Why would I bother using this site when I could go to any of the other dating sites on the web, many of which have thousands of females in my local region?<p>From the about page of your site, it seems like you're an introvert programmer married for 15 years and three children. When was the last time you've been on a date or tried to romantically connect with other women? I don't mean to plow on the haterade but it's a serious question. Do you understand the dynamics of meeting women (i.e how attraction works, what women look for), or is this site a projection of what you think dating should be?
I don't like being called a mike. I only dislike it for the site name - it is moderately memorable, after all - but i hate that i have to call myself a mike when selecting a gender. I'm not mike. I dont know anyone named mike that i like. Just make it say im a guy or girl.<p>Don't require a one liner. I hate one liners. Make it optional.<p>The logo and logotype are ok, but everything else looks like a default template. Why not take the design seriously and actually develop a theme? It looks like the microsoft guys hired out for the logo and did the site in house. no offense. Well, just a little.<p>Why are you getting into this crowded marketplace? What is new about this?<p>After logging in you say something like, "We're a dating site, but were also kind of like facebook, and if you get a hook up here you're totally lucky, cuz we're way too chill to stress it, bro". I lost faith immediately.<p>Also, Advanced search has major problems:<p>Notice: Undefined variable: latitude in /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search-advanced.php on line 700<p>Notice: Undefined variable: latitude in /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search-advanced.php on line 700<p>Notice: Undefined variable: longitude in /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search-advanced.php on line 700<p>Notice: Undefined variable: latitude in /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search-advanced.php on line 700<p>Notice: Undefined variable: longitude in /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search-advanced.php on line 700<p>Notice: Undefined variable: latitude in /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search-advanced.php on line 700<p>Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Zend_Db_Statement_Exception' with message 'SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ')) * (69.1 * (latitude - ))) + ((69.1 * (longitude - ) * COS( / 57.3)) * (69.1 *' at line 1' in /var/www/dating/trunk/library/Zend/Db/Statement/Pdo.php:238 Stack trace: #0 /var/www/dating/trunk/library/Zend/Db/Statement.php(283): Zend_Db_Statement_Pdo->_execute(Array) #1 /var/www/dating/trunk/library/Zend/Db/Adapter/Abstract.php(464): Zend_Db_Statement->execute(Array) #2 /var/www/dating/trunk/library/Zend/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Abstract.php(232): Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract->query(Object(Zend_Db_Select), Array) #3 /var/www/dating/trunk/html/search-advanced.php(708): Zend_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Abstract->query(Object(Zend_Db_Select)) #4 {main} thrown in /var/www/dating/trunk/library/Zend/Db/Statement/Pdo.php on line 238
I'm not a single hacker so I can't really help out much; but I hope you've started by reaching out to some more female heavy communities first. Otherwise you may have a pretty severe overpopulation of Mikes.
signed up. went through painful profile population process (alliteration w00t). the drop-downs for city is not at all fun - suggest text-field with auto-complete if you want the silos. otherwise, zip-code might be better?<p>checked out the member search not a single user within 200 miles of NYC?<p>while i understand this has just opened and the team is based in Ontario, seeding the userbase with beta-testers/soft-launch participants for major metropolitan areas is usually a good idea for sites that hinge on real-life location-centric interaction between users...<p>just my two cents
I went there, but I don't know what it is. It's a dating site, but why am I signing up for it? I don't know what the features are at all. So I try to look around, but I'm met with a login screen. Seems like maybe I'm supposed to register there, since clearly I'm new (I just came from the I'm a Mike screen, after all), but no. It's just a login screen, and the user name and pass I thought I was registering with doesn't work..<p>Oh, I need to register first... by looking all over and finally find the "Join" button nowhere near where I was looking.<p>I give up.
The graphic design and introduction text on the first page (where you choose a bunny) gives the impression that you want to be different from all the other dating sites..<p>So ok, I sign up. First questions you're asking when creating a profile is all kinds of stuff I really don't care about.<p>"Ethnicity", "Religious views", "eye color", "hair color", "height", and whether I am fat or not in some annoyingly gentle politically correct manner. Try to be a bit more creative. A dating site needs to make it easy to find interesting people you are in some way compatible with... and you come up with eye color. EYE COLOR!<p>I think you really need to think about what you want to accomplish here, start from scratch instead of copying other sites. And most of the other sites suck, so you really have a chance to create something useful and unique if you just do everything opposite from them. (think stackoverflow vs experts-exchange ;).<p>One more thing, to enter a description you present us with an FCK editor with every feature enabled. Three lines of buttons! WHY? Please, hire an interaction designer or at least read Steve Krug's "Don't make me think".
I dived in your site for 2 minutes even though I'm not single and this is how I feel --<p><pre><code> 1. Too many questions during registration
2. Too little hand-holding for new users
3. The functionality seems pretty limited (upon a
quick glance)
4. How do you differentiate yourself from the
numerous other dating sites?</code></pre>
This is a bit, well, <i>austere</i> is the kindest way I can put it. The bar for any sort of online profile is pretty high these days; you're up against Facebook and the subset of their userbase that filled in their 'looking for' - and they're not even really a dating site.
Dude... you spelled Atheist wrong under Religious Views.<p>It's spelled Athiest right now.<p>EDIT:Your spell check has an ad in it to buy the spell check's licensed version. That's kind of tacky.<p>Also, you don't support the features in your rich text editing - my underlines and italics disappeared!<p>Is "Buy x a drink" a feature to be implemented in the future? Also, this /is/ real life. Your alert text is kind of lame.
Accessing pic.php with argument s=1 or greater gives much better picture resolution than the original. Is that intentional?<p>The amount of interaction available without registration is sadly very small, not compelling to me.<p>Before I invest time in registering, I'd like to evaluate the site much more. At least some sample profiles...
Use of OpenID could also streamline the registration or do away with it altogether.
Why can't I upload pictures of myself from the web? I don't keep any pictures on my computer anymore... so this means I have to download the picture, and then upload it again.<p>Yet another usage barrier (but maybe it's not an issue for everyone).
You have a Google ad for "Greater Expectations" (another dating site) on the front page of your site.<p>You could always look at it as "my competition is paying me", but at first glance it looks like a traffic hemorrhage.
your drop downs in registration seem slow... heavy in javascript maybe? I really hate all these sites with 'blog' and microblog stuff... basically I'm saying how many 'blogs' do I need? I don't mind it but I'd personally rather have one that ends up on all... maybe add a way to grab feeds and post with those? and whatever you do feature wise in the future don't make messaging unfree. I refuse to pay to send a message to someone.
Your front page needs a serious design reconsideration. Besides that, two minor points - The two bunnies humping each other in the upper left corner - I guess that's supposed to be funny. Didn't really do it for me. Also, why mention "Release 488" on the front page?