Offbeat

Maybe some, but that’s helpful, because people who use it for gossip will self select out of dating people on it, and the people who use it for safety reasons won’t be scared off by gossip.

It’s definitely not why I would use it if my ex weren’t in jail or I were dating. It’s easy to verify claims that people make, but sometimes it’s hard to realize that something needs to be researched at all.

I was about to do an apprenticeship as an instrument maker with someone I knew tangentially through a network of related hobbies, and a woman in the same network approached me and said she didn’t believe the gossip [that I’d never heard], she knew he was a good guy and I could see for myself if I used an alternate spelling of his name that I’d never encountered. I googled that spelling and found several articles including pictures about how he had raped and beaten his step kids. I still don’t know what her motivation was, because she really did seem to be friends with him, but I noped out of that apprenticeship real quick. I would never have known to look that up if I hadn’t been tipped off.