Floop is a place to share opinions. It allows you to see how you fit into the world. You can find people who think like you do or enjoy the same things, but you are just as likely to find people who don't think like you and don't like what you like. We think this dialogue between different people is crucial to the success of Floop.

We've been delighted to see the Floop community grow by leaps and bounds in the past two weeks.  We've witnessed and partaken in great conversations about our favorite tech products, music, and political positions to name a few.  We've even been able to gather some incredible feedback for Floop on Floop (yes, it's very meta).  We love the Floop community.

Unfortunately, we've noticed a small subset of that community displaying a disturbing trend towards obscene material.  We've discussed internally where to draw the line, and we think we have come to a reasonable place. Our Terms of Service has long specified that all obscene material, hate speech, and other offensive images/posts are not allowed, and we are going to be enforcing those rules more quickly and effectively now.

Inappropriate content will be removed as soon as it is discovered. The user who posted the material will be notified. Based on the severity of the offense, the user will either be notified of the removal and/or banned from the system. The removed content will be unavailable to users. If you have content to report, or want to ask a question about the suitability of some content, please email tos.violations@floop.com.

In the coming weeks we will be releasing version 1.1 of Floop. Amongst other features, we will be adding the ability to flag content and users on Floop. We hope this will allow us to respond to inappropriate content even more quickly.

We also want to thank everyone for all their support as we work together to build this community.

We started to think about Floop a couple of years ago.  I remember in particular watching a presidential debate on TV and seeing a graph moving up and down in realtime based on feedback from an audience.  Now that particular audience was hand-selected by some group of pollsters, and they were given a physical knob.  We were taken by the fact that we were watching some biased group’s feedback but that in the new world of social networking there wasn’t any mechanism for ME to provide the feedback and see what my friends were thinking (or the people on the west coast or Texas).

We have come to flesh out those concepts into a fully-baked iPhone app, and believe me – there are significant considerations when trying to package all this into an app (UI design, performance, etc.)  It’s useful at an event like a baseball game or concert, while watching live TV like a reality show, or for basic opinion questions like politics. 

Anyway we hope you like it.  Drop us a line (or Floop it!) and let us know what you think. 

Richard Schultz, CEO & Co-Founder

As a founder of two previous startups, MetaServer and REvolution Computing (now REvolution Analytics), Richard has spent the past decade working helping other companies figure out how to make their data meaningful.  He founded Floop to solve that same problem for individuals by showing them how their identity and opinions fit in to the world around them.  In his spare time, Richard spends time traveling with his family and honing his "l33t" Halo skills.

Patrick Shields, Maker & Co-Founder

Patrick has made a career out of asking hard questions and finding the answers to go along with them.  Known for getting his hands dirty in just about everything, Patrick worked at REvolution Computing where he coordinated engineering efforts and worked with some of the brightest minds in distributed computing.  He has a passion for using computers to connect people in new and interesting ways and a somewhat obsessive approach to problem solving. When not at a whiteboard or staring into a terminal, he plays bass and seeks new and interesting taco trucks.

Jim Winfield, Engineering Head & Co-Founder

Jim cut his teeth in the 90s convincing local companies to "pay attention to this internet thing."  In the years since, he worked at MetaServer with Richard, developing the complex plug-in system that would become central to their product.  Most recently, he ran his own consulting firm Ewin Systems, where he was able to explore many different teams and technologies.  His experience with engineering large systems has shaped the design of Floop.  He also may be the only non-Canadian to know how to play pretty much every Rush song on multiple instruments.

Caleb Oller, Mobile Developer

As a founder at Periscape, Caleb sought to connect individuals with people around them.  He came to Floop to kick start our iPhone development and bring a fresh, user-focused voice to the table.  In the time since, he has worked on problems small (how do you make a UIBarButton transparent?) to large (how do social relationships relate to opinions?).  During off hours, he searches for new craft beers and is training for his first triathlon!