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Show HN: my new project, an anti-snub dating site

secretpoke.com

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Re: Show HN: my new project, an anti-snub dating site

#111

Post by draz »

chegra wrote: post #31

Ok, let me see. Back in 2005 a friend sent me one of these crush anonymously. I didn't want to guess on the site who it was, but I wanted to know who it was. They had this feature where you enter your email if you forgot your password. So, I thought to myself, not many of my friends would know about this site and whoever it is was probably the only person of my friends to be on it. So, I enter the list of female frie…

how do you guarantee that the particular female friend had a crush on you and not on another guy (and just happened to be using the site for him)? :-)

Re: Show HN: my new project, an anti-snub dating site

#112

Post by eps »

bjonathan wrote: post #84
dkarl wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before using it I would want to be reassured on two points: 1. I wouldn't feel very optimistic using such a site because I assume the emails you send will seem like spam and will be deleted by the recipients without much thought. 2. Using this site makes one vulnerable to cruel trolling. Imagine three or four people getting together, "secret poking" people they know, and sharing the results for shits and giggles. If…

Hi dkarl, Thank you for your feedback. To answer your remarks: 1. We added a copy of the email we are sending in the frontpage (click on "what will they receive?") so you can see by yourself that it is a cute little mail. We are monitoring strongly the pourcentages of the crushes and we are testing some variations to know what perform best. You are right we need to communicate trust and we work toward that. Although…

> What will they receieve?

I'm going to guess that some recepients will start entering all their classmates one by one until system will yield a match. Not because they have a crush on the whole class, but because they would want to figure out who the person on the other end is. For example, I know that I would've been mildly disturbed receiving an email from a site like yours, and would've wanted to sort things out.

Re: Show HN: my new project, an anti-snub dating site

#113

Post by mitcheme »

AgentConundrum wrote: post #103

I really hate writing this, so if this comes off as needlessly harsh I sincerely apologize, but I see a lot wrong with this site. The first problem is that it's nothing new. I remember sites like this when I was in high school, and I graduated in 2003. Maybe you've built a better mousetrap, and maybe the world is just ready for this sort of thing now, but I'd bet there's a reason there isn't already a dominant site i…

'One major problem is what I'll call "balls." Do women really want a guy who's too fucking timid to just come right out and say they like them? No.'

I've had lots of crushes on shy guys. Problem is, I'm shy too, so I don't say anything -- and end up with the not-shy guys I crush on, because they ask first. Most of my female friends have had crushes on shy guys too, but the same thing usually happens. In younger crowds (I'm guessing the main demographic for these sites) girls who ask out guys can be rejected pretty harshly so its usually not worth the bother even if you aren't shy. In HS, one of my friends had her crush throw food at her from a car window after she wrote him an anonymous (but fairly obvious) note admitting she liked him. This even though they had hung out lots and she considered him at least a friend. It was more than a little discouraging for all of us, especially since his aim was so bad we ALL got covered in it. Ugh.

Re: Show HN: my new project, an anti-snub dating site

#114

Post by mitcheme »

mooneater wrote: post #94

Im sorry but its hard to get past the name. "Poke" is just too sexual. It might appeal to some people, but I can imagine a lot of women having negative associations with being "secretly poked". I do, and Im a guy.

I assume it's a reference to Facebook's "poke". If so it gives a frequent FB user a pretty good idea of how the site works at a basic level.

I didn't even consider the "dirty" meaning until you brought it up and I hardly use FB.

Re: Show HN: my new project, an anti-snub dating site

#115

Post by AgentConundrum »

mitcheme wrote: post #113
AgentConundrum wrote: post #103

I really hate writing this, so if this comes off as needlessly harsh I sincerely apologize, but I see a lot wrong with this site. The first problem is that it's nothing new. I remember sites like this when I was in high school, and I graduated in 2003. Maybe you've built a better mousetrap, and maybe the world is just ready for this sort of thing now, but I'd bet there's a reason there isn't already a dominant site i…

'One major problem is what I'll call "balls." Do women really want a guy who's too fucking timid to just come right out and say they like them? No.' I've had lots of crushes on shy guys. Problem is, I'm shy too, so I don't say anything -- and end up with the not-shy guys I crush on, because they ask first. Most of my female friends have had crushes on shy guys too, but the same thing usually happens. In younger crowd…

Fair enough. I suppose that portion of my argument was a bit short-sighted. Consider it retracted.

Re: Show HN: my new project, an anti-snub dating site

#116

Post by dprice1 »

I don't have much to say about the functionality, but I did notice that while the site is in English, the default view for the "Terms of Service" is in French, and there seems to be no way to display them in English.

Unless I can understand the ToS, there's no way I'd use such a site.

Re: Show HN: my new project, an anti-snub dating site

#117

Post by slig »

BoppreH wrote: post #100
slig wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly the same feature. It would only notify both users if they mutually assigned each other as crushs. They removed this and other features completely in the new redesign from last year.

What's the difference?

The OP's app sends a message telling the user that someone has a crush on him/her. Orkut would only send a message if both users marked themselves as crushs.

Re: Show HN: my new project, an anti-snub dating site

#118

Post by maco »

bjonathan wrote: post #84
dkarl wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before using it I would want to be reassured on two points: 1. I wouldn't feel very optimistic using such a site because I assume the emails you send will seem like spam and will be deleted by the recipients without much thought. 2. Using this site makes one vulnerable to cruel trolling. Imagine three or four people getting together, "secret poking" people they know, and sharing the results for shits and giggles. If…

Hi dkarl, Thank you for your feedback. To answer your remarks: 1. We added a copy of the email we are sending in the frontpage (click on "what will they receive?") so you can see by yourself that it is a cute little mail. We are monitoring strongly the pourcentages of the crushes and we are testing some variations to know what perform best. You are right we need to communicate trust and we work toward that. Although…

I ended up here by Googling for "secretpoke spam" so yes, it totally does look like a spam email.

Particularly since the "hint" given narrows it down to married people, people who've moved overseas, and people I can't even get along with for a 5 minute conversation...

Re: Show HN: my new project, an anti-snub dating site

#119

Post by shadowfirebird »

bjonathan wrote: post #2

Hi fellow HNers, I wanted to show you our new project: SecretPoke.com . As big shy people ourselves and with Valentine's day coming up, we wanted an easy, anonymous and fun way to reach out to our crushes :) We would love your feedback as much on the concept than on the execution (name, copy, design,...). We built it in less than 10 days and we are ready to modify the website quickly to take your feedback into accoun…

Well, I've had a secretpoke. It was almost certainly spam from you. (You chose a hint that made no sense.)

Call me suspicious, but wouldn't this be a great way to gather email addresses for mail marketing! (Almost as good as Facebook...)

On the plus side, I thought it was cute and made me smile for a second. So, thanks ... but, no thanks.

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