

Ask YC:  Is it reasonable to ask users to lie to their friends in a Facebook app?  What if it's a short-lived lie? - amichail

I'm thinking of building such a Facebook app, which as a byproduct would generate Facebook app ideas along with their virality estimates.<p>It would be sort of like the ESP Game, but with invention being the byproduct of the game rather than image labels.
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nostrademons
I don't get it either.

But my guiding principle for determining if a business idea is ethical is "If
my friends knew everything I did, and were users of my service, could I still
face them?" If the answer to that is negative, perhaps you should rethink your
idea.

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icky
I think you should take a moment and calculate the possible damage a short-
lived lie can take, if people make immediate, long-term-consequential choices
based on the word of a trusted friend.

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joeguilmette
i dont get it

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amichail
I didn't say how it works. I'll probably build it first before explaining
that.

But basically, it's a way for generating facebook app ideas along with
virality estimates from lies made by users to their friends.

If users are unwilling to lie to their friends, then this will be a complete
failure.

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joeguilmette
"along with virality estimates from lies made by users to their friends"

thats the part i dont understand. it's not that i dont understand how you'll
build it, it's that i really dont get the concept.

why do they need to lie?

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rms
Perhaps it involves inviting people to the auto-generated apps, when the app
doesn't exist yet?

