
Do You Wanna Hook Up? - example of a facebook connect app - danw
http://www.doyouwannahookup.com/
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mseebach
It's nice concept, because it's immune to the problem of whatever it's called
that dating sites have, where they need many profiles to be popular, and to
get profiles they need to be popular. A service like this has zero-to-little
barrier to entry, it only takes a few minutes to tag who you would want to
hook up with, and once you do, it can sit there for months without requiring
any maintenance. Once it starts working, word will get around, and I believe
the word viral is more than appropriate here.

~~~
gjm11
The phrase you're looking for is "network effect", but I'm not convinced that
this doesn't suffer from it. If, as someone else has (fairly convincingly)
said elsewhere in this HN discussion, there are a bunch of other Facebook apps
doing the same thing, do you really expect each user to maintain lists with
all of them? If not, the value is greatly reduced.

(I suppose it's possible that different ones consistently appeal to different
demographics or something, in which case the effective number of competitors
for any given person would be less.)

~~~
mseebach
Yeah, network effect. I seem to recall having heard a more specific term for
social networks, but that doesn't matter now.

I maintain that the concept is, if not immune, then more resistant to it - I'm
not going to a dating site, because the people I want to hook up with aren't
there (at least I don't know them to be). They are, however, on Facebook.

Of course, and that's where I think you have a point - it's not immune to
competition. But once the first of these services get a few breakthroughs, the
viral effect is going to be pretty hefty, I think.

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thorax
The last time I saw something like this was way back as a LiveJournal meme. It
reappeared two months later as "Pay $5 to see all the people who wanted to
hook up with you".

That's when they made all their money. Sinister.

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prt2101
ouch! good thing these guys actually have a privacy policy. lol

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potatolicious
So what if they do? :) You wouldn't even know who to sue if they let your info
out.

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alexc218
nearly all of the sites out there that you trust with your username/password
are susceptible to this. you just have to trust that all of them will protect
your privacy, as they indicate in their policies. facebook and google harvest
much more personal info on you than this site, btw.

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joshu
all good applications must service one of the cardinal sins.

preferably several at once.

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JunkDNA
What a brilliant way to make use of Facebook. I can see this being great for
the High School and college crowd especially.

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ShardPhoenix
I always thought something like this would be a good idea, but it still
requires the people you know to actually use it, which tends to be the
sticking point.

Also, there's a significant risk that if people are shy enough to use this
rather than asking someone out directly, they'll still be too shy to openly
talk about it with the other person even after receiving the notice of mutual
attraction. I actually had that happen with a similar feature on OKCupid
(where you rate people on looks/personality, and if you have a mutually high
rating, it notifies you both). I think it might be related to the game
theoretical concept of common knowledge
(<http://www.gametheory.net/dictionary/CommonKnowledge.html>) (vs. mere mutual
knowledge), or something along those lines.

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hansmoleman
I really have a hard time imagining someone I actually wanted to "hook up"
with ever using a site like this.

In fact, I'd be surprised if a single female signed up for this.

~~~
prt2101
I totally disagree - there are lots of females who are lonely and want dates,
and would be willing to try something like this. After all, lots of females
use dating sites like match.com

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smysore
i think they're referred to as "girls" or "women" not "females" ;)

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superchink
I won't be surprised if we see 10 different sites with the same basic concept.
The details in each implementation will ultimately determine if anyone of them
finds success.

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yummyfajitas
Orkut had this feature several years back. My girlfriend at the time made me
sign up to orkut just to test it out.

Then I added all 6 of my friends who were actually on orkut to see who liked
me. The only hit I got was a guy doing the same thing.

Big problem with this app: some girls will add all their friends just for an
ego boost. Dating sites have this problem as well, I think.

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volida
because it's so hard to send a message to the person you want to go out with?
what's next? help me drink my coffee?

~~~
gjm11
Very first non-content-free sentence on the site's front page: "Ever want to
ask someone out, but are afraid of getting rejected? This site is your
solution!"

The whole point is the "afraid of getting rejected" bit. (Well, I guess there
are other reasons besides fear of rejection why you might want someone not to
know you wanted to "hook up" with them unless it was mutual. For instance:
consider someone who has a partner, wants to have an affair with someone else,
but doesn't want anyone to know they're willing to be unfaithful unless they
won't mind that. I make no comment on the ethics of this.)

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Raphael
This is excellent. Two suggestions:

\- Filter by gender

\- Check boxes instead of search, for the non-picky people

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dunk010
I thought this would be a good idea but there's a problem (as has been alluded
to by someone else) in that anyone can add everyone they know so that they can
find out who has already selected them and then get a notification whenever
anyone selects them in the future. Your data's not safe, not in the least ;P.

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snprbob86
There are DOZENS of apps exactly like this one already on Facebook. What does
Facebook Connect buy them over being a normal app? And what suggests this one
will succeed where all the others failed to achieve critical mass?

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alexc218
nope. you're 100% wrong. there are tons of cheesy matching apps on facebook,
but none do exactly what this one does.

~~~
snprbob86
I typed in "Crush" to an Application search and found a whole bunch.

"Crush Tracker" says:

Here's how it works: 1\. Add the Crush Tracker application. 2\. Create your
secret list of crushes. Don't worry, only you can see this list. 3\. Invite
your friends to use Crush Tracker. If one of your crushes adds you to their
crush list, you'll both be notified. 4\. Live happily ever after in a magical
land filled with rainbows and unicorns.

"Crush List" is described as "Add your friends that you have a secret crush
on. If they also add you to their crush list, both of you are notified!"

I only searched for "Crush" and even then only for about a minute. There are
at least a dozen of these apps by various names.

Maybe you should check your facts before you declare someone is 100% wrong...

~~~
prt2101
this one is really suseptible to someone adding all his/her friends just to
see who they match - once you delete someone, the other person is no longer
notified of the crush. plus, multiple people can match (downside) and there's
only one type of relationship (the crush). and there aren't many fb connect
sites out there: this is a good example of one.

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jaytee_clone
What would you do after you get a match? Call her/him and invite them to you
place?

From my experience, awkward situation like this may ruin a potential
relationship.

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cduan
I would just add all of my friends to see who picked me.

~~~
prt2101
then you are consenting to a relationship with whoever you match first. if you
later say "oh, i didn't really mean to put you on my list!", its kinda like
asking someone out and then saying "oh, i didnt really mean to ask you out!"

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jmtame
Sign me up baby!

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ahoyhere
February 15, 2005:

"So I said, narrow the focus. Your 'use case' should be, there's a 22 year old
college student living in the dorms. How will this software get him laid?" —
jwz @ <http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html>

FINALLY IT'S COME TRUE

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vptes1
this is a great site!

