Quote: (06-06-2012 04:10 PM)Timoteo Wrote:
I agreed with his assessment of Facebook, in that I don't and have never used it to meet strangers. It's for people you already know, or meet offline and want to maintain some form of contact with. I've never viewed it as an online dating mechanism. There are plenty of other sites built better to do that. FB also incorporated cams, but I've yet to use it there. The great thing about Airtime is that yes, anyone that signs up obviously won't be camera-shy - camming is the very reason you're signing up. Getting attractive chicks to sign up is the trick...
Agreed. Facebook a venue. And there are all kinds of venues - some that promote mingling with strangers, and some that don't. When you do try and mingle with strangers in a venue not situated for it, it may feel weird, awkward or forced - even if *the same two strangers* would have no problem meeting in a more sociable spot. Facebook is like a restaurant with separate tables, while Airtime vies to be like a bustling hip bar. Some might look at how people behave on Facebook and decide that people don't really want to meet strangers, but that's far from the truth. They're just not going to overcome all the obstacles and unwritten rules to do it.
Myspace was way more social in that regard, it seems. By comparison, Facebook is
tribal, not social. If you want a genuinely social space, you have to build something else, where talking to strangers is par for the course. If you owned a traditional restaurant and wanted to make people socialize like they do at a bar, fiddling with the appetizers and the tablecloths isn't going to get you there. You'd have to redesign the entire restaurant, or it would just be good for nothing and mediocre at everything. Get some huge buzz and advertising behind Airtime,
make sure it's fun for users, and you'll have something interesting. Online dating, as it stands, is not fun. Fucking and dating is fun, but the actual online part is painful.
Quote: (06-06-2012 04:10 PM)Timoteo Wrote:
Good points all. At the same time, there's nothing stopping chicks from using one of the available mediums for video chat, but they're reluctant to make that step. They could do it the day they first meet you online, and if it doesn't click, just delete you and move on. I see on so many women's profiles, "no webcam, no MSN, no Yahoo, no Skype," killing any shot of guy really getting to know them instantly. Sure, some of them are only writing that because THEY want to be the one to initiate that, but chicks that are serious about meeting a guy should be all for it. They could make this move before they give up their phone number even.
I just found out that Lavalife is
introducing the ability to turn off your IM for 10 minute intervals - I'm pissed that I didn't know they had mandatory IM before this! I've used IM extensively, almost exclusively, on OKCupid, and the whole experience is vastly superior to long form messages. But the OKC team has never really tried to make the IM more desirable to women, so few of them use it.
Women do want that element of control, but it's annoying if only because it makes the process less efficient without improving outcomes.
Unless... online dating is like shopping for women, and they enjoy the search more than the catch... Settling down with one guy means not attention whoring with all the other guys. Or at least having less time to. Plus plenty of guys are boring herbs.
I'm looking for a place to rent right now, and I see these ads with a picture or two, and a brief description. If I were doing what these girls do, I'd be scrutinizing ads for hours, and visiting maybe one or two houses a week, even if dozens of ads met my basic criteria. Of course, if you've ever rented, you know the ads are just a starting point - you have to *see* it in real life, preferably several, before you can make any commitment.
I think it's just going to be a matter of time until people become comfortable with video-chatting, and it will lose its creepy edge. Hell, Chatroulette came out two or three years ago and it was wildly popular. Interestingly though, communications media that we used to see as normal are now seen as weird and awkward - chatrooms, instant messaging, and even voice calls. I'm still a little surprised that chatrooms and IM with strangers are so unpopular.
Speaking of Airtime, we might really want to be focusing on
Flikdate.