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Flojuggler

flojuggler.com

15 pointsbenologist15 comments

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?)

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.

that is pretty bad. is this one a joke?

I'm really not sure.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Poe%27s_Law

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

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

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

I don't think so. The domain's administrative and technical contact is one 'Selino Valdes', which has a website at http://selino.com/, which seems pretty serious. flojuggler.com has existed since december 4th 2009.

On his site, Selino showcases Flojuggler as

  The premiere menstrual tracking application. Designed to
  track the cycles of multiple persons. The focus of the
  service is not medical but more lifestyle.

It could be an elaborate joke that has me fooled, but actually: why would this be a joke? I admit that I don't have a clue why I would want to track anyones period, but perhaps there really is an audience, in which case the courage to go through with such an awkward subject could net him quite a few $.

The signup page is interesting from a privacy-backlash perspective. Two of the bullet points are:

  * Can I easily delete my info?
    Hells yeah! This is your data, your pictures, etc. At
    any point just hit the delete button and it's gone.
    There's no waiting for approval. This ain't Facebook or
    Yelp.
  * Why not use Facebook Connect?
    Seriously? Do you even want a chance that Facebook is
    gonna announce that you use Flojuggler?

That also makes is seem like some thought went into it.

As to the 'why?', another bullet point clarifies:

  * Why do I need to know when my girl/girls are bleeding?
    Hey, if you like a little rainbow kiss in your diet 
    then that's on you. We don't judge. Personally we prefer 
    hitting the skins when the lake isn't muddy. Sometimes
    ladies have really bad PMS, too. It's a good thing to
    know BEFORE you get home.

I think it's a shame to perpetuate/encourage the idea that there is something inherently dirty about menstruation and I think many 'PMS' claims are just easy ways to excuse/blame bad behavior on some days, but: there's your audience.

Aside: anyone care to explain the 'rainbow kiss' idiom to a non-native English speaker?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rainbow%20kis...

I hadn't heard of it before either.

Well, the person that came up with that term, and everyone using it, doesn't seem to realize that cunnilingus usually involves the clitoris and that it is very well possible to perform it without getting 'menstrual fluids' in his mouth.

Flag with extreme prejudice.

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

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?

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 :(

I said in another comment:

  I think it's a shame to perpetuate/encourage the idea that
  there is something inherently dirty about menstruation
  [..], but: there's your audience.

I disapprove of the goals the webapp achieves, but that is not reason enough for me to flag it. I also disapprove of dating sites that cater towards a single 'race', but I don't flag articles on those either.

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