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Ingenious and resourceful? Or were her actions deceitful? Tinder played judge and jury when a Rhode Island kickball player was banned from using the dating app for life when they discovered she was using the app to recruit teammates to her adult kickball league, Clubwaka.
30-year-old Gianna Pecchia told Clubwaka.com, "One day, I went to log in, and it said you're banned for life. For life! -- it seems a little severe. So that put a huge deterrent in my recruiting."
A spokesperson from Tinder told UPI that upon reviewing their decision, Pecchia was "banned appropriately."
Gianna has been appropriately dubbed the "Kickball Cupid" after finding 25 players through the app, including 18 for her own team and another 7 others to help fill out other rosters in the league.
"I would host dinner meet-ups with people who were interested so that they could meet me and other people from the league," Pecchia confessed. "If we hit it off, and they liked everyone's personalities, they were added to our team. If they wanted more a competitive team, I would assign them to a different team who was competitive and looking for players."
Sounds innocent enough. So why did Tinder put the kibosh on her recruiting? Tinder's guidelines clearly state that "soliciting other users is prohibited."
The guidelines read: "It's fine to invite your matches to something that you're doing, but if the purpose of your profile is to advertise your event or business, non-profit, political campaign, contest, or to conduct research, we may delete your account."
Pecchia explained that in addition to Tinder, she also used the app, Bumble BFF to recruit players.
And Clubwaka's general manager, Johanna Hueber said, "I fully support it and totally encourage her. This is ingenious. ... It's a great way for people to end up meeting people," she told the Boston Globe, backing Pecchia's antics.
According to Clubwaka.com, Clubwaka formerly known as the World Adult Kickball League operates in 15 states.