Put on a few extra pounds this holiday season? Don’t expect a welcome mat from BeautifulPeople.com, a dating site who recently made like a high school bully: belittling and booting members for weight gain.

According to the Guardian, the site has just expelled 5,000 members for packing on the pounds. To add insult to injury, the site’s founder, Robert Hintze, stated, “Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded.”

Apparently decisions were made based on photos posted to the dating site. Those holding the reins blame members’ holiday overindulgences for their harsh actions and have been notifying former members via e-mail of their expulsion. Of course, all is not lost; should those same members get fit again, they can reapply for membership.

The report details:

“The site’s managing director, Greg Hodge, pointed out that the fate of the exiled ‘chubby members’ had been democratically decided. ‘Their re-applications were reviewed by existing members and only a few hundred were voted back in,’ he said. ‘Over 5,000 were rejected.’

According to the site, however, managers have been kind in breaking the news to former members. Each is said to have received an email encouraging them to re-apply when they are back to looking their best. They have also been sent details of recommended boot camps.”

If you’re keeping count, the United States was the most overindulgent group of the bunch, with 1,520 members getting the boot. The United Kingdom was a distant second with 832 members ousted, and Canada took home the bronze medal.

The disturbing news is no doubt a big publicity stunt, but one of the worst variety. I’d hate to be one of those members waking up to an e-mail informing me that I’m too fat for a social network. That’s rejection of the worst kind.

[img credit: Cimmerian, iStockphoto]

Tags: Food, social media, weight

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