4 ms·

A federated, open online dating protocol could be a real glimmer of hope in a world of soul-crushing IAC monopoly. Who wants to start the OpenDating 1.0 RFC?

dane-pgp 4y ago
> A federated, open online dating protocol A natural way to implement this would be to extend ActivityPub and build modules for Fediverse sites like Mastodon that add dating site features. (In fact, ActivityStreams already has support[0] for defining relationships between people, with "Would Like To Know" being a standardised value[1]). The searching/matching functionality would probably have to be done at the level of an aggregator, like "Social Search"[2], but what's really needed is a privacy-preserving way of only revealing your contact information to someone who matches with you. That's sort of equivalent to the "socialist millionaire problem"[3], so there could be a nice zero-knowledge protocol for implementing this. You might need to couple it with some form of proof-of-personhood / Sybil-resistance, though, to stop someone just generating every possible profile and matching with everyone else. [0] https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-vocabulary/#dfn-relationship https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-vocabulary/#dfn-relati... [1] https://vocab.org/relationship/#wouldLikeToKnow https://vocab.org/relationship/#wouldLikeToKnow [2] https://search.noc.social/ https://search.noc.social/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_millionaire_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_millionaire_problem
intrasight 4y ago
IAC?
- intrasight 4y ago
  Ahh -- InterActiveCorp?
  - fragmede 4y ago
    yes along with Match Group they own Vimeo, Dotdash, Tinder, Match, PlentyOfFish, OkCupid and Hinge, and ANGI Homeservices, HomeAdvisor, Angie's List and Handy.
intrasight 4y ago
Serious question: anything like this exist?
- fsflover 4y ago
  https://old.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/ete9on/new_fully_opensource_online_dating_platform/ https://old.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/ete9on/new_full... https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/dating-is-a-free-software-issue https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/dating-is-a-free-softwar...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
onetimeusename 4y ago
how would an open federated one be less soul crushing though? this is not me trying to undermine you with a passive aggressive question. I would like to hear about this idea.
- type-r 4y ago
  Agreed. I don't really see the current apps as flexing some sort of monopolistic power to give you shittier dates. Their solution to the classic problem of asymmetric supply/demand regarding hot/not hot people is for them to take a fee.
  - citizenpaul 4y ago
    Actually match corp owns idk at the moment but something like 90% of dating apps and sites. 100% of the popular ones so they are a monopoly. There has been some decent research highly suggesting match optimizes for failure of its customers. It makes sense since in their biz a happy customer us no longer a customer.
    - type-r 4y ago
      I could see that happening (whether on purpose or even inadvertently) but haven't seen any such literature myself. Do you have some references (asking earnestly)?
- intrasight 4y ago
  I've read enough people say that these apps are "soul crushing" and people explain that sadly this characteristic is baked into the algorithms in order to a)make the apps/games addictive and b) keep people engaged, c)make people, especially men, think that there's hope - but only if they sign up for a subscription.
jojobas 4y ago
If I had to guess I'd say 99.99% of profiles and profile views in such a setting would be male.
antupis 4y ago
Datecoin could be the unironically be very good solution.
- sltkr 4y ago
  Ha, it would be a total disaster. There are already a dozen or so startups doing some variant of “dating on a blockchain” and they're all doomed to failure, because 99% of the people who think that's a good idea are nerdy (read: unattractive) heterosexual men. All the gay dudes are on Tinder instead, and all the heterosexual women that like nerdy men have a gazillion options already, so any blockchain-based or open-source dating protocol would be a total sausage party.
  - antupis 4y ago
    Yup I would not personally try it because these reason but it would still be those stupid but same time kinda brilliant idea.
  - nl 4y ago
    Bizarrely, and to my utter surprise (as someone who has worked in tech all my adult life and recently decided to try crypto) I think there are more women in crypto than any other tech field I've been in. In the NFT field (as in people working in it, not holders) I'd say in some cases it would approach 50% female/male.
    - nibbleshifter 4y ago
      Yep, crypto (currency) has a MUCH better gender and diversity balance than most of the rest of tech. Which is deeply funny, because a lot of the "rest of tech" likes to slam it as a "white dudes only" club.
      - nl 4y ago
        > "rest of tech" likes to slam it as a "white dudes only" club I don't think this is true - at least I haven't heard that criticism in particular. In the NFT world the Vice (I think?) where they went to the BAYC party pointed out how it sort of felt like weird mix of wannabe rap artists, scam artists and tupperware sales parties. The NFT world is very racially diverse. DeFi does run white/Asian I guess.
trashface 4y ago
Bumble exists too, so its a duopoly.
- cosmojg 4y ago
  Feeld seems to be picking up steam.
- lupire 4y ago
  Coffee Meets Bagel?

dane-pgp 4y ago

> A federated, open online dating protocol A natural way to implement this would be to extend ActivityPub and build modules for Fediverse sites like Mastodon that add dating site features. (In fact, ActivityStreams already has support[0] for defining relationships between people, with "Would Like To Know" being a standardised value[1]). The searching/matching functionality would probably have to be done at the level of an aggregator, like "Social Search"[2], but what's really needed is a privacy-preserving way of only revealing your contact information to someone who matches with you. That's sort of equivalent to the "socialist millionaire problem"[3], so there could be a nice zero-knowledge protocol for implementing this. You might need to couple it with some form of proof-of-personhood / Sybil-resistance, though, to stop someone just generating every possible profile and matching with everyone else. [0] https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-vocabulary/#dfn-relationship https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-vocabulary/#dfn-relati... [1] https://vocab.org/relationship/#wouldLikeToKnow https://vocab.org/relationship/#wouldLikeToKnow [2] https://search.noc.social/ https://search.noc.social/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_millionaire_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_millionaire_problem

intrasight 4y ago

IAC?

intrasight 4y ago
Ahh -- InterActiveCorp?
- fragmede 4y ago
  yes along with Match Group they own Vimeo, Dotdash, Tinder, Match, PlentyOfFish, OkCupid and Hinge, and ANGI Homeservices, HomeAdvisor, Angie's List and Handy.

intrasight 4y ago

Serious question: anything like this exist?

fsflover 4y ago
https://old.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/ete9on/new_fully_opensource_online_dating_platform/ https://old.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/ete9on/new_full... https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/dating-is-a-free-software-issue https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/dating-is-a-free-softwar...
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

onetimeusename 4y ago

how would an open federated one be less soul crushing though? this is not me trying to undermine you with a passive aggressive question. I would like to hear about this idea.

type-r 4y ago
Agreed. I don't really see the current apps as flexing some sort of monopolistic power to give you shittier dates. Their solution to the classic problem of asymmetric supply/demand regarding hot/not hot people is for them to take a fee.
- citizenpaul 4y ago
  Actually match corp owns idk at the moment but something like 90% of dating apps and sites. 100% of the popular ones so they are a monopoly. There has been some decent research highly suggesting match optimizes for failure of its customers. It makes sense since in their biz a happy customer us no longer a customer.
  - type-r 4y ago
    I could see that happening (whether on purpose or even inadvertently) but haven't seen any such literature myself. Do you have some references (asking earnestly)?
intrasight 4y ago
I've read enough people say that these apps are "soul crushing" and people explain that sadly this characteristic is baked into the algorithms in order to a)make the apps/games addictive and b) keep people engaged, c)make people, especially men, think that there's hope - but only if they sign up for a subscription.

jojobas 4y ago

If I had to guess I'd say 99.99% of profiles and profile views in such a setting would be male.

antupis 4y ago

Datecoin could be the unironically be very good solution.

sltkr 4y ago
Ha, it would be a total disaster. There are already a dozen or so startups doing some variant of “dating on a blockchain” and they're all doomed to failure, because 99% of the people who think that's a good idea are nerdy (read: unattractive) heterosexual men. All the gay dudes are on Tinder instead, and all the heterosexual women that like nerdy men have a gazillion options already, so any blockchain-based or open-source dating protocol would be a total sausage party.
- antupis 4y ago
  Yup I would not personally try it because these reason but it would still be those stupid but same time kinda brilliant idea.
- nl 4y ago
  Bizarrely, and to my utter surprise (as someone who has worked in tech all my adult life and recently decided to try crypto) I think there are more women in crypto than any other tech field I've been in. In the NFT field (as in people working in it, not holders) I'd say in some cases it would approach 50% female/male.
  - nibbleshifter 4y ago
    Yep, crypto (currency) has a MUCH better gender and diversity balance than most of the rest of tech. Which is deeply funny, because a lot of the "rest of tech" likes to slam it as a "white dudes only" club.
    - nl 4y ago
      > "rest of tech" likes to slam it as a "white dudes only" club I don't think this is true - at least I haven't heard that criticism in particular. In the NFT world the Vice (I think?) where they went to the BAYC party pointed out how it sort of felt like weird mix of wannabe rap artists, scam artists and tupperware sales parties. The NFT world is very racially diverse. DeFi does run white/Asian I guess.

trashface 4y ago

Bumble exists too, so its a duopoly.

cosmojg 4y ago
Feeld seems to be picking up steam.
lupire 4y ago
Coffee Meets Bagel?