http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7392538
Oh my.
One wonders if the subway cat or the gigantic primitive's ever been a member.
marmar (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 02:46 PM
THE ORANGE MARMALADE PRIMITIVE
Original message
Happy New Year, Unless You're Fat: Social Networking Site Kicks Out 5,000 Members For Holiday Weight
"As a business, we mourn the loss of any member, but ... our members demand the high standard of beauty be upheld," says the founder of BeautifulPeople.com.
2010, I thought to myself, would be the year I ignored all the bullshit and concentrated on the serious stuff. But then the BBC had to come along and ruin it by tossing this little gem of absurdity my way:
Dating and social network site BeautifulPeople.com has axed some 5,000 members following complaints that they had gained weight.
The members were singled out after posting pictures of themselves that reportedly showed they had put on pounds over the holiday period.
The site allows entry to new members only if existing members vote them as sufficiently attractive to warrant it.
According to the site founder Robert Hintze, himself a Beautiful Person, according to this 2008 profile -- "Hintze is the active 'dater,' falling in love weekly ... and has been validated as a beautiful person in every country in the Beautiful-People world" -- the decision to shed 5,000 members from the social networking site is simply business, nothing personal.
"As a business, we mourn the loss of any member, but the fact remains that our members demand the high standard of beauty be upheld," he said.
"Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded."
This concept, lest the name or Hintze's logic suggest otherwise, is to provide a safe space for narcissists and the aggressively shallow to find each other and revel in being what Zoolander eloquently described as "really really good-looking."
Check out the questions on the site's front page:
* Do looks matter to you, when it comes to selecting a partner?
* Do you want to guarantee your dates will always be beautiful?
* No more filtering through unattractive people on mainstream sites
* Meet beautiful people locally and from around the world - now
* Attend exclusive events and private parties
If you are pretty enough to be approved to join, the privilege of membership costs about $25 month -- a total steal, if you have ever wasted countless hours browsing online dating sites only to have to see a lot of ugly people. (Time is money, after all.)
I can't say I pity the 5,000 former Beautiful People whose holiday weight gain got them booted from their online pretty-people club. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Or knife, whatever.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/144923/happy_new_yea... /
BolivarianHero (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 02:47 PM
Response to Original message
1. Cry me a ****ing river...
They freely joined a community of stuck-up prats, and now they're living with the consequences. Nothing wrong with seeing snobs getting hoist on their own petards.
Mari333 (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 02:49 PM
THE GOOD SAMARITAN PRIMITIVE
Response to Original message
2. anyone who would go on that site has the IQ of a bacterial growth on the ass of a grub
the delicious part is, that they will all get very very old someday.
Adelante (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 02:49 PM
Response to Original message
3. Shallow is as shallow does, I guess
LiberalAndProud (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 02:50 PM
Response to Original message
4. Really? People really subject themselves to this tripe?
Wow. In contrast, I couldn't wait to move past Jr. High.
flvegan (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 02:50 PM
Response to Original message
5. Morons.
Tossing $125k/mo aside taken in from idiots wishing to be soon parted from their money. Dumb.
RaleighNCDUer (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 03:16 PM
Response to Reply #5
17. You kidding? With this example of strict standards, and free advertising, he'll get twice that number of new members this week.
monmouth (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 03:29 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. I just checked them out. Servers are too busy at this time...
KamaAina (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 02:50 PM
Response to Original message
6. Calling all non-"beautiful" hackers...
no_hypocrisy (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 02:56 PM
Response to Original message
8. More like VapidPeople.com
Beauty comes from within.
sui generis (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 02:58 PM
Response to Original message
9. I don't have a problem with it.
It's like real life, only more honest.
The thing is, I find people whose only value is physical beauty to be unattractive. So if all the uglies want to hang out together with their nose jobs, boob jobs, and hair jobs and slap each other on the back on that web site, the joke is on them, seriously.
I am a pretty man - but I wouldn't be caught dead on a site like that. Even more ironic - people whose business it is to BE physically beautiful, i.e. professional models, would probably be offended by a site like that.
They should rename it BeautifulWannabes.com. How pathetic, and slightly sad for them.
woodsprite (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 02:59 PM
Response to Original message
11. Sounds like a pre-built list of whom not to associate or do business with.
I hope everyone who got kicked out is waking to reality kick 'em in the ass. I guess that's too much to expect though, after all, they were braindead enough to think joining in the first place was a good idea.
Enrique (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 03:01 PM
Response to Original message
12. bullshit
I've never heard of that site. How massive and active would it have to be that 5,000 people were already kicked off, based on photos taken and posted in the past week.
What's the source for this number? The company itself, obviously hoping for some attention. How about the BBC, which is the original source here, find ONE person who was actually kicked off.
liberal N proud (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 03:08 PM
Response to Original message
13. For BeautifulPeople, beauty must only be skin deep.
mike_c (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 03:09 PM
THE MIKE_C PRIMITIVE
Response to Original message
15. this is the funniest thing I've seen all day....
Tailormyst (400 posts) Mon Jan-04-10 03:10 PM
Response to Original message
16. What a horrid group of people
The blurry-eyed seamstress primitive must be looking at Skins's island.
rocktivity (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-04-10 03:31 PM
Response to Original message
19. Once again, real life imitates Onion.com!
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Mon Jan 04th 2010, 03:39 PM
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Response to Original message
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