Knowing the author's other writing (which is, by the way, very recommended), I would think he isn't trying to say "look how wrong we went, lets make things smaller again" but instead "look how fun that was, but come on, those days are over. Now that we have comparably infinite resources, lets focus on what can be made with them."
tl;dr The Author would probably agree with you more than you think
Nope, it is not a bank safety campaign, nor is it sponsored by any bank. It comes from the financial minister of Belgium. They do not have acces to your bank account information unless you are under a taxe fraud investigation.
I'd link to the video itself, but I wanted to write commentary on what's so amazing about it and the FAQ instructed me to blog about it and link to the blog.
If this is considered bad form, tell me and I'll resubmit the video only.
I was in a lecture about legal matters in starting up when I figured out that the easy and fool proof way to make money in this business is not creating a great product, but instead marketing yourself to VCs, getting some big money and spending it away pretending to do something.
Most of the start ups that fail, I think, aren't people that couldn't succeed in creating a great product and selling it - they're just people taking advantage of a very broken system.
Myself, I still think that creating a great product is more fun, more challenging and more rewarding. It also fits my moral code.
The site has some great info, but try not using it to hack a broken system - instead, use it just to have the smoothest ride through one of the best experiences our world has to offer.
Aur Saraf
Because flirting is about communication. Perhaps it's the journalist's mistake, but it seems like communication plays secondary role here to a currency based trading system.
Is that a way to show value? "I answered more questions and logged in more, and I believe I'll win your heart, so here, I'm bidding 25 points on you, sweetie"? Even MORE competition? How objectified can a poor sweet lovely girl BE?
No.
I really don't think so.
I agree, dating sites suck. They are a badly implemented meat market.
I just think this amplifies the problems instead of fixing them.
The good dating site still isn't public.
We'll have to wait.
BTW an invite to prove me wring would be appreciated.
Either you didn't read the article carefully or have not used the site. There is a lot of communication tools built into the site. The main point of the for the point system is to put a barrier to entry in establishing relationships. On most dating or Social network sites, people can easily cast a wide net of people they want to get in touch with. But with IILWY, the points make it too costly to do the same approach. In other words, your relationships are more special. Once a game is finished, the person who put on the game and the chosen player establish a connection like in other social networking sites. They can message each other, or even have it call the other user's cell phone (safely without revealing each others phone numbers). And there is much more coming.
"Either you didn't read the article carefully or have not used the site."
I've read the article very carefully, which is not to be said on the way you read my comment: By asking for an invite, I expose the fact that I haven't used the site.
"On most dating or Social network sites, people can easily cast a wide net of people [...] Once a game is finished, the person who put on the game and the chosen player establish a connection like in other social networking sites."
So basically, IILWY is limiting/filtering/queuing connections based on a 'how much he's willing to invest' filter.
Why is that a better filter than any other random filter, like, say, what day of the chinese blogoscope he was born or what color hair does his grandma have? It seems like something totally irrelevant to relationship success, IMHO, especially at a stage where the parties don't know each other at all.
To tell the truth, I just don't like services based on limiting the user. I think that requiring the other user to accept a connection (like most IM services, LinkedIn) is good enough at filtering connections without forcing it on the users.
Are you a founder/involved person? You sound so. If you are, cool. Regardless, can I get an invite so that I understand better what this is about?
I'm not really a founder or an involved person, but has helped out on the project quite a bit. I'd be glad to give out an invite, but currently I do not have any more.
But Just in response, the nature of the limitations are to address real problems that exist in real dating sites at the moment. Also the social structure of the site is targeted more towards users who do not necessarily use such dating or social networking sites to find a mate, but to play it like a kind of social game.
It's definitely not for everyone, but it seems to be catching someones attention.
Regardless of that, they have a number of interesting pieces of technology in their site and groundbreaking ways to integrate them in useful ways. Whether or not the actual site is successful, it will be a point for many to learn about what a web service can be.
I doubt the question answering will be just for points. Eventually they can build up a profile of you and perhaps secretly change the weighting of points, or change the kinds of "goods" you get to see. That would create a pretty interesting quickdating service. What I find most intriguing is the point system. Joining = 100 questions answered; it looks like a rather arbitrary number.
If it takes 6 seconds to answer a question that's 10 minutes per 500 points ("ideal" case). Looks like the baseline will be high enough that new users need to spend significant time answering questions to make useful bids. Looks like a great platform for a popularity war, i.e. MySpace crowd and not Facebook crowd.
I don't think that a club only made up of "hot people" is any less of a meat market, especially since females tend to pay very little attention to physical attractiveness compared to other qualities (men DO tend to judge a lot by physical attraction, sadly, though I'm an exception).
So what will we have? A group of hot women pursued by a group of blatant men feeling really good about themselves since they managed to "get in", but probably are only slightly better in average than the average guy at pleasing women. Of course there will be successes, even a bit more, relatively, than in a normal dating site, but the mechanism will be 100% the same, so there's no REAL filtering done. The social game will be the same one. Nothing REAL gained (except for the good feeling of superiority from rejecting people, yuck).
Tell me, how do you meet women? Do, and I'll give you a better idea for a dating site.
It would be fun for a few moments (for boys), but that's it.
Geeks are people who tend to stay OUT of the really stupid ego matches, which is what it would become.
Geek girls I've talked to, like every other girl, naturally understand that a good relationship hasn't more to do with intelligence than beauty - both are factors that can add a bit, but insignificant compared, so only guys would be lured in.
And remember that the only way to "win" an intelligence competition is to not participate.
Yes, there are criteria that has value in relationships (contrast with "people value in relationships") that could hold such a site alive. But it is really hard to judge them.
The really good tests would create a situation where any high value bloke that applies would have girls chasing him on his application stage, before he's even in. That would have good sides and bad; in the long run, it would obsolete the site. If you can find such a test, though, you can make a lot of money out of site like this.
There still is a lot to say about communities that pick their members. Email me if you want to continue the discussion, I have one good idea that I'd happily share.
A "dating site for geeks", though, should be done completely differently. No competition, no pressure. No meat market. Just a nice, calm place to meet people, talk about actual subjects ("star wars is hot", not "you're s0 hut1!"). Modeled after geek conventions and get-togethers (D&D, hacking weekend, ... Geeks use the same recipe for all). It would even succeed. I'm pretty sure something exists, though.
Haha, this thread has captivated me.
http://www.datesmartpeople.com
These guys spammed several schools when they launched. The forum is pretty empty. No I did not join.
I believe that every geek should submit himself to a crash course in social skills (to a level where he can control a room in a party). It's really not that hard. The problem is that it's one of those problems where no one would admit it and therefore I currently research the field alone, recording my results in private (anyone interesting in starting a community dedicated to it should contact me by mail, hunt my address).
Start ups are about work, not ideas. Ideas flow freely with some people (like me) that just have about one idea per day worth implementation.
The skill to bring a product to life is the critical part.
Still, since you shouldn't drop the idea of starting a start up, you should either find someone with the technical know how (track down my email and email me for help in that) or go for an idea where you can contribute 100%.
Just my opinion, of course, though I highly doubt anyone would disagree (yes, this is a challenge).
I remember reading a chapter of Hackers & Painters in which PG states that he was able to implement new features so quickly, that it seemed to his competitors as though he possessed some kind of secret weapon. Instead, he was simply using Lisp, a powerful and highly abstract language.
What he doesn't explicitly mention is that he is an expert at Lisp, having published two books on the language -- not to mention having a PhD from Harvard in Computer Science, where he probably became an expert using the language (although, admittedly, I have never been able to track down PGs graduate research work...).
This is what gave ViaWeb their competitive edge in the section of the e-commerce market and led to their success. As a startup, you're unlikely to succeed. You'll want all the advantages you can possibly attain.
Aur, thank you for your insight. Currently I would say I fall more into a marketing/sales/negotiation "box," which I believe is an important aspect for start-ups.
If I were to begin a start-up it would be as a co-founder. Yes, I would need to find someone with the technical know how - fortunately I'm living with a software engineer. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure he is happy with his job...but maybe I can convince him to give me 20% of his time if I develop my plan further.
no technical know how when building a web company is going to be a problem.
But I'm building a web startup, and I'm not an engineer/developer. I do know a lot about the web and product development so my eyes don't roll back when the conversation turns to apache logs, SSL stamps, and server side scripts.
I would suggest documenting your concept in a simple word doc, starting with the primary result, then spell it out step by step.
After you have the core concept in place, talk to web developers about the project, if the idea is hot, and they have the right skills you could be on your way to success.
With Codecademy I could do that, here I cannot. So Codecademy it is.
Skipping is a really important feature for those who you hope would promote your service for you :-)