socialresearcher Posted August 24, 2011 Posted August 24, 2011 Hello everyone, We are looking into creating a new online dating site and we would like to poll the community in terms of what they like and dislike about online dating. Specifically: What are 5 things you like about online dating sites What are 5 things you dislike about online dating sites We have made some observations to date: 1) Men are sending endless emails and many woman are getting flooded with email; 2) Validating who you say you are is a problem; 3) Its dating in isolation of your real friends and community; 4) The process sometimes leaves some people feeling more vulnerable 5) Many people join right after a bad breakup 6) Free join 'weekends' just cause problems for paying customers 7) Dating style as a preference
Emilia Posted August 24, 2011 Posted August 24, 2011 2) 5) and 7) you can't do anything about because you can't change what kind of people join dating sites. Even nowdays it is a certain type of person that will online date and I don't think that will ever change. I'm not sure where you see the gap in the market To answer your question 5 things I like 1. Access to all age groups and backgrounds (in theory) 2. Another tool to communicate with a wider range of men (linked to point 1) 3. Usually easy emailing/contact options 4. - 5. - 5 things I dislike 1. Impersonal 2. You don't know who the other person is and why they really joined 3. A calculated and cold dating style often based on superficial criteria 4. Encourages catalogue shopping and bypass people one would talk to in real life 5. Too few extraverted types, mainly introverted types on these sites
oaks Posted August 24, 2011 Posted August 24, 2011 We have made some observations to date: I'll add one: it needs to be value for money. Continually paying monthly (which suggests failure to deliver, unless you're into short-term casual stuff) doesn't pass this simple test.
FitChick Posted August 24, 2011 Posted August 24, 2011 I can narrow down the sort of person I’m hoping to meet without leaving the comfort of my home, instead of wasting time and money on endless blind dates. I have contact with people overseas whom I wouldn’t normally meet. I always subscribe to websites with a voice option where I can hear a brief message attached to the profile. Good for people who hate to write and another way to get a sense of personality. I like knowing the last time the person logged in. - - - - Automatic renewal is a scam. At least send a warning message that the subscription is about to expire. As long as one person is subscribed, let a nonsubscriber be able to reply. Since men send more emails, they’d be more likely to subscribe knowing that a nonsubscribing woman would be more apt to reply. Let us know who is a subscriber and who isn’t. Some nonsubscribers are timewasters. People who pay have more invested (literally) in finding a partner. More people would subscribe if it were cheaper than other websites and you’d make up low cost with sheer volume. People should not be allowed to make their profile visible if they don’t have at least one head shot and one full length photo. MANDATORY! No photos of landscapes and seascapes without the person in them. New dating websites should offer free membership for at least a year to build up their database of members.
Andy_K Posted August 24, 2011 Posted August 24, 2011 Dislikes: 1) Cost. Something like £30 a month or whatever Match charges these days is WAY too expensive. Maybe closer to £10 a month, with cancellation at any time. Or 10p per message sent/received or something like that. 2) Clarity. Many sites don't let you know which members are paid up and can see your replies, or which members are even active. I don't want to waste my time writing to someone who's not been online in three months, and even if they had, couldn't read my message. 3) Any sort of censoring email content in order to force all communication to be done on the site. Again, Match is bad for this. Likes: 1) Accurate searching by location, age, etc 2) Some sort of winking system, encourages shy girls to make a move without having to write first Other Suggestions: 1) Limit guys to contacting 3 new women a day, or something similar, to help prevent women getting flooded by messages.
FitChick Posted August 24, 2011 Posted August 24, 2011 What if you made joining the site free but sending messages cost $? For example each message costs $.10 What that limit the # of messages? I like the idea of paying per message because people would put more thought into who they'd contact. $1.00 message isn't too much. Of course, I'm sure dating websites would make less money that way.
ThsAmericanLife Posted August 25, 2011 Posted August 25, 2011 Hello everyone, We are looking into creating a new online dating site and we would like to poll the community in terms of what they like and dislike about online dating. Specifically: What are 5 things you like about online dating sites What are 5 things you dislike about online dating sites We have made some observations to date: 1) Men are sending endless emails and many woman are getting flooded with email; 2) Validating who you say you are is a problem; 3) Its dating in isolation of your real friends and community; 4) The process sometimes leaves some people feeling more vulnerable 5) Many people join right after a bad breakup 6) Free join 'weekends' just cause problems for paying customers 7) Dating style as a preference There is one main thing I like about dating sites... and that is the ability to branch out to those who have different economic/career/lifestyles. OkC's questions/tests/awards are great. One has to answer them beforehand, and the awards are one way to get 'references'. When I was on, I'd hardly bother with some of the profile stuff, and go straight to the questions. There are more than 5 things I dislike about dating sites, but I will focus on the top 2... and my suggestion for how to fix it. 1) Having some ostensibly personal information surfed by unsavory or unacceptable people. This is an important consideration for people who have some life in the public eye. I would like to see some cursory background check... either as the price of admission, or a simple 'add-on' before agreeing to meet someone... and would be willing to pay for that. 2) People who I absolutely do NOT want emailing me get to email me anyway. I want to actively BLOCK people with certain criteria... without them knowing. ie. I do not want smokers and men with age ranges more or less than 10 years than me to be able to view or email me. I took my pictures down in an attempt to stem the tide of what I consider 'spam' emails... and also to subvert items 1 and 2 that need to be addressed better. The quality improved a great deal, BTW, but I was pretty burnt out by the whole process by then... and have chosen not to use online dating in the near future.
ThsAmericanLife Posted August 25, 2011 Posted August 25, 2011 I can narrow down the sort of person I’m hoping to meet without leaving the comfort of my home, instead of wasting time and money on endless blind dates. I have contact with people overseas whom I wouldn’t normally meet. I always subscribe to websites with a voice option where I can hear a brief message attached to the profile. Good for people who hate to write and another way to get a sense of personality. I like knowing the last time the person logged in. - - - - Automatic renewal is a scam. At least send a warning message that the subscription is about to expire. As long as one person is subscribed, let a nonsubscriber be able to reply. Since men send more emails, they’d be more likely to subscribe knowing that a nonsubscribing woman would be more apt to reply. Let us know who is a subscriber and who isn’t. Some nonsubscribers are timewasters. People who pay have more invested (literally) in finding a partner. More people would subscribe if it were cheaper than other websites and you’d make up low cost with sheer volume. People should not be allowed to make their profile visible if they don’t have at least one head shot and one full length photo. MANDATORY! No photos of landscapes and seascapes without the person in them. New dating websites should offer free membership for at least a year to build up their database of members. I disagree with your item in bold. Some people have very good reasons NOT to post pictures.. and they are not hiding anything. I wasn't. I have a life that is in the public eye. I don't want every Tom, Dick, and Harry viewing me... until they do something to make it more private and selective, they need to give people the option of not posting pictures.. The background checks would ostensibly take care of anyone who might be there with ill intents.
FitChick Posted August 25, 2011 Posted August 25, 2011 I disagree with your item in bold. Some people have very good reasons NOT to post pictures.. and they are not hiding anything. I wasn't. Joan Rivers showed her photos on match.com. She wound up dating someone she knew in grammar school! Some websites have the option of private photos -- when you reply to someone or contact them first, they will see your photos. Someone doing general search/match will not.
FitChick Posted August 25, 2011 Posted August 25, 2011 OkC's questions/tests/awards are great. One has to answer them beforehand, and the awards are one way to get 'references'. I would like to see some cursory background check... either as the price of admission, or a simple 'add-on' before agreeing to meet someone... and would be willing to pay for that. I want to actively BLOCK people with certain criteria... without them knowing. I hated that OKC stuff -- lists, tests and boxes. Too impersonal. I like to read a solid paragraph written by the person -- very revealing of their personality and education. If someone pays by credit card, they give their name, address and phone number. Anything more than that would be expensive unless the dating website wanted to take a commission from one of the background checking companies out there. One website I've subscribed to has the option of removing profiles from showing up in a possible list of my matches. I'd like to extend that further to prevent those people from seeing my profile at all or at the very least stop them from contact.
ThsAmericanLife Posted August 25, 2011 Posted August 25, 2011 Joan Rivers showed her photos on match.com. She wound up dating someone she knew in grammar school! Some websites have the option of private photos -- when you reply to someone or contact them first, they will see your photos. Someone doing general search/match will not. when I was on OkC, I allowed men I made my 'favorites' to see my pictures. I paid money for the membership to allow that. but they had to become one of my 'favorites' first...
Abhuman Posted August 25, 2011 Posted August 25, 2011 Rather than a like or dislike I'll just put this. Want: Some sort of text filter that you can fill out. So let's say I put "[hypothetical red flag word]" in my filter. It automatically makes it so that anybody who has the "[hypothetical red flag word]" in their profile not show up for me or be able to interact with me.
Holt Driver Posted August 25, 2011 Posted August 25, 2011 5 things I like: * Having access to a big pool of prospects. * Being able to see at least four or five large photographs. * Questions that prompt people to enter intersting information about themselves or initiate a conversation. * Being able to "block" people who I'm not intersted, and likewise, not see women who have explicity blocked me. * It would be interesting if women who look at my profile could anonymously "rate" me with something like 0 - 5 stars. Only I would be able to see my score and would know what women think about my in general. The danger is that folks who are rated low wouldn't renew, but so what. 5 things I dislike: * Boring profiles. ("I'm making the most of every day." WTF is that?) * Small, low quality, or old photographs. * Expense. Membership on a dating site seems quite expensive relative to the general simplicity of the software that supports it. * Not being able to contact someone directly (e.g., eHarmony). * Not knowing if people are looking at my profile.
Recommended Posts