| URL | www.formspring.me |
|---|---|
| Commercial? | No |
| Type of site | Question and responses,Social Networking |
| Registration | Required to post responses and questions |
| Launched | November 25, 2009 |
| Alexa rank | 957 (January 2012[update])[1] |
Formspring (formally known by its full URL formspring.me) is a social Q&A website, launched in November 2009. The site allows its users to set up a profile page, follow other users and ask questions from other users. The questions and their given responses are then published on the user's profile page.[2] It is operated by Formspring.me, Inc.,[3] a company headquartered in San Francisco.[4]
Questions can be asked with a user's name hidden or they can be visibly sent from another Formspring account, according to the asker's preference.[5][6] Users can choose to disallow anonymous questions and have the ability to block selected people from asking further questions.
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Formspring was launched in November 2009 by the designers of online form builder Formstack as a side-project. They had noticed that most of their users were using the service to create "ask me anything" forms, and decided to launch a separate site to make this easier. At launch, Formspring was referred to by its full URL, formspring.me, to distinguish it from Formstack, which was at that time also called Formspring.com. Formspring.me gained 1 million registered users in its first 45 days, so the original Formspring website was renamed to avoid confusion between the two sites.
Formspring was soon spun-off into a separate company and moved to San Francisco, California.[7][8] Due to its sudden popularity, a number of websites quickly implemented similar features, such as Ask.fm, Tumblr, and MyYearbook's "Ask Me" services.[9] On June 3, 2010, Formspring launched a major redesign, overhauling every aspect of the website.[10]
In response to its growth, Formspring received a $2.5 million series A round of funding from a large group of angel investors, including SV Angel, Lowercase Capital, Kevin Rose, and Dave Morin. In January 2011, it received an additional $11.5 million series B round of funding from Redpoint Ventures and Baseline Ventures.[11] On June 28, 2011, Formspring announced that its 25 millionth user had signed up.[12]
Users of the site can follow others privately. While logged in as a registered user, people can also ask questions to his or her followers from the homepage. Formspring also asks one question per day named "Formspring Question of the Day" which is flashed in user's inbox. In January 2011, Formspring added a smile button which acts similar to the Like button on Facebook.
In September 2011, Formspring released an iPhone Application.[13]
Formspring has garnered some controversy, especially among teenagers, for the perception that it opened the door for harassment and bullying, due to the anonymity of the entries.[14][15] A fight between several students at a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania high school, which started after an argument over Formspring, received some media attention in February 2010.[16] On March 12, 2010, a news article, which later turned out to be a hoax said that the creators planned to reveal personal information about their users spread on Twitter and other social networking sites.[17] Formspring has stated on its company blog that it will never publicly reveal anonymous information of its users.[18] On March 22, 2010, a 17-year-old West Islip, New York high school graduate committed suicide,[19] reportedly after dozens of insulting comments about her had been posted on Formspring in the days leading up to her death. Soon after, a local grassroots boycott of the Formspring site began.[20]
A further incident of suicide allegedly prompted by bullying on Formspring was the untimely death of 15-year old Natasha MacBryde, from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, United Kingdom. The Coroner's inquiry heard that she received anonymous personal abuse via the website on 13 February 2011; this appears to have compounded bullying and teenage anxiety into a level where, having researched suicide methods, Natasha took her own life on the 14th February, 2011. According to the Daily Telegraph: "Det Sgt Shanie Erwin told the inquest that Natasha was known to have received a short anonymous message containing personal abuse via the Formspring networking site on Feb 13. The message, which was read to the jury by Det Sgt Erwin, derided Natasha for “hiding” behind make-up. It ended: “Start acting nicer to people or you will lose everyone. Mark my words.”[21][22]
Another incident of bullying involving anonymous harassment on Formspring happened in September 2011. A fourteen year-old student, Jamey Rodemeyer, from Williamsville North High School committed suicide on September 18, 2011 after repeated incidents of bullying in real life and on Formspring. Rodemeyer's "It Gets Better" video specifically calls out Formspring as contributing to the anti-gay bullying impacting his life.[23]
Formspring participated in a March 2011 White House Conference on Bullying Prevention along with MTV, Facebook, Survey Monkey and others. At the conference Formspring announced that it is working with The MIT Media Lab to develop new approaches to detect online bullying, and to design interfaces which help prevent it or mitigate it when it does occur.[24][25]