Facestat.com Down with 505 Errors
The 505 error showing on Facestat’s front page breifly changed to a 403 error page. Then an hour later a message from Facestat staff replaced the 403 error with a breif message expalining they plan to be back online in a couple of hours or after they are removed from Yahoo’s front page.
What Is Facestat
Facestat bills itself as market research for the individual. The site is the next generation, Web 2.0 version, of the well known HotOrNot.com website.
Facestat.com goes well beyond the 1-10 point system for looks of hotornot.com. Users are asked to answer a series of questions about a person based solely on a picture of that person. The questions presented to the users being polled cover a wide array of topics; such as, the persons age? How intelligent do you think the person is. Are they in a relationship? Are they wealthy? What do you think the persons political affiliation is?
Some people think that the questions asked about users and the way some users answer the questions are cruel. But, I think the premise for the site is actually very fascinating. Facestat.com gets to the heart of one question we all ask ourselves how do other people perceive us?
It goes beyond whether or not someone is truly good looking or not. It tries to answer other questions. Like, how do people view who we are? And, do we present the persona to the world that we think we do?
I think that there is another truly intriguing aspect to facestat.com. Is your perception of the person in the picture correct? Are you really as perceptive as you think you are? Are you as good a judge of character as you think you are?
What Is FaceStat’s Future?
It seems that a recent uptick in user traffic has pushed the facestat.com website to go down. How long it will be off line is anyone’s guess. Being on Yahoo’s front page must have a similar affect of being on Digg’s front page. You have to be prepared for the extra traffic. How long it will take FaceStat’s staff to recover the downed servers and clear the errors is anyone’s guess.
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Comments
I think the facestat concept is intriguing. We all frequent various forums and usergroups and our impression of users is often triggered by an avatar - do we subconciously attempt to build up a visual persona of the user based upon so little information - or do we really care - LOL
I think we subconsiously, instinctively, determine a lot of things about people just by how they look. I think that is what makes facestat.com so intersting. People tend to rely on their first impression of people, right or wrong. We tend to be wrong more often than not. Ecerybody has biases whether we want to admit it or not. I hope the site doesn’t stay down long. It is actually a lot of fun.
@ laughingaz LOL, off an avatar i don’t think we care. But, let’s be honest we all have biases about the way people look. I think Facestat highlights those biases. Another thing that I think that Facstats highlights is the bubble that so many people live in. They just want to see themselves differently than the rest of the world. They are unwilling to see the reality of themselves. Even if they are willing to subject themselves to open humiliation that many of them receive on Facestat.
It seems to a lot like the american idol phenomenom. Where the worst singers think they are the best and should be stars. It never ceases to amaze me.
@GPS Unit
I agree we are all instinctive. Its just that we are hardly ever right.
I’ve spoken to a few of the FaceStat.com staff members, and they report that they have added capacity and are already faster than ever before.
