Sorry, you are just too ugly for admittance

I was perusing the Yahoo articles today (first mistake) when I ran across this title:

 

"BeautifulPeople.com dating site hacked by 30,000 “ugly” people"

I couldn't resist finding out about this (second mistake)





The following is the text of the article:

Have you had a hard time finding attractive people on online dating sites? BeautifulPeople.com is a pay-by-month dating service that ruthlessly screens all applicants and admits only the best looking ones. But someone, perhaps a former employee, recently hacked the site and admitted 30,000 people who weren't deemed the most beautiful. Gasp! The horror!

The virus that broke into their system was aptly named Shrek, and admitted 30,000 who were never screened. But the website is quickly kicking them all off their site and refunding their $25/month membership fees. Greg Hodge, the site's managing director told the Guardian, "We got suspicious when tens of thousands of new members were accepted over a six-week period, many of whom were no oil painting...We have to stick to our founding principles of only accepting beautiful people – that's what our members have paid for. We can't just sweep 30,000 ugly people under the carpet." The company claim they've already paid out $112,500 in refunds to 4,500 people.

In order to become a member of Beautiful People.com you must submit a photo, your height, weight, and measurements, describe your body type, and reveal whether you own a car or home, as well as your zodiac sign. Current members vote (sort of like on hotornot.com) on whether you are "beautiful" or "absolutely not" attractive. Apparently last year around 5,000 members were kicked off the site after they appeared to have gained weight over the holidays. Ouch. The site says about one in seven applicants are admitted (5.5 million have been rejected), and that they currently have 700,000 members representing 190 countries.

Hodge told the Guardian that he felt badly for the "unfortunate people who were wrongly admitted to the site and believed, albeit for a short time, that they were beautiful." We really feel like this has to be a joke.

Original article here


So.... just a cunning ploy for attention? And if so, does this confirm the old saying that any publicity is good publicity? Or is this legit?

I'm tempted to apply and see for myself if they really are kicking out the ugly folks. Because if so, I am seeing a huge law suit in their future.