by A few months ago we expressed our dissatisfaction with the dwelling in the muck website FMyLife.
I wondered to myself if there could be any hope online if such web
sites were flourishing so well. The answer to my question came in the
form of GivesMeHope.
Gives Me Hope was actually created as a response to FMyLife. The site owners write,
We love FML, but FML can be a downer. And we’re completely exhausted by the negativity of the mainstream media.
We’re tired of hearing about what’s wrong in this world. That’s why we created GivesMeHope.com.
GMH is where people share with the world their most hopeful, uplifting moments and allow others to draw strength from their experiences.
Here are a few more examples from GMH:
In a period of 6 weeks, my father died and my mom got cancer. Within hours of her diagnosis, Mom’s friends created a website to make sure my family had meals brought over, Christmas decorations put up, etc. They helped plan my wedding when Mom was too sick to. Their help meant I didn’t need to drop out of college to take care of Mom. GMH.
A few years ago, I was laid off from my fourth job in 2 years. Without me knowing, my friends got together and pitched in money so I could start my own business. My lawn care business has been profitable and growing every year and I’ve paid them all back. GMH
I woke up one morning to hear the birds outside my window and my mother cooking breakfast downstairs. I’ve never cried so much in my entire life. I had been deaf since the age of 8.
Gives Me Hope actually gives me hope that there is more to the internet than exposing the worst in humanity.
Unlike FMyLife, where you can choose to vote either “Yeah, your life is…” or “You deserved it” – on GivesMeHope, there is only the option to vote that you liked an entry and no other. Let us give hope to the people who run the site that they should prosper and make excellent sites like GMH.
Gordon —
There is something that strikes me as inherently phony about the GMH site after letting it stew within me for awhile.
The messages are trite and too perfect and it makes me think the site is more Borat/Bruno/Stephen Colbert than something genuine.
I think it’s all a big joke on the rest of us and one clue to that insider poke-you-in-the-eye while pretending-to-pull-your-heartstrings mockery is the footer link to http://www.fmyscript.com/ — if you were really fighting against what FML means and stands for — why imitate the look and the feel of it so intimately and negatively?
I was struck by the similarity but I wrote it off quickly – perhaps too quickly – thinking perhaps they just took the API and reapplied it, like how the creator of deadjournal took their code from livejournal.
I guess I’m just hopeful that it’s a more genuine site but of course I could be wrong. I may write to them to ask about perhaps changing the look and feel to better differentiate themselves. 🙂
Gordon —
I also read their blog where they celebrate all the PR they’re getting which, again, struck me as strange and fishy if you’re genuine about spreading goodness: Why would you care one second about your press play unless that was part of your scheming? If you’re all about spreading faked goodness as a cover for repressed hostility, then that sort of self-muckraking makes sense as blog content.
Nobody would ever use an FML-like script service to look and feel like FML if your honest purpose was to be a complete and total opposite of FML. It doesn’t make sense unless it is a send up site intended to intentionally blur the line between goodness and hatefulness for the sake of jaded mockery.
I’m afraid you may very well be right, David. I’m going to watch them and see for any kookiness.