
LinkedIn shuts down Cubeduel, the viral co-worker rating service - cwan
http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2011/01/linkedin-shut-downs-cubeduel-co-worker.html
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webwright
Adam (I have since learned) had seen the limits and the LinkedIn folks
actually raised them for us before we launched... But I don't think ANY of us
thought that we'd hit the higher limit.

But don't judge us too harshly! :-) Remember, this started as a side-
project... And certainly don't judge LinkedIn. Other than not being instantly
responsive on a Friday afternoon (which I think wouldn't be a fair
expectation), they've been super friendly and pretty accommodating.

~~~
joe_the_user
__You __are the creator of this "cubeduel" thing?!??

Wow... hadn't seen it, glad it stopped here or least hoping it did...

I really couldn't imagine a more pernicious effort to poison already strained
interpersonal relations in America if I tried.

I don't think your project is illegal but it is clearly, morally,
reprehensible. You should be ashamed of yourself. What you are doing is a "bad
thing" - on a pretty high scale of "bad thing".

A while back yummyfajitas asked how Wikileaks would be judged if someone died
because of their revelations. Can I ask you the same question? What would you
do if one coworker initiated violence against another because of _your_ rating
site? What?

Not only do I want this to fail but I think it should rebound on your other
projects ... hard. I don't quote The-Jesus much here but here, _"Judge not,
that ye be not judged"_ comes very much to my mind.

Seriously, this is so bad that you need to take it down NOW _and_ apologize.

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aaronblohowiak
you provided more condemnation than analysis. In my reading of the Book, He
reached out to people as an educator and provided guidance about a path that
offers help to people that followed other ways. Do you see the irony in your
quote?

~~~
joe_the_user
Sorry, the analysis seemed rather clear. Offering people a chance to fight
arena-style fights against their fellows is rather unscrupulous to say the
least. Do you defend doing this?

Taking down the site and apologizing seems like a pretty clear guidance to
ending the problem. What else would you suggest?

Does your reading of the bible or religious texts support sites like
'cubeduel'?

The point is also don't judge _unless_ you want to expose yourself to
judgment. I don't mind being judged for condemning this 'cubeduel'. Who wants
to judged for supporting it?

One has an obligation to speak out against despicable acts. Do you think this
is something other than that?

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anaphoric
I agree with you 100% and am willing to take the down votes. This is extremely
obnoxious and I would think that LinkedIn is afraid that people will leave the
site in droves if this is allowed to continue...

~~~
joe_the_user
I suspect I've got plenty of supporters. The number of down votes is ...
interesting. But I'm not terribly concerned.

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philk
It's a great idea (from the point of view of virality) but it seems like it
would be poisonous to the atmosphere in most teams. Would I want to stay back
late to help someone who'd ranked me lower than my coworkers? I'd love to say
yes, but probably not.

~~~
webwright
For what it's worth, it's nigh impossible to see who voted on you. And even if
you're losing duels-- it's not necessarily a reflection on you, but rather a
reflection on you vs. a particular coworker. In other words, there'd be no
shame in losing a duel to someone awesome, right?

However, if you find that you're losing duels against people who you think
poorly of consistently, or losing ALL of your duels, that might create ugly
feelings I guess!

~~~
jamesjyu
"For what it's worth, it's nigh impossible to see who voted on you."

... for now. They could release that data at ANY time. Imagine the damage that
will have on co-worker relationships.

~~~
JoachimSchipper
Running a web vulnerability scanner at their page could be... interesting.
Illegal, probably, but interesting.

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bitskits
I'm surprised to see that it might just be an API issue. I have to think that
many of LinkedIn's users don't like being rated, and having those ratings be
made available without their users' opt-in. For a service like LinkedIn,
dealing with people's professional reputations (and potential job prospects),
this seems like it might have crossed the line in some users' minds.

All of that aside, it is a really interesting idea, although I do have
concerns that Cubeduel is getting a lot of really personal (and valuable) info
from this. As a project, it's very intriguing nonetheless.

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wccrawford
I wrote a co-worker complaint system for fun once (at the request of my co-
workers), and I was really worried it was going to go downhill fast.
Surprisingly, they stopped using it before that happened.

Basically, you could complain (publicly!) about any co-worker who had
registered on the system, and assign them a number of points. The person with
the highest points at the end of the month had to put a trophy on their desk
for a month.

That Cubeduel doesn't blow up also surprises me. I think the team has to
already be really close to survive that kind of thing, and cubeduel sounds
like even less fun than my system.

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dacort
LinkedIn is pretty stingy about their ToS. You even agree to a on-site code
audit if they feel your app is in violation (Section 1.8).

I haven't used Cubeduel, but I wonder if they're displaying user info in
violation of: "Data gathered from one user's LinkedIn account/network may not
be exposed to another user"

Given the huge traffic, not surprised if they're just throttled though.

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rapind
So this is the norm now?

From the FAQ:

Can I delete my cubeduel page?

You can "deactivate" your account and it will stop showing up on cubeduel.
Login, click on Your Rank, then click on Account Settings, then Deactivate
Account.

~~~
joe_the_user
Yeah,

Providing "opt-out libel" when you're about to IPO is a great idea!

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motters
I havn't looked at this, but I guess if you allow co-workers to rate each
other then all that's going to happen is that the office politics gets
transferred onto the site, with a lot of people bitching about each other,
which might not be such a great idea. Also if you're rating co-workers from
previous companies then old animosities could be perpetuated online.

I'm only cautious because in a couple of places that I've worked at in the
past the office politics was occasionally quite toxic, and amplification of
that via the internet could have quite serious consequences.

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jcr
They have a really great attitude, even when not knowing if it is just a limit
or an actual ban.

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tomhallett
were they trying to emulate zuckerburg's facemash?

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stewtopia
WTF? This was awesome!

LinkedIn, please allow Cubeduel to use your API. This is the most fun I've
EVER had with my data (that you happen to keep safe for me).

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jasonlgrimes
WTF? 600 + duels and very addicting.

