The official Would You Be Mad If... logo -- we didn't make it

Griping is like breathing to most 20-nothings, and at a new site called “WouldYouBeMadIf…” a panel of your peers, that is the viewing public, vote to decide on whether you have a legitimate gripe, or you’re overreacting like a kindergartner whose PlayDoh has been taken away.

The brainchild of lifelong friends and current NYC residents, Molly Bush and Erica Saleh, the site posts stories and anecdotes submitted by the public, with an attached voting survey created by the founders to determine if the frustration, anger, humiliation or other array of negative emotions you feel are validated.

The idea for Would You Be Mad If… came about when the two friends were at happy hour. Finding themselves in the midst of yet another conversation that began with a complaint about a boyfriend/friend/parent/coworker/what have you, they realized that having a sounding board to let you know whether or not you are overreacting is vital to sanity. With most friends and loved ones having a hard time being completely impartial in their sentencing, the two women thought of how great it would be to get even more opinions. The opinions of the public to be exact, the perfect way to generate fair and unbiased judgment.

And so the site was born. Providing a sanctuary for anyone to see if their anger is justified by gathering as many opinions as possible and opening it up to the public via the Web, the site frequently posts submissions and provides comical voting answer options.

Growing up together in the small upstate town of Dryden, NY, Bush and Saleh went their separate ways for college. Bush to the University of Colorado at Boulder where she studied Sociology and Saleh to Brown with a concentration in English. Saleh later went on to receive her MFA in playwriting. After seven years in different parts of the country, they both found themselves in NYC. Back together in the same place, the site was launched in no time after they stumbled upon the idea in the city that never sleeps.

“We want to provide people with a place to vent their anger and share their stories, to see what the general reaction is,” said Bush. “We have a lot of friends who overreact to things but also some who really under-react to bad situations. Our site is largely for entertainment but it’s also an anonymous place to get reactions from people who are not invested in your problems and therefore might have a more levelheaded reaction to them.”

On the Web site’s About Us page, it states “Would You Be Mad If…? is designed to supply that jury of peers. You tell us what you’re mad about. We post it. Everyone votes. Democratic emotions. Awesome.” Awesome indeed. A new way to give your friends and family a break from being judge, jury, and the bleeding ears to all your life’s worries, this niche social media device is a refreshing way to take the temperature of the public on a very specific issue plaguing a 20-something year old life.

Do you think you’re validated in your blinding apocalyptic rage? Send your submissions to see what the world thinks.

With current tech trends, your inbox may be full of them right now. E-cards, carrying messages of “Happy Holidays,” “Happy Birthday,” “I’m Sorry,” and various stages of romance flood e-mail accounts with cute, fuzzy, make-your-insides-warm images and songs. And, truth be told, they’re usually deleted after the minute it takes to watch them.

I’m guilty of it just the same.

“Mainstream (e)-cards tend to be sappy and maudlin. In a word, they suck,” said Nancy Gomez, who decided to try to change all that by starting Rattlebox.com. It’s a new e-card website that prides itself on a new kind of card. “They have attitude,” says Gomez.

Rattlebox e-cards try to keep from “sucking” by using footage from over 40,000 hours of popular television show. The site is also open to visitor-submitted videos, and users can make money by submitting popular videos for others to use.

What I found most appealing about Rattlebox is the amount of power a user has over the card they send. A unique feature of the video content is the fact that the clips are totally customizable.

In the majority of E-cards on the internet, the greeting and/or closing is the only thing that a sender gets to customize. However, this restriction does not affect the Rattlebox cards. Every message is presented with a default script, but every line in the card can be changed, giving senders the opportunity to customize the card specifically for any recipient.

It’s almost as if you’re the producer of each card you choose to send. “We’re very excited about this unique feature, since it gives people the opportunity to really interact with the media, personalize it in a whole new way, and communicate and connect,” Gomez said.

This amount of editing power users have, plus the opportunity to submit their own material for cards, is what founders hope will attract visitors to the site. “People are drawn to social networking sites (like MySpace and Facebook) because they want to express themselves on their own terms. Rattlebox lets them do that,” Gomez points out.

Rattlebox continues with this approach with the option for users to send their cards through Instant Message or post them in blogs and networking sites for their own visitors to see.

Like other e-card sites, Rattlebox offers cards for a wide selection of occasions, such as birthdays and holidays. Although, unlike the majority of competitive sites, Rattlebox offers cards that they sort into categories like “Insults” and “Provocative”. Quite a few of these cards are preempted with a cautionary message, warning that the following videos are “probably (most likely) offensive. If you are easily offended, you should go. We understand.” Try finding a message like that on a Hallmark e-card.

So the next time you want to send someone an e-card that’s not going to get deleted- say a nice “Happy New Year” card- check out Rattlebox.com. You may actually get a thank you card in return this time.