Viral? You Decide

While websurfing today, I stumbled across something that set both my “Viral Marketing” sense tingling, and my “God, this is fucking stupid” sense tingling at the same time.

It’s a site called www.dontdatehimgirl.com

So what is it?

Well, this idea is that if you’ve had a really spectacularly bad date, you post how terrible it was (including the guy’s picture, name and what city and state he’s from).

In other words, it’s a site for women to bitch about how terrible men are, and to “name and shame” them.

Of course, this absolutely reeks of viral marketing.

The thing is, if this site is for real, it’s an absolute lawsuit magnet. It’s a slander machine.

Given America’s love affair with suing everything that moves, and how the average male would react if he discovered a girl he went out with had put up a post about what a complete bastard he is… in a searchable database of loser guys…well, you can see what’s coming.

Now, it’s true that in America, an opinion cannot be viewed as slander or libel under the law. In other words, if I say on this blog that I think a Jack Thompson is a complete and total asshat, there’s nothing he can do about it. Well, he’d probably impotently threaten me, but because it’s my opinion and presented as such, it’s protected by free speech.

On the other hand, once you present something as fact, “This guy is a pervert and has a half inch penis”. Unless that guy actually has a half inch penis…prepare to get sued.

Given that unless each and every post is moderated by the site owner, it’s pretty much guaranteed that someone is going to present and untrue statement as fact…They might as hit Jack Thompson over the head with an Xbox while throwing copies of Grand Theft Auto at him.

So, here’s my prediction. There’ll be a movie entitled “Don’t Date Him, Girl!” out within the next few months.

Either that, or the site will magically disappear within a couple weeks.