Next-Gen Rejecting Of Shady Bar Trolls

April 1, 2005

We at the Call Center/CRM blog sometimes (even often) find ourselves straying from the topic of the actual blog's name. And in keeping both in tradition of that and in relation to my colleague Tracey Schelmetic's previous posting regarding a�Web site designed to service a specific niche outside of the call center, I offer to our dear, single, technology-minded�readers a Web site�to subtly spurn potential bad dates.

So here's the scenario: You're out at a bar, riding transit, or even just walking down the street, and some bozo who desperately wants into your pants starts up a conversation with you. Rather than make a scene or make them upset, you're polite and at least nod at the proper times. Then, of course, they ask you for your number. Except this is 2005, so maybe they ask for your e-mail address instead.

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Paper Napkin,�conceived by Web developer Josh Santangelo and a few co-workers apparently over lunch and developed over the span of a couple of hours,�"is a service to help passive-aggressive cowards avoid people who would like to date them," according to the Web site's About page. If someone random asks you for your e-mail address so he or she can contact you for a date, simply give him or her an e-mail address @papernapkin.net -- write it on a napkin or a beer coaster for full effect -- and Paper Napkin will send that person a rejection message. You can put anything before the @ sign in the address, so it doesn't have to look like junk or mass�e-mail; this allows senders to use a real-sounding name so that the clueless recipient believes it.

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Similarly, and acknowledged as the inspiration for Paper Napkin, Rejection Line is "The World's First Rejection Line."�This is a trendy phenomena that admittedly�is a few years old, however I feel inclined to bring it up because it is obviously still being used -- a good friend recently was on the receiving end of the official New York rejection line; and I know more than a few people who still hand the 212 area code number out at pubs when approached by sleazy guys as well as women who "want something more."

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You meet the aforementioned types when out on the town? You have an ex who's oblivious to the fact that you're not at all interested in staying friends or catching up? Or a one-night-stand who perceives the potential of a real relationship?��Simply give them the phone number as you would your own if you had any interest whatsoever: once the person calls the number with the assumption that�he or she will hear your voice, that person�instead hears a recorded message stating that he or she has officially been rejected. Further,�there are additional options for the callers to dial through: 1) Listen to a comfort specialist; 2) Listen to a sad poem; and 3) Cling to unrealistic hope that relationships are still possible.

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Typically, I would be the very last person one should ever come to for relationship and/or dating advice; but I feel inclined -- nay, obligated -- to relay the previous Web service and phone service information. Nowadays, we can break up with or reject potential suitors without having ANY contact with them. What a fantastic dating world for those of us�you who avoid all forms of confrontation and are destined to fail in all serious relationships. We You are hopeless -- but should be�such without despairing.

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DRB