 |
|
|
|||||
As an app designed to facilitate gay hookups, popular site Sniffies has had a limitation since it started in 2018it was only accessible via web browser. Until Monday, when the map-based cruising site debuted its Apple-approved iOS app. Building an app that complies with Apples notoriously stringent content moderationand total ban on apps that directly serve adult contentwas a challenge for Sniffies, which wears its sexuality proudly. Its users, which it calls cruisers, do, too. Many users put nude images as their cover photos, meaning adult content is visible from the second the platform is opened in a browser. The company needed to tame the experience for Apple to get on board, without losing what most users come to Sniffies for: sex. We needed to be very strategic about this, to get around Apples strict not safe for work content policies, but also keep the magic of Sniffies, says Eli Martin, Sniffies chief marketing officer. The key was giving cruisers control of the experience. How Sniffies met Apples content safety standards Sniffies leadership werent begging to get on the App Store. Its web app format worked well, particularly for the men who arent out or are exploring their sexuality, who Martin says make up a coreand growingpart of its user base. But fans wanted a native app, and it was difficult to compete with the markets heavyweights like Grindr without the App Stores discovery tools. When they finally decided to make the move, the Sniffies team looked to bigger apps like Reddit and X, both of which host explicit content, as models. Similar to those sites apps, when you download the new Sniffies app, it is in Vanilla mode (internally, the company calls this deep safe). Anything explicit is blurred; to unblur the photos, users must follow a link to the browser version, where they can change their settings. Then, the app will respond to the changed settings and allow users to see graphic content. [Photo: Sniffies] There was certainly back-and-forth with the App Store and figuring out how to make it work on both ends, Martin says, estimating the process lasted about a year and a half. It took way longer than we thought, but it seems like Apple was very open to us being a part of the store as long as we could meet the guidelines. They had to make some concessions. Sniffies anonymous log-in function, which allowed users to enter with only a birthdate, wont be accessible through the iOS app.(This anonymous log-in feature has left the door open to the abuse of minors, per The Information.) Theres a friction to the process of creating an account that will be necessary in the App Store, Martin says; users cant just download and see the map. But there are also benefits: Some users report the map being faster, and the apps notification system is now more robust than it was just with the web version. Preserving the cruising spirit While the company doesnt yet know which audiences will gravitate towards which mediums, Martin has his suspicions. Those DL and curious guys, as he describes them, will likely stay on the webapp, not wanting to download something to their phone. (This is a problem with Grindr, he points out: Users download and delete the app, over and over.) But the iOS launch opens them up to a new audience: the users that were never going to navigate to the Sniffies link. This audience was loud. Martin recounts years of comments across the Sniffies social media, begging them to get in the App Store. His team is now going through each and every one of these comments, telling them to download. App users are also privvy to the larger brand world that Sniffies has built around its main offering. The company has invested deeply in its (often explicit) marketing, which spans an apparel shop, its Hush lifestyle blog, and its Cruising Confessions podcast. The company has also sponsors in-person events and parties, echoing the pushes from other dating apps. Even in the app store, Sniffies proclaims that it is for cruisers, by cruisers. Martin points out that the companys marketing strategy is based on foreplay, teasing the apps sexuality without being completely blatant with it. They can do that in the app store, too. But does Martin see access to a mainstream audience as a threat to the more clandestine nature of the web app that made Sniffies unique? I personally am not too worried about that, Martin says. Weve only seen better results for cruisers the larger weve gotten. The important thing is the culture. Weve already set the groundwork.
Category:
E-Commerce
At the height of the summer of 2020s racial reckoning, bright yellow paint filled the streets just north of the White House. Overnight, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had ordered a giant street mural to say Black Lives Matter in 35-foot capital lettering. That street art became the center of Black Lives Matter Plaza, and a few months later, D.C.s City Council voted that the name and mural would become a permanent fixture of the city. Five years, two elections, and a large cultural shift later, Mayor Bowser has announced that BLM Plaza will be painted over. The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a very painful period, but now we cant afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference, Bowser said in a statement published Tuesday. The move is one small piece of the Trump administrations continued attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Volunteers painting “Black Lives Matter” on the street near the White House on June 05, 2020. [Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images] At a Wednesday press conference, Bowser told reporters that there were bigger fish to fry within the nations capital. She also confirmed to NBC that her decision came after talks with the White House, but she did not specify anything further. Bowsers office did not respond to Fast Companys request for comment. Republican Rep. Andy Clyde introduced legislation Monday that would withhold apportionment funds from D.C. until Mayor Bowser renamed BLM Plaza to Liberty Plaza. However, Bowser said at the press conference that her decision had been made before Clyde introduced the bill. She added that a replacement mural will focus on Americas 250th birthday, and a new name would be decided after citywide discussion. Scholars at University of Illinois once argued that BLM Plaza is an important landmark that is a powerful symbolic reinsertion of widespread social and civic support for Black struggle. They wrote that it can be dignifying for people of color to see such affirmative support in an area of the U.S. most politically prominent real estate.
Category:
E-Commerce
Mark your calendars: It’s almost time to set your clocks ahead one hour as we “spring forward” into Daylight Saving Time this Sunday, March 9, at 2 a.m. Tired of changing your clocks? You’re not alone. Both President Donald Trump and senior adviser Elon Musk have said they want to end the annoying seasonal time changes, by making Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent (meaning that after setting our clocks forward, we would not set them backward anymore). That’s in line with a 2023 YouGov poll that found nearly two-thirds (62%) of Americans want to end the practice, though only half prefer to keep DST permanent versus keeping Standard Time permanent (meaning we would not set our clocks forward anymore). As president, Trump previously indicated support for such a change, tweeting in 2019, Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me! He seemed to reiterate his stance in December, posting to Truth Social that once he was in office, “The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate” the time changes, which he called “inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.” (Note: It’s not clear exactly what Trump’s stance was, as he wrote about eliminating “Daylight Saving Time,” not the time changes specifically. However, given his previous stance, many have interpreted it to mean eliminating the time changes.) On X, Musk posted a similar rallying cry, saying people want to “abolish the annoying time changes!” So far, the Trump administration hasn’t moved forward on the issue. However, health experts say Trump and Musk, as well as lawmakers who support making DST permanent, have it backward. Instead, they argue, Standard Time should be made permanent. Here, we break down some arguments for sticking with Daylight Saving Time versus Standard Time permanently. Health experts say stick with Standard Time The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) also wants to do away with the time change, but supports replacing Daylight Saving Time with permanent Standard Time because it best aligns with the sun and our natural circadian rhythms. By causing the human body clock to be misaligned with the natural environment, Daylight Saving Time increases risks to our physical health, mental well-being, and public safety, said Dr. Muhammed Adeel Rishi, lead author of the academy’s position statement, published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. Permanent standard time is the optimal choice for health and safety. Research backs that up, saying the one-hour change disrupts the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, which regulates body temperature, hormone release, and alertness. That could explain why Daylight Saving Time transitions lead to a spike in traffic accidents. Sticking with Daylight Saving Time may make people happier In the 2023 YouGov poll, those in favor of making DST permanent said they preferred later sunrises and sunsets, giving them more daylight at the end of the day. The most compelling reason to make Daylight Saving Time permanent is that it seems to make people happier, with research showing seasonal increases in sun time were associated with decreased mental health distress. Where does Congress stand on the issue? Daylight Saving Time was originally adopted as a wartime measure in 1942 intended to maximize daylight hours in the summer, and has long been unpopular with lawmakers who tried to make the time change permanent with the now-stalled 2023 Sunshine Protection Act. The bipartisan bill, sponsored by then-Florida Senator Marco Rubio, now Secretary of State, passed unanimously in the Senate but failed to pass in the U.S. House of Representatives because lawmakers could not agree on whether to keep Standard Time or Daylight Saving Time. Do all states observe Daylight Saving Time? While Americans in most U.S. states change their clocks, Hawaii and Arizona are two exceptions, with both keeping to Standard Time. When is the Daylight Saving time change in 2025? Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. begins this Sunday, March 9 at 2 a.m. local time, meaning people will lose an hour of sleep but gain an hour of sunlight. It always starts on the second Sunday in March, and ends on the first Sunday in November. This contrasts with the U.K. and European Union, where it begins on the last Sunday in March (Sunday, March 30 at 1 a.m.) and ends on the last Sunday in October (Sunday, October 26 at 1 a.m).
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||