I wouldn't say "fringe", but you might be on to something if you say "exclusive". From LiveJournal to orkut to Facebook and Twitter to Google+, whatever had hig

I wouldn't say "fringe", but you might be on to something if you say "exclusive". From LiveJournal to orkut to Facebook and Twitter to Google+, whatever had high barriers to entry is perceived as "exclusive" and therefore "cool". It's cool to be in a social network before everyone else. It's cool to give out invites to your friends. Lacking an invite-only system, it's cool to be in an English-only social network. I know I'm generalising a bit (and I should point out that I'm not ranting—the whole thing amuses me more than anything else), and of course I'm only accounting for half of the issue here, wherein something becomes "cool" (how the place ends up being ultimately stormed into by the entire Brazilian population is a problem I honestly haven't thought about much). But this is really how it starts, every time. Now, why Badoo is popular is an entirely different question. I've no idea. Then again, to call it fringe is to elect a mainstream alternative: from my understanding of the article, Badoo IS the mainstream location-based dating site, isn't it?