Om Malik: Iminlikewithyou will be "as addictive and as powerful as Facebook"

http://gigaom.com/2007/03/28/iminlikewithyou/

by pg • 19 years ago

22 35 19 years ago

domp• 19 years ago

I really like this idea. I've had some girls that I'm friends with have some really bizarre experiences on dating sites. This one seems like a much safer route and doesn't require a long survey to match your compatibility. Seems fun also and not like the other sites where most people are looking for 'the one'. I wish them luck!

gommm• 19 years ago

Now I'm really curious about this website.... any invites available anywhere?

zkinion2• 19 years ago

Yeah, the largest problems with dating sites today is the "creepy" guy issue, and the problem that marginally attractive girls are in the minority, and get literally bombarded by guys. Hopefully, this can eliminate these problems with the bidding system. Women are still typically the choosers in modern socity, and this lets them have more filtering.

AurSaraf4• 19 years ago

Hello. I am Aur Saraf.

And I don't like this.

Why?

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.

Aur

amichail• 19 years ago

Do you think this is any better? :)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17723921

AurSaraf4• 19 years ago

Good day.

No. Do you?

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.

Aur Saraf

abossy• 19 years ago

An intelligence-based version of that site would be great.

You know, for geeks. You have to be smart enough to get in.

In fact, you can do it for a lot of criteria that people value in relationships.

noisemaker2• 19 years ago

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.

AurSaraf4• 19 years ago

Hello, Aur Saraf again.

"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?

whacked_new3• 19 years ago

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.

nickb• 19 years ago

It doesn't matter how well you bid since love and attraction cannot be bought. Woman will pick who she finds attractive, not someone who outbids the other guy.

PS: Feminists will be all over this one.. I can just see it: "you mean, you're bidding on women?!"

danielha3• 19 years ago

Women can bid on men. Or women can bid on women. Or men can bid on men.

danielha3• 19 years ago

I signed up and began playing with it a couple days ago. I love the look and character of the site. Everything about the presentation oozes charm.

rms2• 19 years ago

Post some invite codes here for us, please.

danielha3• 19 years ago

I have a few invite codes available. They're email invites so post your email or send me an email about it (address is in profile).

danw• 19 years ago

Sounds interesting, any idea where to get the invite codes? I'm curious about the 'points economy' being used.

vlad• 19 years ago

It will be interesting to see who uses the site!

staunch• 19 years ago

The name is horribly long but so good I think it could really work. Hope they do well.

budu3• 19 years ago

Wow. Very innovative service. I don't have time for it though but then again that's what I said about facebook but I'm a facebook regular.

whacked_new3• 19 years ago

Anybody remember yesnomayb.com? They should join forces.

Alex3917• 19 years ago

I like it for two reasons:

1) It's completely fresh and original.

2) The submit buttons make a pleasing sound when you mouse over them.

I suspect the bidding system will result in lekking and other malsocialized behavior, but I could also see it driving up use. I'm really fascinated to see what happens though, and I can't wait to start playing with it (even though I already have a gf who I asked out on facebook).

sf2007• 19 years ago

Couldnt they come up with a simpler/shorter name? I couldn't figure out the name while I was reading th OM article - it was only when I saw their website I realized the name was i'm in like with you!

Do not have an accoun yet - can't comment on the service. On the surface, looks like an interesting idea.

zkinion2• 19 years ago

All they need to do now is get past the hurdle of locality. Okcupid and plentyoffish haven't even done that really, outside of california or really condensed areas. I'd be using it right now if it had more women in Vegas. Once that milestone is gone, amazing growth can begin.

Mr. Forman seemed like a nice guy when I met him at the startupschool reception. I wish them the best of luck.

nostrademons• 19 years ago

They said they're a yCombinator-funded startup, but they also said they're based out of New York. Does YC now have startups in other cities, or did they move to New York after the SFP/WFP program?

paul• 19 years ago

They were part of the 06 SFP in Boston and went back to NYC at the end of the summer.

mynameishere• 19 years ago

I don't get it. Sign up, "bid" everything on one girl, if it doesn't work, close the account and repeat.

???

Easy to game, and I'm not sure why any woman would care two cents for some meaningless "bids" in contrast with _any_ real-world criteria.

guyinblackshirt• 19 years ago

hey i could use an invite too!....... guyinblacktshirt@gmail.com

thanks in advance if you are reading this :)

dbrener• 19 years ago

Any more invitations available? Could you spare one for brex2003@hotmail.com?

Om Malik: Iminlikewithyou will be "as addictive and as powerful as Facebook"

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