Thursday, February 21, 2013

A Date to Remember

One thing that's puzzled me recently...

I know a few girls (without mentioning any names) who tell me how fed up they are of internet dating, how they never seem to find anyone that they like. The funny thing is, these girls are smart, pretty and interesting, it doesn't seem to make sense that supposedly carefully refined (and expensive) dating sites cannot find decent people for them to meet.

Current dating sites do a LOT wrong. I see things like "Michelle uses OneNightStand.com - Sign up free now!" on my Facebook feed. People obviously use looks as an initial judgement, but in the race to increase membership it's never really used as a filter. Likewise dating profiles are typically hideous, people tend to either not know what to say, or say too much.

So what could we do about it?

Well what if we make a dating site for people that are serious about meeting nice guys/girls. One where everybody plays a small part in the matchmaking process through user reviews.

I'm no dating site expert, but I've not seen any site that has a substantial user rating system. Perhaps partly because people would create multiple logins if they got negative reviews.

So let's make a site where everybody has one login forever. The login is attached to your personal details (not shown) and making a duplicate would be incredibly difficult. Of course this would make registration harder, but we are talking about a site for those who are serious about meeting people. By locking in reviews to one checked profile, you reduce the risk of people leaving badly thought out reviews and dodgy profiles - It becomes a less suspicious place to meet people.

Profiles are simple and informative. You can get a good idea about someone without them needing to write an essay. Those who are confident can write more, but the essentials are covered quickly.

After every date, both parties would score the other on aspects of their personality. Some of these questions would be aimed at red-flagging horrible people, but most would be based around building a comprehensive detailing of each person's real life attributes.

The problem with most dating sites (apart from the smart datemyfriend) is that they rely on your interpretation of yourself. What this new site would do is add to that real responses from people you've actually met.

The Macallan Ice Ball. Suave.
Is Mary: Loud o o * o o Shy ?
Is John: Smart o o o o * Casual ?
Would you recommend meeting Jane to others who match her profile? Yes / No
Etc.

So the real life dating experiences add to the data on the site and use actual opinions to improve the matchmaking process.

Alan says he is Witty, adventurous and handsome.
People who have met Alan say he is: Friendly, shy and polite.

What we hopefully end up with is a dating site that produces more appropriate matches, reduces false profiling, and will find my lovely friends someone nice that they would wish to see again.

2 comments:

Charles Edward Frith said...

All the good ones are gone. Ask those girls and they'll tell you the same ;)

Rob Mortimer (aka Famous Rob) said...

Brilliantly bleak there Charles!
I don't believe that's true. Just because many good ones have gone doesn't mean they all have - after all, the good ones pick bad ones and have to start again too!

If all the good ones were gone they wouldn't be single either ;)