"Put your money where your mouth is"
Paying online dating will always have better results because of this.
Also you take under consideration almost exclusively OkCupid.
OkCupid != Online Dating.
Because of how it works, OkCupid is full of needy girls (and starving guys).
They go there, put three pics, play the dumb-ass matching game (understand answer 30 questions) and then enjoy receiving 4000 messages the first day.
Deep down, they feel "woa I'm that good!" and they wine about guys being lame (and their pick up lines).
But here is the cold truth (from what I saw in the silicon valley)
1/ most girls are gold diggers OR what-have-you-done-for-me-lately (Eddie Murphy-style) - including your ex.
2/ most guys just want to hook up.
You can't sort this out with friends or anything.
Even if people have a tendency to protect themselves from bad-people by closing their circles that is a negative reflex when trying to do online dating.
And online dating, especially when free, is the perfect fuckable-meat-supermarket. (excuse my french, I am... French)
So you can come up with any pickup line, as long as the quality stays the same, it's the looks that matters. With the few exceptions based on luck OR coincidences.
This is also why a lot of people have a negative image of online-dating.
There is of course the geeky-desperate, you're-not-capable-otherwise image.
For at least some time, people will still have this image. If you try to educate the world about online-dating, you're screwed.
You should try to kick ass at your website, and make it feel like it's _not_ online dating. Take distance from this image.
And it won't work if it is free or if you try to involve friends.
It will work by solving the question: "how to raise the quality of the members commitment to the idea".
I think good leads could be:
1/ pure and guaranteed balance in girls/guys (for straight websites) - It can be extremely repulsive.
2/ remove un-active accounts.
3/ Push people to open themselves - more privacy, different layers, many technical ways.
4/ force them out of the website. (you provide the first contact, but try setting up the date, suggestions is a great step already)
5/ limited amount of members (increased by periods, without some elitist bs)
The issue is, it's all about quantity not quality.
The big problem I foresee is that might go against a juicy business plan - at least at first, and definitely when raising money. (better have 200M people poking each-others virtual a-holes than 10k people doing something and paying for it).
As for Hollywood's lie, it's always the same bitching. Hollywood's lie is only as valuable as the number of people who believes it.
The truth is, people want to believe in Hollywood-dreamy-love but they tend to take everything too seriously to actually catch it. But hopefully, they will one day get tired of it and get down to earth.
Also you take under consideration almost exclusively OkCupid.
OkCupid != Online Dating.
Because of how it works, OkCupid is full of needy girls (and starving guys).
They go there, put three pics, play the dumb-ass matching game (understand answer 30 questions) and then enjoy receiving 4000 messages the first day. Deep down, they feel "woa I'm that good!" and they wine about guys being lame (and their pick up lines).
But here is the cold truth (from what I saw in the silicon valley) 1/ most girls are gold diggers OR what-have-you-done-for-me-lately (Eddie Murphy-style) - including your ex. 2/ most guys just want to hook up.
You can't sort this out with friends or anything. Even if people have a tendency to protect themselves from bad-people by closing their circles that is a negative reflex when trying to do online dating.
And online dating, especially when free, is the perfect fuckable-meat-supermarket. (excuse my french, I am... French) So you can come up with any pickup line, as long as the quality stays the same, it's the looks that matters. With the few exceptions based on luck OR coincidences.
This is also why a lot of people have a negative image of online-dating. There is of course the geeky-desperate, you're-not-capable-otherwise image.
For at least some time, people will still have this image. If you try to educate the world about online-dating, you're screwed. You should try to kick ass at your website, and make it feel like it's _not_ online dating. Take distance from this image.
And it won't work if it is free or if you try to involve friends. It will work by solving the question: "how to raise the quality of the members commitment to the idea".
I think good leads could be: 1/ pure and guaranteed balance in girls/guys (for straight websites) - It can be extremely repulsive. 2/ remove un-active accounts. 3/ Push people to open themselves - more privacy, different layers, many technical ways. 4/ force them out of the website. (you provide the first contact, but try setting up the date, suggestions is a great step already) 5/ limited amount of members (increased by periods, without some elitist bs)
The issue is, it's all about quantity not quality. The big problem I foresee is that might go against a juicy business plan - at least at first, and definitely when raising money. (better have 200M people poking each-others virtual a-holes than 10k people doing something and paying for it).
As for Hollywood's lie, it's always the same bitching. Hollywood's lie is only as valuable as the number of people who believes it. The truth is, people want to believe in Hollywood-dreamy-love but they tend to take everything too seriously to actually catch it. But hopefully, they will one day get tired of it and get down to earth.
Good luck in your adventure.