Twit Or Fit launches today - effectively an idea borne of combining Twitter with a site like Hot Or Not, where you rate the appearance of people displayed.
The project is a collaboration between UK RSS aggregator fav.or.it and collaboration startup huddle.net. So at least you can trust these reputable startups with your Twitter username/password - unlike some. It came about produced after Huddle marketing manager Zuzanna Pasierbinska-Wilson was looking for entrants to a tongue in cheek beauty pageant for UK startups and fav.or.it founder Nic Halstead suggested a hot or not for Twitter.
Here’s the idea:
1. you can only vote if you sign up yourself - and therefore put yourself forward to be voted upon
2. The picture comes from your twitter profile (which can be any size)
3. If you change your profile picture they let people re-vote on you
4. The system optionally (opt-out) sends a tweet when you sign up to tell your friends to come vote for you
5. A badge system allows you to display your current score (out of 10) on your own blog/site
Hot or Not was recently sold for a rumored $20 million, but since Twit Or Fit relies on Twitter and therefore has little inherent intellectual property. I somehow doubt it will go for as much, although it is gaining in traffic and is already running advertising. Meantime it’s a fun site which may go viral and create some kind of return for its creators, if only notoriety.
Interestingly we could see Twitter changed by sites like this. The Face Your Manga craze may get replaced by the craze to have a hot, smoking profile picture instead, in order to improve your TwitOrFit rankings.
Unsurprisingly, people at Huddle are currently heading both Top 10s, and given the site was in closed Beta with mostly Brits involved, that’s who you’ll see.
Twit Or Fit is officially launching today at Twinterval in London.
Purely in the interests of research I’ve posted my profile, though I will be happy with any result which exceeds the 50% marker. Update: Actually, on second thoughts I couldn’t care less!
“Opt-out” and viral things exploiting friendships really suck. And superficial “hot or not” kind of platforms too.
I thought we left that sort of stuff behind us. Now the whole crap resurrects or what?
The web really goes down the toilet, particularly in times of bad economy. Someone stop it!
I just registered TwitterAteMyBalls.com. Who wants in?
I love the idea of the service. It’s not very original but it has a lot of potential.
This part: “1. you can only vote if you sign up yourself - and therefore put yourself forward to be voted upon” makes it very interesting
I think this way they improved their sing up rate a lot.
Terrible.
Also, how did hot or not sell for anywhere near that amount?
Again, terrible.
Twit or Fit {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/j2liKQKgRn_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”Twit or Fit ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/oSLyfb2OFM”}}}
thanks for explaining how social media works.
$20M seems like pennies for the visits/revenue hotornot had.
Brillant.
haha i like it think it has merit and could be a fun little waste of time.
Seriously it was just a matter of time before something like this came out. Look for even more ridiculous services to spawn from this twitter-craze.
http://newsolareclipse.com
did hotornot have any intellectual property ? doubt it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ64v9lUMO4
Who really cares? Well, the makers of the app, who hope to cash in on our insecurities and egos, and those who participate in the game, who apparently have nothing better to do with their time.
Or perhaps I am missing something here. Maybe I just don’t get it.
Do we really need to pander to society’s obsession with appearances. Far more interesting that someone’s profile pic is their contribution to the Twitter community.
This will end up in court - (mis)use of Twitter profile pics for profit is a violation of the ToS.
Yet another site which asks for my Twitter credentials and does who knows what with them.
I’ll pass until Twitter comes out with a proper authentication API.
Twit or Fit just seems like another way to make everything about appearances - I am more concerned with the valuable knowledge sharing aspect of Twitter. I could care less how anyone looks.
Come on, tis only a bit of fun. If you don’t want to sign up to it then, well, don’t.
Plus, once signed up you can opt out and leave it very quickly.
StudiVZ is taking on Facebook, Snape kills Dumbledore.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_s3Vw5KkjH2w/SUaDynfWPlI/AAAAAAAAASI/PgQYEMQi73Y/studivz.jpg
I got this in my inbox 15 minutes ago.
Tom at Orrick LLP better get his ambulance chasing shoes on for this one. This is going to burn holes in the soles.
Doesn’t this brand the word ‘Twit’ with negative meaning?
‘Twit’ is a very British slang word, meaning a silly person. As Scott says, it’s just a bit of fun. We explicitly engineered it so that you would have to opt in and there is a very easy way to leave the system.
What happens when Twitter removes the “getProfilePic” method from their API?
Are we likely to see a “Twat or Fat” spin-off any time soon?
Apparently somebody just registered it…
Domain Name: TWATORFAT.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
Whois Server: whois.tucows.com
Referral URL: http://domainhelp.opensrs.net
Name Server: NS1.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
Name Server: NS2.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
Name Server: NS3.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
Status: ok
Updated Date: 15-dec-2008
Creation Date: 15-dec-2008
Expiration Date: 15-dec-2009
If only my 9.4 hot or not would get me a seed or A round
http://twitter.com/Lambright
personally, i like this service better than twitorfit or hotornot: http://tinyurl.com/5w3kcn
because it allows you to leave comments so it’s not just the number… my two cents
Good service. However, and after walking through the site I found several Interface problems. One of them:
1- Go o the their site.
2- Click any number from 1-10.
3-Click LogIn to Vote button without entering any username or password.
4- Keep clicking the button.
Interface Error: The message “Username and password is required” will be Repeated as much as you are clicking the button.
Browser : Firefox 3.0.4 and IE.
OS: XP SP2
I am really a little bit tired now to inform about other interface problems. maybe later.
Why are there so many Japanese twitter users, did Twitter do some Japanese promotion?
It’s the same dog with different collar…
twitorfit.com is a clean site.
There is another with aslighty diff angle called http://twit.pix.ly that is more if a vs. style.