https://www.facetofriend.com
Thanks for taking a look.
So, my feedback: it sucks until you implement login that does not rely on a third party that is known for its questionable privacy practices.
After you do that, I would definitely check it out. Well done by the way. "Finishing" stuff is hard and you have launched!
I do have some ideas around guiding the user through the initial experience outside of the initial overlay and get the immediately involved with interacting with others. I think opening up the lines of communication between the users immediately is key.
With regards to the Facebook login I understand your point, hell I've said it myself about other sites, but in this case the entire experience is based on the data from your Facebook profile. It encourages honesty about who you really are and makes it so it is not another profile for you to manage. Without the ability to use the Facebook data you wouldn't be able to have much of an experience. I understand that a percentage will walk away from the site due to that but I'm going to have to focus on the millions of people who do use their Facebook account on a regular basis to login to a third party site.
That much further down the road though.
Isn't basically all that you gather from facebook interests and location? That is hardly a huge barrier for a non-facebook login.
Not having your own login is lazy and shady, and having an own login is appreciated even by those that ultimately choose to use facebook.
Right now it is based on common interests and location. In the future it will likely look for other data that similar connections can be made on.
Airtime recently launched and they are following the same model as it turns out due to their close alignment with the Facebook community and the data it provides.
There are plenty of "meet new people" sites out there where you enter whatever you want about yourself. This is a different angle on that which provides functionality leveraging Facebook which Facebook itself is not going to provide.
You need a Facebook account attached to become Facebook friends.
Allow users to change email or msn over, say, the chat (as they can already). Problem solved.
Your arguments for locking yourself into facebook are artificial. Doesn't matter if you plan to incorporate other things as well, it doesn't break your site to go without the information of "likes" or whatever, especially considering that you hardly will ban facebook users that doesn't "like" anything.
As for your FaceToFriend site... It is very difficult to figure out exactly what to do after logging in. You need to direct the user (especially a new user) to the key feature/areas. If the "I Want To Talk About..." search box is where you go to get rolling, you have lost already.