(Online Dating Industry Journal) In celebration of their one-year anniversary, TrueDater.com, announced that they have added five new dating sites for which TrueDater.com members can enter reviews. The five sites include gigantic social networking site MySpace.com and relationship-focused major online dating service eHarmony. HotorNot.com, PlanetOut.com, and BlackSingles.com finish out the complete list of new sites. These five new sites join Match.com, Yahoo Personals, and other sites for which TrueDater.com members can enter reviews.
"We have witnessed tremendous growth in the movement for genuineness and truth in online dating," said TrueDater.com director of community relations, Jamie Diamond. "TrueDater.com's membership has grown more than 50% in the past six months. We are very pleased now to offer free onsite email through TrueDater.com so daters can connect with each other to exchange stories and information and learn about new dating sites. Online dating can be confusing or intimidating at times; TrueDater.com provides people a simple way to find like-minded people with whom they can share the experience."
According to TrueDater.com, the site now has reviews of thousands of profiles on Match.com, Yahoo Personals, and other popular dating sites. TrueDater.com is free and anonymous, supported by ads and sign-ups for other dating sites. A majority of TrueDater.com members are women; however many men enter reviews as well. The site encourages members to review those who are "TrueDaters" as well as those who exaggerate or mislead. The service claims that nearly half the reviews on the site are positive endorsements.
Kim's Comments:
Expanding the concept of TrueDater into the field of social networking sites by including MySpace will get very tricky. First of all, this is not strictly an "online dating" service, but provides much more variety and a larger number of options and reasons why people would interact. I have also witnessed a strong competition factor between MySpace members as they compete to get a larger list of "friends" than others. I think this site more than any other reviewable site on TrueDater.com will cause unfair and untrue reviews from those purely out to get someone else.
Not having eHarmony from day one seems like a major slip-up. I think the concept of reviewing usernames is still very debatable. All a person has to do, when they see the reviews, is change their username. And if a new person gets a badly reviewed person's old username... well, it only gets worse from there. Also, it seems that vindictive and fake responses could open the door to lawsuits. I understand and appreciate the concept, but wonder about its true value within the marketplace when tracking truth of posts and username changes is virtually impossible.
Posted by: Joe Tracy | February 08, 2006 at 11:52 AM