Tipping is an act of faith — you're often gone, never to return, before the server even knows what you left. If you tip well, you'll most likely not receive any thanks, just the warm glowing feeling that you've done right by a fellow human. If you tip poorly, there are no repercussions, save the fiery depths of hell that await you in the afterlife. Right?

Not so fast. The folks over at Omnivore Atlanta (the food blog of my former employers) clued us in to the Lousy Tipper Database, a place where servers and delivery folks can put the names and addresses of crappy tippers. You can search the database by name or location, and yes, there are a fair number of entries for California — 24 pages worth.

The database was started by a disgruntled delivery driver, and it appears a lot of the badly tipped contributors to the site are also delivery drivers. But there are a number of servers and bartenders, too. The site also aims to educate, providing a tipping chart (am I the only one who thinks valet should be $2-$5, not $3-$5?) and a set of rules that says you can't call out old people, disabled people or children.

To me, having your name in a database isn't nearly as mortifying as understanding the hurt and hate you probably inspire in someone by stiffing them. But then again, I often think I probably live in the wrong era if inspiring hate and hurt seems like a bad idea to me — take a look at any online discussion and there's barely anything else there.

And so, the tipping war rages on, now with one more tool for public hate and shaming. Hurrah!

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