

Ask HN: What would the most efficient manner to build an online dating site? - volandovengo

Anyone know if there are any Rails, Django, or CodeIgniter premade packages which I could just theme, update and tweak? I'd even consider buying some code to make it faster.
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sorbus
There are various premade dating site systems that can be found by googling
(mostly non-free). Similarly, a search for "ruby on rails dating site" turns
up an open source social network, <http://lovdbyless.com/> , which might be a
good place to start.

However, the important question isn't how to get the code for the site
working, it's how to get a community established. _No one_ wants to be one of
the first people using a dating site, because then they can't find anyone else
on it. The value of a dating site increases with the size of the community,
because that makes it more likely that a user will find someone who is
compatible with them. The market is pretty saturated right now, and it would
be hard to compete with the larger players unless you have a very compelling
secret sauce (which it doesn't sound like you do). There's probably still room
for very niche sites, but if you're not a member of a niche it might be hard
to get adoption.

If you don't have a compelling answer for how you're going to get users - and
nothing with the words "viral marketing" in it counts - stop until you do.

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volandovengo
Thanks for the comment. I personally would never want to create one but
somebody has offered me what i consider very good money to make one that would
leverage the same code base an online dating site would. wondering how
efficiently I could do it.

------
gexla
You might also take a look on Flippa for something which has been started and
has potential. Perhaps you might find someone offloading a site which he/she
simply doesn't have the time for but gets decent usage.

~~~
volandovengo
Thanks - good idea!

