Comment by bathtub | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bathtub | Hacker News Reader

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I am not happy about such ideas and usually don't use explicit words on HN but this startup is a bit off for a YC startup. It's surprising that a well-known fund invests in such a venture.

Why do you want to keep people from specific religions stick together? It's for a society always better if groups mix instead of a ghettoization. I know that still many try to stay with their people which is totally fine but why enforcing it? You write yourself that there is a strong 'religious pressure'. With your product you make this pressure even worse. Oh I have to find someody of my religion and skin color, everything else is forbidden. It's not, it's 2017.

It's just not right. Imagine I make tomorrow a dating app for white Christians. Just with this description, I exclude other religions and skin colors and probably imply that those folks are inferior, you get it?

The biggest issue that all people who look like your target demo suffer from these stereotypes you create and enforce. Oh look at this dark skin guy, he probably looks for a wife wearing a headscarf 24/7, doesn't eat pork and prays on a carpet five times a day. Nothing bad about this lifestyle, it's a totally fine way of living which I respect, but please do not create stereotypes. There are many of your target demo who are happily fine to marry someone not from their religion.

And dating as a business is super though (eg banned by FB Ads) and since Tinder almost impossible. Unsure about your growth potential. Religous folks still use traditional ways (parents and co) and the other use traditional dating apps.

And2: Paul himself wrote himself many times, do not do dating. Why does YC still do dating?

There are plenty of apps for Christians, as for all other kinds of specialized markets.

When you say 'white Christians' you're changing the subject in a particularly trollish way. Please don't comment like that here.

If you made an app just for white Christians, as a non-white non-Christian I'd be fine with it because it saves me from having to a) look at their profile, b) potentially get matched up with them, and c) waste my time. Chances are they want someone who shares a lot of their same beliefs and more importantly want someone faithful to God.

Like it or not, people have preferences.

A few year ago, I joined Match. You know how many of my 'matches' explicitly stated they don't want to date my ethnicity and only want to date their own? A lot.

Then I joined CoffeeMeetsBagel. And while I never explicitly mentioned a preferred ethnicity, they kept matching me up with women of my own ethnicity despite the fact that 50% of the people in my city are not my ethnicity. Again, how much of that is women explicitly stating they don't want to be matched up to men of my ethnicity?

My point is that even though some apps have a generalized population, the idea of intermingling is a minority. In the U.S. I think interracial marriages are like 10% of all total marriages. And religion has way more differences in terms of life style and philosophy than ethnicity.

> Why do you want to keep people from spedific religions stick together? It's for a society always better if groups mix instead of this ghettoization. I know that still many try to stay with their folks which is ok but why to enforce it?

They are not forcing anyone to do anything. They are giving people an option.

If a Muslim wants to marry another Muslim, and this helps them accomplish that better than Tinder or any other apps, that's great. Why is that such a problem for you? Why do you even suppose it's any of your business?

Full disclosure: I am agnostic.

As I wrote: It strengthens and enforces typical stereotypes which don't make life easier for the target demo.

If anything that "strengthens and enforces typical stereotypes" is a bad thing, I should've been banned from attending mathlete competitions or LAN parties. Those definitely reinforced stereotypes and made some aspects of my life harder. :]

It's a free world dude.

this argument might hold water if there weren't a preexisting plethora of other dating sites/apps that cater to all kinds of other groups.

this app/site is a safe ("halal") place for a _self-selecting_ group to congregate. how can you possibly have an issue with that? the people who explicitly want to find a muslim spouse can use this site, the people who don't particularly care if their spouse is muslim will use some other one.

if you want to build that site (for people specifically trying to find a spouse instead of trying to have fun, but not explicitly for muslims), just do it and quit shitting on this site.

If you are choosing a life partner it makes sense to filter for religious beliefs because that is something you need to agree on to raise children together

There are lots of dating services for Christians only, that's not new.

Just because people are super religious doesn't mean they are resistant to all types of change. Not sure what you mean by "super religious" but I know a lot of people personally who have found this app useful who are practicing Islam in a traditional way

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