
Essay on online dating (solve online dating and you'll get into YC, I promise) - rms
http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/19/1419207
======
rksprst
My startup (not launched yet) is a dating site and one of the features we have
is showing the response rate of the users (with some tweaks that solve the
problems that I talk about in the next sentence). However, you need to be
careful in how you present this data to the user. Because even if a girl's
response rate is only 20% it might simply be that she's attractive and has
gotten all the guys to contact her and she just can't respond back. So the
response rate is not a really accurate way of telling the user "you have a 20%
chance of getting a response".

By asking the user for criteria and then saying "20% of users that met her/his
criteria received a response" is not a good idea. A lot of users of online
dating sites are frustrated with the perfection that they need to achieve. Not
everyone can be perfect and fit your criteria, and just because the user
doesn't fit the criteria doesn't mean that they can't be a perfect match for
the user.

------
Alex3917
Facebook has already solved online dating. My housemates and I got bored last
week so we decided that we would each ask out a girl to lunch on Facebook. We
had a 100% success rate. Facebook works because it leverages the power of
networks and the strength of weak ties. With match.com and plentyoffish there
is no identy, no reputation-- that is, no shadow of the future. Facebook has
effectively solved this.

~~~
eusman
_X has already solved Y_

That's probably, the most CLASSIC phrase people said when they heared about
the lamp, the clock, typography, and will continue to say for every other
invention that exists out there. Real entrepreneurs don't start their phrases
like that.

You just said that to convince yourself. By the way you used 4 times the word
facebook in one 1 paragraph.

That's 7%! So, let me just neglect your opinion.

~~~
andreyf
> Real entrepreneurs don't start their phrases like that.

How tastelessly condescending of you ;)

~~~
eusman
sometimes truth is rough

------
neilk
It's not obvious to me that solving online dating is profitable enough. I just
met a lead architect on a major personals site, and he noted that none of
their success stories are repeat customers. Perhaps the ideal (evil) business
model is to find people with a steady income and lots of hope but prevent
their success.

------
xirium
There's an overlap with job hunting (
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=131870> ).

