At least in terms of public personas, the Rathbone boys are hard to get a handle on. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Clyde Rathbone is a (now former) champion rugby union player with multiple Wallabies caps under his belt and a flair for the written word that has its own unique proclivities. As for Dayne Rathbone, he’s one of the country’s most utterly bizarre comic talents – recently putting out a short “autobiographical” web series entitled Dayne’s World; at the time we noted that we “weren’t sure if it [was] devastatingly real, or a fucked-up magnum opus from a burgeoning creative genius.”
Whatever the case, the Rathbone’s hands are certainly not idle playthings.
To wit, the pair are at the head of a startup that’s preparing to launch in the coming months. Working under the name Karma, the new social network promises to act as sort of a Yelp or TripAdvisor, but instead of being a user review platform for products or hotels, it’s a user review platform for people.
Yes, you read that right. It’s a website wherein you’ll be able to leave positive – or indeed negative – feedback about fellow human beings.
The Karma website states that it is a “community of freethinkers and truth-seekers who share a vision for a better world built on honesty and accountability,” that “serves to remind us that we are still just one big tribe, and that our decisions and actions impact us all.”
Or more succinctly, it is “your real-world reputation, online.” By and large the aim of the site seeks to “promote accountability” and “drive positive change in the future,” by allowing people to thank others who have had a positive impact on their lives, but also to “alert others to the potential danger” of other people.
Users sign up to the website and receive feedback and ratings from others, and are then able to comment and respond – which, when you think about, ranks it as something along the lines of a YouTube comments section, or anonymous Tumblr ask box, but expanded into its own website. What could possibly go wrong there, right?
The elder Rathbone has vehemently stated his belief in the site, and has outwardly stated his plans to circumvent any potential abuse of the system. Identity verification and forced usage of real names, he feels, will be enough to hold users accountable.
“We have quite a high level of identify verification built into the system, you will have to sign up as a minimum with a social media profile that has at least 50 friends, that has been open for at least six months.”
“[There is] real need for better information about people, and for more transparency and accountability online.”
The website’s concept in and of itself seems likely to tread closely on online defamation territory which, admittedly, is something of a poorly-defined legal quagmire at present.
The website is planned to launch in June. Whether it takes off, or devolves into something akin to Meow Meow Beanz remains to be seen.
You can keep an eye on Karma’s progress
via their website. And you can let us know what you think about Karma in our very own nifty little comments section below.
