

Flojuggler - benologist
http://www.flojuggler.com/

======
liedra
As a woman, the underlying idea isn't actually such a bad thing, though I'm
not sure about the way they're marketing it. There are several menstruation
calendars on the market, they're good for a whole lot of things, from pre-
warning you about potential mood swings to reminding you that you should
probably take some sanitary items with you on that weekend away, to planning
for baby-making :) Most of them focus on the latter though, which is a bit...
conservative, really.

As for me, my partner currently lives a reasonable distance away, and so it'd
be nice for me to plan my trips to visit in advance, and then expectations can
be sorted in advance. Also, in my case, sometimes I don't realise when I'm
suffering from mood swings, so it'd be nice to know when to expect it, rather
than just thinking "oh well it was sometime at the beginning of the month last
month".

Like I said though, I'm not really sure about the marketing, but I think it
would definitely appeal to younger, sexually active women and their partners.

ETA: Yeah, definitely not so sure on the marketing... some of it's pretty
crass. But perhaps it'll help break down some stigmas associated with talking
about menstruation? (or possibly add to them?)

------
cmars232
This reminds me of an old legend from a semiconductor company where I used to
work. You used to have to test your ESD protection (grounding heel/wrist
straps) with an ohmmeter and log it to a notebook before going out to the
factory floor to be sure that you wouldn't zap anything.

Engineers being engineers, someone analyzed the log data and discovered that
the skin resistance of female workers tended to vary on a monthly cycle, and
you could predict these cycles based on empirical data. This soon spread
around the office.

At some point HR got involved and shut it down. The ohmmeter was replaced with
a red/green light.

------
stretchwithme
that is pretty bad. is this one a joke?

~~~
benologist
I'm really not sure.

~~~
yoshiks
It's bad, if it's joke, it's worse.

~~~
benologist
The possibility remains it's both real and a joke.

But we won't really know unless they add check-in functionality.

------
Aetius
Flag with extreme prejudice.

~~~
Confusion
Why? Is the subject so awkward that you can't even bear to have a link which
suggests it in your HN front page?

~~~
aperiodic
The unspoken implication behind this site is that, for several days every
month, women become "unclean" and less desirable, to such an extent that one
must use this application to be aware of and schedule around it. Can you see
how that's offensive?

~~~
ErrantX
There are some cultures that do consider menstruation unclean (we can't really
judge them on that) so there is an outside possibility this comes from one of
them... but somehow it doesn't strike me that way.

I think it's just how this presented that makes it problematic. The crude
terminology and focus on sex (and other areas of lacking sensitivity).

Because on the one hand there is a solid/useful idea here.

My girlfriends comment was "I'd maybe give it a shot if it was developed by a
woman, or for a woman. This looks like something for a man, by a man"

EDIT: I thought of a similar thing a friend of mine once had, he had a few
girlfriends and recorded their periods on a calendar so he could check back
and figure out who would be "free". This gives me the same impression :(

