollegeACB were spoiler-filled-spam. If people started posting Game of Thrones spoilers and other such content, I'm sure it would affect usage. Creating petitions, contacting school officials, etc. were totally ineffective, and almost always just made the promise worse. I'm not terribly proud of my ownership of that site, though I did try to run it with something of a conscience: never called for gossip, voluntarily removed 30,000+ posts, etc. Happy to answer any questions if people are interested about this space.
- CocaKoala 13y agoWhat benefit did you feel a site like that brought to the world? I'm not trying to be catty with that question, I'm honestly curious; a big part of websites nowadays is "We're trying to solve problem X in Situation Y by providing solution Z", and it's hard to see how that sentence gets filled out with JuicyCampus analogues unless it's "We're trying to solve the difficulty of being an asshole while remaining anonymous by providing a platform to do so". Was there some larger cause to CollegeABC, or was it simply "If we don't do it, somebody else will, so we might as well fill the void"? It's interesting to note that the effective way to get people to stop using the site was to just make it unpleasant for them; that's a clever way to hit them where it hurts, I think.
- pkfrank 13y agoI answer this above. In short: I originally ran the site at just a few schools, my alma mater being one of them. There, it was used productively and mean-spirited gossip was far from the norm. It helped people get honest advice, ask questions related to events around the school, etc. When we "acquired" JC, everything changed, as the masses were coming in with an expectation of mean-spirited gossip. Despite my efforts, I could never meaningfully change that mindset. I spent most of my 2 years running the site fending off competitors that would "let anything go" and were trying to "win" by maximizing the salaciousness of their content.
- argumentum 13y agoThe author of this article is an exceptionally talented writer for a high-school student. And what she describes below seems like a positive development: One student told Inklings, the school newspaper, that “kids are just mean these days, and they needed a new way to insult each other.” Maybe. I remember when Formspring and Honesty Box infiltrated my middle school hallways. But Yik Yak felt different. It wasn’t just a new tool for the school’s bullies; it was also an equalizer. No one was safe, regardless of his or her place on the social pyramid. Bots and Amigos were targeted just as much, if not more, than the gays, the fat kids, the nerds, the friendless. “K. sounds like she has a cock in her mouth 24/7,” went a typical attack on an Amigo. Staples Guidance counselor Victoria Capozzi says that one student, prior to finding himself the target of a homophobic post, was completely unaware that his peers even questioned his sexuality. Suddenly, the social 1 percent was subject to the same sort of cyber torment that had in the past been directed at the students at the bottom of the pyramid. Yik Yak gave everyone a chance to take down enemies, reveal secrets, or make shit up in order to obliterate reputations. You didn’t need internet popularity in order for your post to be seen; you just needed to be within a 1.5-mile radius of your target and your audience.
- cube_yellow 13y agoIt's ludicrous for this to be anything other than hilarious. Causes: kids are bored, kids are allowed to use cell phones in class (what?), they've never actually had to take anything seriously, and adults will always validate their shenanigans by acknowledging it, so: they search for drama, can get it from social media, "take it seriously" just feeding the drama, and they get their money shot of the principal and lawyers getting involved. It's child pornography and the only sick part is the adults who are getting off to it, but apparently that doesn't matter either so I'm just sitting here hoping someone doxxes a pair of plots out of whoever this "M." chick is.
- bri3d 13y agoInterestingly Yik Yak have geofenced middle and high schools, preventing the app from being usable in school anymore: http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/13/amid-vicious-bullying-threats-of-violence-anonymous-social-app-yik-yak-shuts-off-access-to-u-s-middle-high-school-students/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/13/amid-vicious-bullying-threa...
- ledbettj 13y agoI was under the impression that Yik Yak had already blocked all highschools [1] after the last incident (I think it was a bomb threat?) [1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-graber/yik-yak-app-makers-do-the_b_5029679.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-graber/yik-yak-app-maker...
- jqm 13y agoGee... I didn't realize there was an app that could actually bring school to a halt. If only they had such a thing in my day... Does the author maybe mean a bunch of people were gossiping? I hardly see the alarmist tone as justified. But people need SOMETHING to write about I suppose.
- SoftwareMaven 13y agoEvents like this do bring schools to a stop. Sure, attendance still happens, but no educating happens. Other events cause similar results: prom, winning state in some sport, or lockdowns for various real and imagined threats. Given that the stated purpose of school is learning[1], things that massively interfere with that shouldn't be taken lightly. 1. There are a lot of arguments to be made that this is really a much lower priority.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- brazzy 13y ago> a school that was “different,” a school that rose above petty high school malice. Almost sounds like petty malice is something that wants to exist and, if kept away through the most well-meaning efforts, will eventually turn up all the more virulent. Could there be some sort of (relatively) safe outlet for such impulses, something that can be both carthatic enough and somehow contained in its impact (e.g. available one for one day every month)?
- Smudge 13y agoIt's no surprise that, when left unchecked, teenagers (whose brains actually lack some capacity for empathy) would generate extremely un-empathetic content. And it is certainly not limited to children -- adults can be just as bad or worse. This is a topic that has come up in different forms many times as the Internet has grown. One way to reign in the vitriol would be to force everyone to use their real names (see Google+'s 'real names' policy), but I don't feel this should ever be a requirement for participation in an online service. For the service itself to require it is one thing, but if the government ever tried to enforce this I'd consider it a human rights violation. (The debate over real names vs. pseudonymity vs. anonymity is a topic I could go into at much length). In the case of Yik Yak, rather than shifting blame onto the app, I instead wonder how/why any parents would allow their children to freely install such apps on their phones. Sure, kids will be kids (and will always find covert ways of misbehaving), but there should be some form of supervision available for parents of smartphone users, don't you think? I think Louis C.K. has a pretty smart perspective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c
- csense 13y agoHigh school students anonymously post mean things about their peers on the Internet? Stop the presses! Seriously, could somebody explain to me why this is front page material?
- dang 13y agoThe article is fluff and not very appropriate for HN, but the discussion turned out to be reasonably good.
- diziet 13y agoI looked at the app's reviews to see what folks were talking about: https://sensortower.com/ios/us/yik-yak-llc/app/yik-yak/730992767#review-stats https://sensortower.com/ios/us/yik-yak-llc/app/yik-yak/73099... "Cyber Bullying", "Bomb Threats", "Hurtful", "Commit Suicide" ... That seems to be the use case.
- shirro 13y agoTurn it off. Streisand effect again. The more people complain the more people hop on board and start the insults and the more people who read them. People need to learn to exercise good judgement and stop blaming technology for social problems.
- apw 13y agoI'm surprised someone hasn't written a Markov Chain-based Yik Yak post generator. It would learn all the worst insults at a particular school, then apply them to the entire student body at random intervals. After a while, nobody could tell the actual malicious posts from the random posts, so all would be ignored. Or so I would hope.
- danieltillett 13y agoThis is a great idea. Feed enough misdirection into the system and the whole thing collapses.
- ryandrake 13y agoCan't you just uninstall the app and not worry about what anonymous trolls are writing in it?
- WalterBright 13y agoWhen I was in grade school, we had the same thing, called "slam books". The kids would write the same sort of gossip about each other in a notebook, and the notebook would get passed around. If a teacher caught you with one, you got punished. It blazed around for a month or two, then burned out as people just got bored with it.
- WalterBright 13y agoI expect these new gossip apps will follow the same arc. People will eventually realize that whatever is posted on there is bullshit, and will not take it seriously.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- herokusaki 13y agoA truly dystopian monetization strategy for this type of app would be to let users pay to reveal each other's IP address and/or location (location costs extra). Edit: Or worse, enable and encourage bidding wars over whose identity gets revealed. It may sound obvious when you actually say it but there's a great potential for evil schemes profiting from "shallow" (not cryptographically ensured) anonymity.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mykhamill 13y agoI wonder if this is what being a telepath would be like. Hearing all the vile thoughts of everyone in a certain radius. If everyone had the ability would we develop a sense akin to smell with BO standing for Brain Odour?