Om Malik: Iminlikewithyou will be "as addictive and as powerful as Facebook"
gigaom.com
gigaom.com
1) It's completely fresh and original.
2) The submit buttons make a pleasing sound when you mouse over them.
I suspect the bidding system will result in lekking and other malsocialized behavior, but I could also see it driving up use. I'm really fascinated to see what happens though, and I can't wait to start playing with it (even though I already have a gf who I asked out on facebook).
PS: Feminists will be all over this one.. I can just see it: "you mean, you're bidding on women?!"
And I don't like this.
Why?
Because flirting is about communication. Perhaps it's the journalist's mistake, but it seems like communication plays secondary role here to a currency based trading system.
Is that a way to show value? "I answered more questions and logged in more, and I believe I'll win your heart, so here, I'm bidding 25 points on you, sweetie"? Even MORE competition? How objectified can a poor sweet lovely girl BE?
No.
I really don't think so.
I agree, dating sites suck. They are a badly implemented meat market.
I just think this amplifies the problems instead of fixing them.
The good dating site still isn't public.
We'll have to wait.
BTW an invite to prove me wring would be appreciated.
Aur
No. Do you?
I don't think that a club only made up of "hot people" is any less of a meat market, especially since females tend to pay very little attention to physical attractiveness compared to other qualities (men DO tend to judge a lot by physical attraction, sadly, though I'm an exception).
So what will we have? A group of hot women pursued by a group of blatant men feeling really good about themselves since they managed to "get in", but probably are only slightly better in average than the average guy at pleasing women. Of course there will be successes, even a bit more, relatively, than in a normal dating site, but the mechanism will be 100% the same, so there's no REAL filtering done. The social game will be the same one. Nothing REAL gained (except for the good feeling of superiority from rejecting people, yuck).
Tell me, how do you meet women? Do, and I'll give you a better idea for a dating site.
Aur Saraf
You know, for geeks. You have to be smart enough to get in.
In fact, you can do it for a lot of criteria that people value in relationships.
Geeks are people who tend to stay OUT of the really stupid ego matches, which is what it would become.
Geek girls I've talked to, like every other girl, naturally understand that a good relationship hasn't more to do with intelligence than beauty - both are factors that can add a bit, but insignificant compared, so only guys would be lured in.
And remember that the only way to "win" an intelligence competition is to not participate.
Yes, there are criteria that has value in relationships (contrast with "people value in relationships") that could hold such a site alive. But it is really hard to judge them.
The really good tests would create a situation where any high value bloke that applies would have girls chasing him on his application stage, before he's even in. That would have good sides and bad; in the long run, it would obsolete the site. If you can find such a test, though, you can make a lot of money out of site like this.
There still is a lot to say about communities that pick their members. Email me if you want to continue the discussion, I have one good idea that I'd happily share.
A "dating site for geeks", though, should be done completely differently. No competition, no pressure. No meat market. Just a nice, calm place to meet people, talk about actual subjects ("star wars is hot", not "you're s0 hut1!"). Modeled after geek conventions and get-togethers (D&D, hacking weekend, ... Geeks use the same recipe for all). It would even succeed. I'm pretty sure something exists, though.
Aur Saraf
"Either you didn't read the article carefully or have not used the site."
I've read the article very carefully, which is not to be said on the way you read my comment: By asking for an invite, I expose the fact that I haven't used the site.
"On most dating or Social network sites, people can easily cast a wide net of people [...] Once a game is finished, the person who put on the game and the chosen player establish a connection like in other social networking sites."
So basically, IILWY is limiting/filtering/queuing connections based on a 'how much he's willing to invest' filter.
Why is that a better filter than any other random filter, like, say, what day of the chinese blogoscope he was born or what color hair does his grandma have? It seems like something totally irrelevant to relationship success, IMHO, especially at a stage where the parties don't know each other at all.
To tell the truth, I just don't like services based on limiting the user. I think that requiring the other user to accept a connection (like most IM services, LinkedIn) is good enough at filtering connections without forcing it on the users.
Are you a founder/involved person? You sound so. If you are, cool. Regardless, can I get an invite so that I understand better what this is about?
But Just in response, the nature of the limitations are to address real problems that exist in real dating sites at the moment. Also the social structure of the site is targeted more towards users who do not necessarily use such dating or social networking sites to find a mate, but to play it like a kind of social game.
It's definitely not for everyone, but it seems to be catching someones attention.
Regardless of that, they have a number of interesting pieces of technology in their site and groundbreaking ways to integrate them in useful ways. Whether or not the actual site is successful, it will be a point for many to learn about what a web service can be.
If it takes 6 seconds to answer a question that's 10 minutes per 500 points ("ideal" case). Looks like the baseline will be high enough that new users need to spend significant time answering questions to make useful bids. Looks like a great platform for a popularity war, i.e. MySpace crowd and not Facebook crowd.
Thanks
diviam at gmail
Thanks :)
Mr. Forman seemed like a nice guy when I met him at the startupschool reception. I wish them the best of luck.
Do not have an accoun yet - can't comment on the service. On the surface, looks like an interesting idea.
???
Easy to game, and I'm not sure why any woman would care two cents for some meaningless "bids" in contrast with _any_ real-world criteria.
thanks in advance if you are reading this :)