I've been thinking about this for a while. I've been hesitant to jump to conclusions, as I consider myself someone who likes to know about & try new apps and sites early. There's always been something in my gut bothering me about Empire Avenue. Know that instinctual feeling in the pit of your stomach that tells you not to go somewhere or with someone? That's been buzzing up a storm for Empire Avenue. I finally figured out why.

My relationships aren't games. I don't take my relationships lightly. Every one of them means something to me.

People shouldn't be commoditized. Trying to put a number and value to a relationship is like trying to put a price to a life. 

I'm not making money off of this. If you're a 'social media exchange' where you can 'buy and sell friends' then I should be making money. If not then you're not a real exchange. I don't believe that I should be making money off of people (see my previous point) but if you're going to be something then be that thing, not a pale imitation of it.

It's a waste of time. To put things in persepective, everything is a waste of time literally. There are things that I waste my time on gladly - tv shows, movies, books, friends. Why? Because ultimately I'm getting something out of it - knowledge and life enrichment.

I don't gamble, especially with people's worth. I've never been a gambler. Never had a taste for it. Gambling with a person's value is even less appealing than gambling with money.

You can find someone's online worth with other tools. Competitor tools like Klout and Hubspot's Grader offer great passive grading tools. The problem with using Empire Avenue as a grading tool is that a lot of the score comes from activity in their service around your 'stock'. Klout and Grader require no such thing, as both take your score from your activity in networks that you're already on. 

Ultimately you can argue counterpoints to each and every point I've made. That's the beauty of subjective opinions. There may be a business model there and they may have a long lifespan, but one thing is for sure - I won't be using Empire Avenue anytime soon. Commoditizing relationships and someone's worth has never been and never will be appealing to me.