It's nice concept, because it's immune to the problem of whatever it's called that dating sites have, where they need many profiles to be popular, and to get profiles they need to be popular. A service like this has zero-to-little barrier to entry, it only takes a few minutes to tag who you would want to hook up with, and once you do, it can sit there for months without requiring any maintenance. Once it starts working, word will get around, and I believe the word viral is more than appropriate here.
The phrase you're looking for is "network effect", but I'm not convinced that this doesn't suffer from it. If, as someone else has (fairly convincingly) said elsewhere in this HN discussion, there are a bunch of other Facebook apps doing the same thing, do you really expect each user to maintain lists with all of them? If not, the value is greatly reduced.
(I suppose it's possible that different ones consistently appeal to different demographics or something, in which case the effective number of competitors for any given person would be less.)
Yeah, network effect. I seem to recall having heard a more specific term for social networks, but that doesn't matter now.
I maintain that the concept is, if not immune, then more resistant to it - I'm not going to a dating site, because the people I want to hook up with aren't there (at least I don't know them to be). They are, however, on Facebook.
Of course, and that's where I think you have a point - it's not immune to competition. But once the first of these services get a few breakthroughs, the viral effect is going to be pretty hefty, I think.
The last time I saw something like this was way back as a LiveJournal meme. It reappeared two months later as "Pay $5 to see all the people who wanted to hook up with you".
nearly all of the sites out there that you trust with your username/password are susceptible to this. you just have to trust that all of them will protect your privacy, as they indicate in their policies. facebook and google harvest much more personal info on you than this site, btw.
I always thought something like this would be a good idea, but it still requires the people you know to actually use it, which tends to be the sticking point.
Also, there's a significant risk that if people are shy enough to use this rather than asking someone out directly, they'll still be too shy to openly talk about it with the other person even after receiving the notice of mutual attraction. I actually had that happen with a similar feature on OKCupid (where you rate people on looks/personality, and if you have a mutually high rating, it notifies you both). I think it might be related to the game theoretical concept of common knowledge (http://www.gametheory.net/dictionary/CommonKnowledge.html) (vs. mere mutual knowledge), or something along those lines.
I won't be surprised if we see 10 different sites with the same basic concept. The details in each implementation will ultimately determine if anyone of them finds success.
I totally disagree - there are lots of females who are lonely and want dates, and would be willing to try something like this. After all, lots of females use dating sites like match.com
Very first non-content-free sentence on the site's front page: "Ever want to ask someone out, but are afraid of getting rejected? This site is your solution!"
The whole point is the "afraid of getting rejected" bit. (Well, I guess there are other reasons besides fear of rejection why you might want someone not to know you wanted to "hook up" with them unless it was mutual. For instance: consider someone who has a partner, wants to have an affair with someone else, but doesn't want anyone to know they're willing to be unfaithful unless they won't mind that. I make no comment on the ethics of this.)
I thought this would be a good idea but there's a problem (as has been alluded to by someone else) in that anyone can add everyone they know so that they can find out who has already selected them and then get a notification whenever anyone selects them in the future. Your data's not safe, not in the least ;P.
There are DOZENS of apps exactly like this one already on Facebook. What does Facebook Connect buy them over being a normal app? And what suggests this one will succeed where all the others failed to achieve critical mass?
I typed in "Crush" to an Application search and found a whole bunch.
"Crush Tracker" says:
Here's how it works:
1. Add the Crush Tracker application.
2. Create your secret list of crushes. Don't worry, only you can see this list.
3. Invite your friends to use Crush Tracker. If one of your crushes adds you to their crush list, you'll both be notified.
4. Live happily ever after in a magical land filled with rainbows and unicorns.
"Crush List" is described as "Add your friends that you have a secret crush on. If they also add you to their crush list, both of you are notified!"
I only searched for "Crush" and even then only for about a minute. There are at least a dozen of these apps by various names.
Maybe you should check your facts before you declare someone is 100% wrong...
this one is really suseptible to someone adding all his/her friends just to see who they match - once you delete someone, the other person is no longer notified of the crush. plus, multiple people can match (downside) and there's only one type of relationship (the crush). and there aren't many fb connect sites out there: this is a good example of one.
then you are consenting to a relationship with whoever you match first. if you later say "oh, i didn't really mean to put you on my list!", its kinda like asking someone out and then saying "oh, i didnt really mean to ask you out!"
"So I said, narrow the focus. Your 'use case' should be, there's a 22 year old college student living in the dorms. How will this software get him laid?" — jwz @ http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html
