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The Internet Idle

The Internet Falls For Rumblr, a Fake "Tinder For Fighting" App 135

Posted by samzenpus from the first-rule-of-rumblr dept.
HughPickens.com writes: Caitlin Dewey writes at the Washington Post that Rumblr, a "Tinder for fighting," promises to bring fight club straight to your smartphone that lets users schedule consensual, recreational fights with local strangers for free. "Rumblr is an app for recreational fighters to find, meet and fight other brawl enthusiasts nearby," according the app's website. It encourages users to insult their matched opponents with this pro-tip: "tell your match what you don't like about their picture." Reported by the likes of Venture Beat, Business Insider, New York magazine, and the New York Daily News, there's only one problem: There's no way that the app is real. In fact, it looks far more likely that we are being trolled by a couple of precocious teenagers. Let's start with the app's most obvious problem: its questionable legality. If you're "throwing down" and seriously injure your opponent — or, God forbid, he dies — you cannot claim self-defense and you could be charged with crimes ranging from misdemeanor assault to homicide. If Rumblr's creators are found to have encouraged or aided an assault, they could be guilty of criminal facilitation in the fourth degree — a class A misdemeanor. They could certainly be sued in civil court by injured users or their families. "Our bet? Rumblr is a marketing stunt, a prank or (best case!) an unsubtle parody," concludes Dewy. "Part of me is scared it will turn out to be real, of course. Not for my sake, but for humanity's."
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The Internet Falls For Rumblr, a Fake "Tinder For Fighting" App More

The Internet Falls For Rumblr, a Fake "Tinder For Fighting" App

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  • Well. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Apparently the Internet is nothing more than a handful of shitty old media rags.

    Who knew.

  • Man Up (Score:3)

    by Crashmarik ( 635988 ) on Monday November 09, 2015 @07:59PM (#50897563)

    "Part of me is scared it will turn out to be real, of course. Not for my sake, but for humanity's."

    Part of me is scared this person is serious.

  • This stuff is awesome (Score:5, Funny)

    by AbRASiON ( 589899 ) * on Monday November 09, 2015 @08:00PM (#50897567) Journal

    Sometimes a good harmless troll is some good fun, shakes people up into actually thinking before they damn well read something.

    Brings new meaning to the term "hey, hit me up on rumblr" I suppose too.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mashiki ( 184564 )

      Considering the amount of garbage that gets posted without fact(see this) checking at all, then doubles down on the stuff that is real(see peeple), but then tell you it's okay and really won't hurt you should tell folks that something is really, really, really, screwed up in the media.

  • Make love not war (Score:5, Funny)

    by mi ( 197448 ) <slashdot-2017q4@virtual-estates.net> on Monday November 09, 2015 @08:00PM (#50897571) Homepage Journal

    promises to bring fight club straight to your smartphone that lets users schedule consensual, recreational fights with local strangers for free

    Obviously a fake — if one is already allowing a total stranger into one's comfort zone with all the accompanying risks, exposing himself to the stranger's skin and — quite possible during a fight — bodily fluids, why not have sex instead of kicking each other's teeth out?

  • If it's a hoax (Score:3)

    by Austerity Empowers ( 669817 ) on Monday November 09, 2015 @08:00PM (#50897573)

    Let's not report on it and give it free marketing. There's no danger to not spreading this: very few people are going to look for the app, and sensible people are going to distrust an app that encourages fighting or any other illegal activity. Let it drop, and take the wind out of sails.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You're no fun. It's a good troll, they got respectable publications to pick up the story, so props to the originators, and why not big it up? Those of us who actually have a sense of humour will get a laugh out of it, nobody got hurt, so I don't see why we should "take the wind out of sails".

      Of course now that the obvious questions are being asked, it will shortly become clear that it's not real (assuming it is a hoax of course), and it will pretty much have run its course anyway.

    • Let's not report on it and give it free marketing. There's no danger to not spreading this: very few people are going to look for the app, and sensible people are going to distrust an app that encourages fighting or any other illegal activity. Let it drop, and take the wind out of sails.

      Why? It's the funniest thing I've seen all day..

    • Fighting is not an illegal activity. Anyone remember that video Seattle super hero Phoenix Jones announcing WA state is a mutual combat state [wikipedia.org] while the police stood by and watched him kick that dude's ass that challenged him to a fight?

    • and sensible people are going to distrust an app that encourages fighting

      In a world of prime time fighting events broadcast on TVs around the world what on earth made you think that sentence made any sense?

  • Let's start with the app's most obvious problem: its questionable legality.

    Is that a problem? Seems like a secret winning recipe for Uber (for a while, at least).

    • Re:Most obvious problem: its questionable legality (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Wycliffe ( 116160 ) on Monday November 09, 2015 @08:11PM (#50897625) Homepage

      Yeah, I'm confused about this one. Selling drugs or sex isn't legal either but that doesn't mean that a website that does it is fake.
      Just because it is illegal to facilitate an exchange doesn't mean that someone isn't going to create a website that tries.
      Sure, it might get taken down or they might open themself up to lawsuits but that doesn't change whether or not it can exists.

      On another note, how exactly is a mutual fight illegal? There are plenty of places where boxing, cage fighting, etc... happens.

      • In many countries, you simply cannot consent to serious injury -- at all, ever.

        Things like boxing (and hockey) wind up being "prize fights", are under heavy regulation, and are supposedly set up with enough safety procedures to avoid serious injury, with exceptions being considered errors, and dealt with accordingly.

        Cool, I guess there's one exception: you can consent to organ donation!

        • Things like boxing (and hockey) wind up being "prize fights"

          Fighting in hockey is nowhere near the level it was at a few decades ago. You don't see the kind of bloodbaths there once were.

          Except for a few thugs who often end up being more of a handicap to their team due to penalties, suspensions, etc, (Milan Lucic, I'm talking about you) there aren't nearly as many goons playing hockey any more.

          • What was that Paul Newman movie from the late 70s? Youngbloods?

            That was a fun movie.

            • Found it on imdb. Slap Shot.

              http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00... [imdb.com]

            • What was that Paul Newman movie from the late 70s?

              The greatest hockey movie ever, Slap Shot.

              The Hanson Brothers!

              https://www.thestar.com/conten... [thestar.com]

              • If you mean ice hockey when you say hockey, why don't you say so?
                There is a well respected sport that is called hockey and is not played on ice :)
                Americans ... how will we ever be able to understand you?

                • There is a well respected sport that is called hockey and is not played on ice :)

                  Citation needed.

                  • Wow, if you never have heard about hockey go back into your cave.
                    The german women's team is world champion most of the time ...

              • Old School Hockey for the win!!!!

              • Yeah, those were the faces I was seeing as I tried to remember the title. Loved those guys.

        • Re:Most obvious problem: its questionable legality (Score:5, Interesting)

          by swb ( 14022 ) on Monday November 09, 2015 @09:34PM (#50897999)

          Things like boxing (and hockey) wind up being "prize fights", are under heavy regulation, and are supposedly set up with enough safety procedures to avoid serious injury, with exceptions being considered errors, and dealt with accordingly.

          My boss is a 4th degree black belt in some martial art. I mostly work remotely or at client sites so I don't see him that often, but when I do it's about 1-in-3 odds that he will have a black eye, bruise or some other "serious" injury from sparring at the martial arts place.

          AFAIK, there's no regulation involved here. He doesn't hold a boxing license and there's no boxing commissioner present at his sparring sessions. People willingly show up and kick the crap out of each other, and apparently it's legal.

          I'm not sure why a "tinder for fighting" would be illegal in that light. Any liability would seem to be a civil matter between the consenting parties, with the exception of possibly some kind of manslaughter liability if you killed the other guy.

          • And boxers practice just the same in the gym. It is still under a supervised system, rather than fighting in the street with random strangers.

          • Those aren't considered serious injuries. We're talking broken bones, and potentially life-long injuries.

            But, as was said by another, within a licensed sparring gym is a different matter. I'd imagine that it's supervised, there are medical-safety measures and procedures in place, including someone to stop the fight, and I'd guess that the gym is somehow licensed or registered for it.

        • On the other hand, there is also the English common law concept of "volenti non fit injuria" which states that if you willingly place yourself in danger you can't then sue someone if you get hurt. So if you get a broken arm or leg in a football (soccer) game it's generally your tough luck, as you chose to participate in a contact sport. Of course, this doesn't mean you can just go out and kill someone with your bare hands, as that is not a normal part of the game.

          This fight club app is just a variation o

      • >There are plenty of places where boxing, cage fighting, etc... happens.

        These are licensed sports, generally heavily regulated - not just anybody can go, and if you go there are legal parts to the rules that are fairly well enforced.

        This is why deaths in fighting sports are quite rare events.

        Without those they would be a lot more common. Killing or maiming somebody with a punch is a lot easier than you think if you don't know what not to aim for. There are even regulations about the fitness and health le

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rhazz ( 2853871 )
        A mutual fight is probably not illegal until it is done in public (i.e. street fighting). Add money to the formula and other regulations probably apply.
      • It depends on the state's mutual combat laws [wikipedia.org].

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TheCarp ( 96830 )

      I could have sworn the "secret recipe for Uber" was that all those wonderfully regulated cab services actually suck and many have poor customer service: http://www.wbur.org/2011/02/15... [wbur.org]

      • So why don't Uber ensure their drivers carry the correct license to take passengers for payment?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by TheCarp ( 96830 )

          Ahahah as if they are just available for anyone who wants them. You know the numbers are usually limited, and generally all taken.

          Maybe if licensing mattered so much, people wouldn't vote with their dollars for Uber. Maybe if the cab companies with the legitimate licneses that they lobbied and paid for should provide even comparable service?

          • The licenses for the BUSINESSES are limited.
            Not those for the drivers, every one can simlly apply and make a passenger transport permit.
            And Uber simply can BUY a license from another business and require its drivers to have the correct permits: AS ANY OTHER BUSINESS IS DOING!

          • Not taxi licences. Driver licenses.
            In New Zealand they're available for people who pass background checks and have a good driving record.

            You need a passenger endorsement if you want to drive a taxi, bus, shuttle bus, limo, or do anything where you accept payment to drive someone else.

            Taxi licenses are different and only required if you want to park in taxi stands or charge per kilometre/minute. You don't need one for pre-paid trips.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by TheCarp ( 96830 )

              I don't see how this is supposed to make a difference to consumers, who are voting with their dollars against the regulations made by corrupt politicians at the behest of, and often written by, the very industries they regulate.

              • Because people who pay someone to drive them somewhere should expect the driver to be a good driver, not constantly breaking the law on the road, not a violent criminal and doesn't have a medical issue that could impact their ability to drive.

                http://www.nzta.govt.nz/driver... [nzta.govt.nz]

      • I could have sworn the "secret recipe for Uber" was that all those wonderfully regulated cab services actually suck and many have poor customer service: http://www.wbur.org/2011/02/15... [wbur.org]

        Then Uber should be able to compete with them and win on quality without having to do anything illegal.

  • "Part of me is scared it will turn out to be real, of course. Not for my sake, but for humanity's."

    Dewy, who wrote the above milquetoast nonsense, may find the fighting traditions of 18th- and 19th-century German students [wikipedia.org], as described, for example, in Mark Twain's "Tramp Abroad", most illuminating...

    • I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea if done correctly. If you put in some rules so that the risk of maiming or injury goes down (no weapons, no below the belt, stopping when the other person says "STOP!!", etc.) then you get boxing/mma/wrestling, and that's perfectly legal. The problem is, you're always going to have the moron who shows up drunk, smashes the other guy's head in with a bottle, and gets the entire thing banned. It wouldn't even take a day. In the mean time, you can always join a legal m

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mvdwege ( 243851 )

      So you would prefer a humanity where it is the norm to hack each other with swords to the point of serious injury and even death. Well I have news for you sunshine: there's a lot of people out there who are of a slightly less Hobbesian bent.

      And modded +5 Insightful no less. By the same sort of Internet Tough Guys probably.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mi ( 197448 )

        So you would prefer a humanity where it is the norm to hack each other with swords to the point of serious injury and even death

        Norm? Did I say, it ought to be a norm, you lying piece of shit? Had you read the book I referred to — or the Wikipedia article I linked to — you would've known, that it was not a norm even in Twain's times: students engaging in this sort of thing were a minority, however sizeable.

        Internet Tough Guys

        Meanwhile, the Internet Sissies let their aggressions out by hacking at

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by mvdwege ( 243851 )

          Hah. Dog-whistling, and not even the courage to come right out, instead weaselling "I didn't say that".

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by KGIII ( 973947 )

        Norm? No. Most people are cowards, at heart. I do think it should be legal, however. Yes, I think two individuals should have the right to self-determination. I think they should be of sound mind when making that choice. Hell, I'm pretty sure it's not even prosecuted in my state unless you kill someone.

        I'd enjoy an application like this, not to fight (I'm too old for that, these days). I'd love to go watch. Two meatsticks kicking the shit out of each other is great entertainment.

        I do have multiple A&B c

        • Cowards? Most of us don't want to get into any serious danger of being killed without a darn good reason, and the opportunity to kill another guy isn't really attractive. Whether we're brave or cowardly is completely beside the point.

  • I'd be entirely unsurprised if this was completely real, that the authors are just ignoring the legal risks and the investors are either exaggerated (a ploy to draw real investors) or figure the inventors have a non-trivial chance to either dodge legal liability or transform the app into something legal.

    If you couldn't find investors just because something was a terrible idea then we wouldn't have Twitter.

  • Is there a new GTA due soon? (Score:3)

    by BlacKSacrificE ( 1089327 ) on Monday November 09, 2015 @08:25PM (#50897695)
    Because this would be a perfect minigame for it.

  • This is all well and good (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    But how can we use Rumblr to encourage more women into STEM fields?

  • If two consenting individuals choose to fight each other willingly, why is that a problem? What if it was part of X minority group culture? Would SJW culture then accept it?
    • If two consenting individuals love each other and want to get married we're supposed to let them with no questions asked, so it stands to reason that if two consenting individuals hate each other and want to slug it out we should allow that too. Right?
  • "a marketing stunt, a prank or (best case!) an unsubtle parody." How is this different from the rest of the internet?

  • Damnit /.! (Score:5, Funny)

    by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 ) on Monday November 09, 2015 @08:39PM (#50897791) Journal
    The first rule of Rumblr is not to post about Rumblr...
  • Subject says it all. Has anyone analyzed it yet?

    First rule about Botnet is: You don't talk about Botnet.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yes. Go go app.getrumblr.com, login and "chat" for a few mins and you end up at:

      http://vonhughes.getrumblr.com/

      Hello World,

      Rumblr started as a portfolio project to help us launch our creative consulting agency, von Hughes. We’re a team of college dropouts with backgrounds in marketing, design, and engineering. Rumblr came about organically as a funny idea amongst a group of friends, but quickly budded into an opportunity to showcase our branding skills. Within a day or two, VentureBeat picked it up a

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by thesupraman ( 179040 )

        However what you actually did, rather than create a brand and market a product, was to cheaply troll the internet and get a cheap boost at the cost of lowering things one step further into the cesspool of marketing-no-matter-the-lie.
        Tell me, what value do you think you have created here?

        I wonder if you feel proud?

        Of course you do, you are America. Go America!

        • Dude, go away. We've seen you post about compression and show your desperation and ignorance. We don't need it on every topic or news story.

  • Hmmm... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    1. Use Tindr/Grindr to fuck someone. They give you an STD. No lawsauit.
    2. Use Rumblr to fuck someone up. Lawsuit.

    • If you don't wrap your junk, especially for a random hookup, you're a moron and you can't blame anybody else for it.

  • There have always been real "Fight Clubs". They're called "martial arts schools". Precautions are taken so nobody dies, of course, and nobody's expected to fight way outside of their level, but the fighting is real. I've had ribs, nose, a finger and a collarbone broken in the past 30-plus years. The broken nose, by the way, was me trying to execute an elbow strike during my second year and punching myself in my own nose with my fist. The broken collarbone came from a waxwood staff (called a "gun" in Ch

  • This was posted to slashdot after the "go live" time of the app/website, but only links to articles posted prior to the launch that speculated it was a hoax.

    One of the authors (Alfred Ng) of one of those articles wrote a follow up piece *after* the launch, with the actual details of what the hoax actually was (A marketing stunt) and what registered users saw when they used the app at launch [nydailynews.com]...

    When the website went live at 5 p.m. on Monday, the app asked users to sign in using their Tinder, LinkedIn or

  • Fighting is legal in Seattle, unless it poses danger to third parties.
    https://www.municode.com/libra... [municode.com]

    If it's legal in one city, I'd hazard a guess it's not a felony. No one commenting here so far has referenced any law that says it's illegal in any jurisdiction.

  • It's for meeting lightly battered women.
  • Just create an account and load in the profile your neighbour's pic. Then wait for a rumblr user to come close, and enjoy the fight...
  • It's a marketing stunt: http://vonhughes.getrumblr.com... [getrumblr.com]
  • Population Control just got a whole lot more entertaining.

  • Damn it, Fight Club wasn't supposed to be an instruction manual!

    In other news, I wish I could +1 Funny this entire comment section.

  • Nice logic there. I guess AirBNB and Uber aren't real, either.

  • No, it does not (Score:3)

    by allo ( 1728082 ) on Tuesday November 10, 2015 @10:44AM (#50900573)

    samzenpus fell for the app, we did not.

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