1. After all, if there is no QA, many folks will just pretend to be a hot girl/guy, and then extract the cash...

Posted at 8:20PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Frank Ruscica

2. I don't have time to try and earn money by making myself attractive. I dont normally use dating sites, but if I did, I expect I'd use it to find a date. And I am prolly not going to find a good match when everyone using the site is trying to make a living getting me to send them messages...

Posted at 8:20PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Peter T. Brown

3. Interesting perspective, Peter.

I guess you are implying that people will make recommendations, without care of whether the match makes sense, but just to make a buck (or 90 cents)?
That is a good point. Maybe a system which allows people to say whether they think the match is a good one or not. Or maybe the match has to result in a date or atleast a conversation between the two people?

I do think this concept can work. It may require some tweaking, but matchmaking is a great use of a social network. I am actually responsible for a marriage and a baby. And I met my fiance through a great friend of mine. This is what friendster intended to build. But maybe they fell short, because the incentive to make matches was not there... or maybe it just got lost in all of the testimonials and fakesters?

As far as making yourself attractive, I may have mis-rstated how "attractive people" stand to make money with the system. I've asked the site's founder to comment on that.

I don't use dating sites either, but I might use it to set up friends. I am in the people business and enjoy fixing people up, once in a while. And I have some friends that are on the prowl that I'd like to help.

Posted at 8:20PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Peter Caputa

4. I have this feeling that maybe it might work.... Looks like they are targeting the "hubs" in the Social Networking sense. These are the people who network the most, have the most connections, and effectively hold the network together (in the scale-free networking sense). The hubs effectively "own" the network, and it just stands to reason that they are compensated for their efforts. Perhaps the thing to do would be to empower these people to the extent where they have the feeling of ownership and control over the network so that they would be less compelled to switch to other sites as the novelty wears off?

Posted at 8:20PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Dima Rekesh

5. Here is a possible alternative twist to their approach that I think would work better.

Using money as a motivating force, an extra zip, in a social networking system is a great idea because this motivation can be used to effectively promote certain types of behavior.

In the case of this wallflowers they are offering money for two, competing, or incompatible behaviors. On the one hand they will pay me if I am desirable and people want to meet me. And on the other hand they pay me to help you find a date because I've got connections to desirable people.

These are at cross purposes, I think. Paying me because I receive messages doesn't enhance the community or take advantage of its key asset: the super connectors. All it will do is get a bunch of people to discover what presentations of themselves will generate the most money for them. Like some hollywood glam magazine or something.

Instead, only pay people that set others up on killer dates. If they try to set me up and I decline the date, they don't get paid. If they set me up and I say it was a crappy date, they don't get paid. If I say it was a killer date, but she says I am a creep, they get a reduced amount.

I mean, I can think of at least two people that would probably be a good match, that don't know each other, but are both in my tribe networks. I haven't really bothered to set them up yet, but might if it earned me $20.

You might even be able to create a marketplace for part time match makers, helping those that are really good earn a reasonable second income setting people up...

Posted at 8:20PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Peter T. Brown

6. Hi,

I'm one responsible for Wallflowerz.com. Thank you for all the great replies, I really appreciate it. I apologize for any short comings of the site. Wallflowerz.com was created because the social networks I joined started to become static. It was a lot fun finding old friends and browsing friends of friends. After the initial rush of fun and excitement, things stopped changing and nothing new was going on. Here are the thoughts I had when I was developing the site.

* many folks will just pretend to be a hot girl/guy
This is an issue as fraud is definitely pervasive on the internet. Each user has a Karma rating that are given by other users. A low rating should give other users caution while a high rating should give other users confidence. I was hoping that users can also establish truth in their identity by the friends they are associated with. If there is a hot guy/girl that has no friends and questionable profile, that will probable raise some alarm bells. There is definitely more work in this area, I tinkered with the idea of having a process for photo verification if the site gains some traction.

* people will use it just to earn money
The amount of credits earned is 0.25 credits per message while the withdraw rate is $0.90 per 1 credit. That means it takes 4 messages to earn $0.90. I wasn't expecting people to make a lot of money. I was hoping it will be an incentive or excuse for people to participate and put on a good profile. Sometimes I, myself, need an excuse to do something that I really shouldn't need an excuse for.

The site is nothing really new, and actually is very similar to all the other dating and social sites. I just wanted to create something that promoted more user participation. I figured that crediting the users will never be offered by the big sites, but I wanted to see if the idea will get users to be community. I felt that on the big sites, there's no help and no sense of community.

The matcher only earns credits if both users agree to the match. After both users accept the match, the matcher will earn 0.25 credits for every message between those users as long as they don't become friends. Once the users add each other as friends, all messages between them are free and no longer earns the matcher or recipient credits. There are also settings for users to determine who can message or match them, i.e. only third degree friends may match.

Thanks again for all your replies.

Posted at 8:20PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Herbert Hui

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