
Smell.dating - dluan
https://smell.dating/
======
orev
For context, studies show that mate compatibility can be determined by the
reaction to pheromones. This site is attempting to bring this kind of research
to the public in a usable way. This is not some kind of fetish thing for
people who like the smell of armpits.

~~~
devty
appreciate your effort to make this seem slightly less creepy!

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c17r
While it certainly sounds odd, my wife has said that when I'm away on business
trips she'll take one of my worn shirts and put it on her pillow at night
since it smells like me.

~~~
booruguru
I thought this was a pretty common thing.

It's a bit of of a movie/TV trope, especially after a character dies--the
widow would try to preserve the scent of their spouse/lover via clothing,
pillow, etc.

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SilasX
Thanks to lapitopi for the contextual link [1]; tldr: attraction can be
predicted by perceived smell of sweat, which correlates with genetic
compatibility in terms of resistance to disease.

Could use some better marketing to mitigate the ick factor.

Also, a .dating TLD? We need serious reform of the system.

[1]
[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/l_016_08.html](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/l_016_08.html)

~~~
bduerst
>Also, a .dating TLD? We need serious reform of the system.

Why? So they could fork out $50k to the squatter at smell.com?

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bunkydoo
"It's like Tinder, but for panty sniffers"

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bliti
A potential hit in Japan? Context: [http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jkMGhKGp--
Y](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jkMGhKGp--Y)

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Bedon292
Interesting concept. I think a lot of people will have issues getting past how
strange it seems at first.

What I am wondering though is, shouldn't they include at least a bit of
personality stuff in there? If I were going to pay them to send sample to me,
I would want to know all 10 of those samples are from someone I have a decent
chance of getting along with. Because attraction is not everything.

I also think most people know what gender(s) they are looking for, and would
rather not get get a set of samples that includes others. Like what is the
point in sending two heterosexual individuals of the same gender eachother's
samples? Or sending a homosexual individual a sample from the opposite gender?

A completely random sample of 10 seems inefficient. There should at least be
some sort of simple optimizations involved. Unless I am missing something?

~~~
_rolf
Well yes, I would expect five shirts to be women's, and if I'm lucky, perhaps
one shirt belongs to a fellow gay man. Often zero.

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azeirah
For those who think this isn't a parody, among the links in the footer is "the
useless press". This project is a sibling of

"the Decapitated Animals Dataset" \- An open call for projects utilizing New
York City decapitated animals data.

"Call to Wait" \- A phone line that puts callers on hold for seven years.

And others. [http://uselesspress.org/](http://uselesspress.org/)

It might still be an actual thing.. but it's a parody for sure :)

~~~
saaaam
Hey - I worked on Smell Dating (and co-founded Useless Press). Just to be
clear, Smell Dating is a real thing - 100 people did in fact sign up, and
we've sent them t-shirt samples etc.

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hotcool
Love the idea, but can't this be gamed by using synthetic pheromones?
Pheromone colognes for the purpose of attracting women have been available for
awhile now.

~~~
afarrell
I too grew up with a subscription to Popular Science. I was under the
impression that those were a scam though.

~~~
jjbiotech
I'm sure a few products out there are scams, but speaking from my own
experience/anecdotes I think the real ones do actually work. Specifically the
products containing androstenone, androsterone, and the other related
endogenous steroid hormones.

I used some (from Amazon, forget the brand) on my neck and my wife literally
would not stop hugging me and telling me how great I smelled. She's actually
initiated sex a few times after I've applied it.

~~~
afarrell
I'm not to proud to admit that this could solve a significant pain point for
me and my wife. If you would be kind enough to look through your amazon
history and post a link, I would be tremendously grateful.

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shogun21
Can't tell if this is legit or a parody of niche dating sites.

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0x4a42
Niches dating sites are mostly parodies or clichés. :)

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rsmsky1
Three days sounds a bit extreme to me. I think a more realistic scenario would
be a normal unwashed tshirt as usually most people don't go so long with
washing, etc. Maybe though it's so we can more easily determine things. But
smell is definitely important. I couldn't date some guys who were very smart
and had other things going for them because they smelled bad according to my
nose.

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bifrost
Have to admit this is pretty weird, but also genius. This certainly falls
under some people's personal preferences.

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downandout
I can't tell if this is getting upvotes because people think it's a witty
parody of dating apps/sites, or because they think it's cool. If it's the
latter, I'm somewhat disturbed by that.

Based on the super-creepy background video, I sure hope that the creators of
this thing meant for it to be a parody.

~~~
dluan
It's very clearly not a parody.

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_dark_matter_
Seems like something that people might actually pay for. The smelly shirts
alone, that is. There would definitely be people who couldn't care less about
actually matching and just want the smells.

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fillskills
Gross, funny, experimental and scientifically plausible. LOVE IT.

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ryan-c
How are the 10 samples they send out selected?

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saaaam
We select them randomly...

~~~
ryan-c
I'm interested to see how this works out in practice. I would be concerned
that some people have enough constraints it is likely that none of ten random
other people would be an acceptable match.

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joshribakoff
So each 1 person who sends in 1 sample receives 10 samples in return. Its a
ponzi scheme folks!

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walls
They only send a small part of the shirt, so 'one sample' is actually dozens.

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eachro
Is it already April 1st?

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erikb
This sounds disgusting

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civilian
You're way too divorced from how disgusting everyday human life is.

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solipsism
Sure, but we don't put "May contain rodent feces and crushed insects" on our
ingredients labels, and I'd frankly rather it stay that way.

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filipm
I can't imagine anyone using this for real. The concepts funny though.

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eugeneionesco
what the actual fuck

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lapitopi
I think it lacks a bit of context. See here:
[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/l_016_08.html](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/l_016_08.html)

~~~
adrice727
A little more context:

[http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/08/can-
you-...](http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/08/can-you-smell-
perfect-partner)

There was also a study that showed birth control to negatively affect a
woman's ability to detect a genetic match by smell:

[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/birth-control-
pill...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/birth-control-pills-affect-
womens-taste/)

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synaesthesisx
Didn't these guys just raise $5 mil (@ $100 mil valuation now)?

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MisterWalter
What a time to be alive.

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bettyx1138
2 grody 4 me

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music
Do they allow underware sniff test?

