Thank you! Yes, I think it has potential too. I do hope that I am able to get users. That will be the crux of the problem. I’m going to start trying to market and get college students to try it out. We will see. Hopefully it goes well.

Yes, those are excellent points. I have thought about that and the implementation for the following is in the works:

If you’re familiar with the web of trust like in gpg or other networks, it’s basically transitive trust. If user A trusts user B and user B trusts user C then user A trusts user C.

I am going to have the ability for users to verify each other when they meet in person. It essentially says, “this person matches their profile”.

The next level of trust is “connect” which is analogous to casual friends and acquaintances. So if you meet someone but you don’t fit, you can connect and give some “social proof” that this person is alright. Or you can do it for your coworkers or whatever.

The final level is “trust”. It is for close friends, close family, etc. It gives stronger indication for this user.

All of these can then be recorded in a graph database. Then when a women (for example) matches with a man, they can see how many people verified, connected, trusted the user and how many “edges/degrees of separation” they have with this user. This means that a friend of a friend could put the user more at ease. Or if at least a handful of users verified the profile, there is less chance of a catfish, etc.

No problem with the “rant”! The discussion and your thoughts are highly appreciated.

Yes, free enables bad behaviors. I would be open to free and only tips/donations but I don’t think the business model would work. There are free dating apps like Firefly and Duolicious. However, the developers have to rely on donations and have no money for marketing. Additionally the unspoken problem is that bots and scammers will start spamming the network if the app gains enough traction. And those severely reduce the quality of the user network. By having paid matches, it greatly hinders bots by adding friction.

Yes, it could get expensive but I’d argue that it’d be more cost efficient and effective than any subscription app because my app allows for tons of filters and shows you who liked you already.

The strategy is up to the user! That is part of the design. If someone is really in a “dating phase” they can spend lots of money to get many simultaneous pledging/matching at a time. If someone is more just open to it but doesn’t want to invest a lot then they can pay for a few at a time.

NYC is not currently on the list. I’m going to start geographically dense and near where I am located (CA). But if it takes off, I’d definitely start in the cities.

Yes. That is correct. It encourages thoughtful liking instead of mass liking and then deciding to pay or not later.

If I let users like first and then put the paywall up when they match, users might shift the filtering part of the process to when they get hit with the paywall. Then there could be a scenario where a lot of unpaid matches are left in a state of limbo or cancelled. Which would be disheartening (I think) for the user network.

Yes, I’m open to changing the word pledge. I just call it that because functionally that is what it is. It’s like “proof of stake” if you’re familiar with cryptocurrency.

It’s 3 pledges which is 3 matches for as long as the account and my app is active. How long it takes to get a match depends on the user I guess. They don’t expire though.

Yes, that conversational opener is an issue. However, I’m thinking that because both users already paid to match and message each other, there’s already an investment and incentive to actually get to know each other. I think it’s some psychological phenomenon where it’s a sunk cost and you should try to get to know the person even if you only paid $1-$3. I think that in itself will help. The problem with free and numerous likes is that there are a lot of non-genuine likes and that creates apathy and noise.

Also, my app allows for a wide variety of open ended questions, and multiple choice, multiple answers. So if users fill out their profile (which I’m hoping to incentivize by showing results like those free fun online quizzes), I think there should be plenty to start the conversation.

I’m interested in what you think about this though. I appreciate the feedback and your questions!

Thank you! As of now, I don’t plan to support sending photos for that very reason.

I also plan to track ghosting eventually by having the ghosted user push a button that starts a stopwatch. Then it notifies the ghoster that they are being timed. They can either reply or unmatch with no response. In either case, closure is gained. There could be minor consequences like putting the average reply time publicly on each user’s profile too.

Of course, this is just a tentative plan for now. I have higher priorities to implement than this currently.

Thank you for the questions!

First off, there will be 3 free matches. Let’s assume you have already used up the free ones.

The flow is this:

You buy “pledges” which are reusable “super likes”. They are only consumed when both people pledge to each other (match).

1. the app suggests users to you
2. see someone you like
3. pledge to their profile
4. they have a week to respond with their own pledge
5. if they mutually pledge then both pledges are consumed. If they decline you get your pledge back. If they don’t reply at all, you get your pledge back after 1 week.

Right now the app does not have notifications (still in alpha) but the app does show you all the users who pledged to you. The app would only hinder itself if it hid likes because the app only makes money when users match.

Thank you for your question! It is a good one.

I will have to think about it. I feel like there will be few troll accounts because they have to pay. There may be bot accounts though. In that case, I would aim to have the user report the bot or advertisement account. Then I would refund the user. I would keep the money from the bot account and ban the bot account. This adds significant friction to bot and scam accounts.

Thank you for the questions!

I’m thinking of pricing a mutual match at around $1.00 - $2.50 since the “super likes” (which are consumed whether you match or not) of the mainstream dating apps are around $1.50 - $5.00. I plan to give each user 3 free matches.

Both users pay to match. Both users should be invested in the match and it will encourage them to actually engage.

I am going to try to demo my app at my Alma Mater and start there. I’m trying to start geographically dense. I think this will be the most challenging part. But perhaps if people are fed up and desperate enough they will be willing to try.

I didn’t use QT! You’re right, it would have been good from a naming perspective. This is my first app though so I am not familiar with all the possible cross platform frameworks. I mainly hear about React Native, Flutter, or Kotlin Multiplatform. I was predominantly looking into mobile development because most people are on mobile. I’ll keep it in mind for the future though! Thanks for letting me know about it.