

Like Secret Finds Romance Within Your Social Circle - dbin78
http://www.dainbinder.com/2012/02/like-secret-finds-romance-within-your.html

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joe42
Not the first Facebook app to do this. For example (link now deleted, though),
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2334990>, which I remember because I
posted this comment:

"Oh, I just marked you/everyone to see if you had marked me, I wasn't being
serious."

~~~
Yaggo
"Yeah me too". Solution: "I'm serious" button after first match a.k.a two-step
matching.

~~~
gzavitz
Problem: "I only marked the 'I'm serious' button to see if you were serious, I
wasn't really serious."

~~~
robgibbons
Solution: "I'm REALLY Serious, and I'm an Asshole" button

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bravura
In college, my friend coded an official "somebody likes you" webapp for the
senior formal.

I had the email addresses for 1/2 the senior class (through an email that
wasn't BCC'ed), so I wrote a program to war-dial his webapp.

I found out that, of the "somebody likes you" messages I got, three of them
were guys who entered all their guys friends, to make sure they weren't being
messed with. (And inadvertently messing with their friends in the process.)
The other message to me was from a person I didn't want to date, and had to
politely decline.

A few friends caught wind of this technology, so I ran the program for them
too. Results were similar. I don't think there were any true romantic matches
made.

My friend who coded this app never fails to tell this story when he recommends
me to investors, with the best intentions. I hope it reads as YC-style
creative rule-bending.

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frasertimo
It's cute, and I could see where it could really help some people out, but
overall I think people just need to take more responsibility for demonstrating
their romantic interest. Even if it doesn't work out, I think it's healthy to
air these things out.

~~~
fleitz
I largely thought the same thing when reading the description of the app.
Learning to communicate openly and honestly is probably a much better approach
to this sort of problem than some highschoolesque crush app.

If you're wondering whether Dick or Jane 'like' you, just ask them. If they
are going to be awkward about it then they probably weren't the right person
anyway.

However all that said, I bet the app will be a smash.

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michh
Over the years I've had a lot of spam mails from services that claimed to be
doing this (but obviously weren't). If I'd gotten a message from this one, I'd
probably discard it as spam (or a friend trolling).

~~~
Turing_Machine
Yeah, that's going to be a big problem for them. Too many scam/spam "services"
have poisoned the well.

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chaosprophet
I believe rather than focusing on people in your friends circle, it would be a
better idea to focus on friends of your friends. Say an app that listed the
photo and short bio of all of your friend's friends. You could then express an
interest in somebody you would like to date and the app would notify your
mutual friend and that friend would make an introduction.

Ofcourse there are certain issues with this approach too like the mutual
friend being someone you 'kindof sortof' know, or a mutual friend who happens
to be an ex of yours.

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paulse
I think it would be cooler if this could be done programmatically.

Write a matchmaker system/app? that users could allow to process their data
and find patterns (likes, comments) tying them to people they were interested
in. This could then anonymously contact the matched individual and prompt them
to run the app.

This would avoid some abuse issues and because each partner has no control
over the matches made, makes the whole thing less awkward.

Might also include: \- Textual analysis of comment text throughout a users
'graph'. \- Privacy issues. \- Business plan.

~~~
tnicola
This reminds me of that joke from long time ago where there was a machine that
recommended potential mate. A woman requested a man of shorter stature, who
likes water and cooler climate, dresses formally most of the time and loves to
eat fish. The machine recommended her a penguin.

The problem is, no matter how you slice it, there's nothing more effective
than a good old fashioned cup of coffee and one of the interesting parties
taking a bit of a risk. It's just the way it has always been and I highly
doubt that it's possible to do this with an app or a program that works
perfectly. No matter what you try, someone will try and game it.

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derrida
1\. Post link on Facebook redirected through your web server. 2\. Correlate
ip/site coming from with individual.

Now you have stats on who is stalking/interested in you. (Disclaimer: I don't
use Facebook)

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rachitgupta
Isn't it possible to simply "like" all your friends, and then sit back and
wait for the notifications to come in about all the people that like you?

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johnee
it looks like they limit you to 15 (still a lot!) crushes to prevent that
behavior

~~~
klipt
An alternative solution would be to allow different levels of "like" - that
data could be translated into a ordered list of "who you want to date most"
and they could run the stable matching algorithm to suggest initial dates.

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robgibbons
Hasn't this already been invented? Like several times?

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jessriedel
Is there any evidence that this problem really exists? In my experience, it's
only in the movies.

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InclinedPlane
Do you not have friends? I have had friends who I came very, very close to
telling them that they liked each other (fortunately they worked it out
themselves, but it was a close thing). Sometimes people don't even realize
they have romantic feelings for someone and sometimes people don't have the
ability to recognize when someone else shares those feelings.

