This is somewhat relatable: I'm building a dating app without blackjack and hookers. Well, at least without the blackjack.
Not gonna lie, it's not a weekend project! And that's before even considering the eventual launch and marketing.
this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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Will your dating site have a theme?
Is there a monetary goal behind it and if so,
how would you deal with the service becoming a huge success,
while consequently memberships drop?
Thank you for asking.
The theme can be answered a number of different ways. In one sense, I'd like to at least support (if not outright focus on) minorities, and not simply cater to the mononormative. In another sense, one goal that doesn't directly relate to dating is to offer a platform that is independent (of Match Group) and EU-centric in terms of both client focus and technical infrastructure. I want to bring back a lot of what has been lost to enshittification in other apps, things I've personally been missing and also seen being a common complaint when dating apps in general are discussed online. If you've been on, say, OkC more than a year, you'll probably remember stuff that's not there anymore. If you've been on any dating app, you know how icky and frustrating and just straight up annoying the apps themselves are (before you even factor in the behaviour of the users, and their reasons).
Monetary goal? There are many gates that must be passed before finances become a critical issue. I've published things as open source, and if six users find you, you have six happy users. A dating app not only requires a massive amount of users, it also requires significant local user density for it to be useful. I can say this much: I've done the math and am pretty confident in being able to deliver at a fraction of the cost of any existing offering. My plan is to offer no free tier (huge barrier, I am aware) but then offer a very-reasonably-priced paid tier that unlocks everything. I want the app to be transparent, helpful, and eschewing dark patterns and money-grabbing schemes. I don't expect you to believe it, but I'm not doing this for the purpose of profit; I just don't think a dating app that's entirely free is going to work very well vis-a-vis attracting high-quality participants.
oooh so sorry, but that's a meme. -12 piefed score, also your instance is now shadowbanned. Gotta deal with the consequences of your actions chief...
Tale as old as time...I've seen it so many times in my professional life and also in activism. Hell, I've done it.
Things look so easy from the outside. All the flaws seem like they can be fixed without much effort, why can't the people in charge see it? Then you rush in and try to do it yourself without an understanding of why things are the way they are and BAM you hit a wall. Suddenly things aren't so easy. Suddenly you can't fix all the mistakes. And you are making new ones.
I'm not saying people shouldn't try new things, but rushing in without trying to take some lessons from the existing systems without judgement is foolishness.
My secret is that I talk myself out of it before I even start : D
I've never been able to talk myself out of anything. Like I will have the entire thought process and think maybe it's a bad idea, and I shouldn't speak my mind, but I really want to so I do. It has not yielded good results
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According to Korean/German philosopher Byung-Chul Han, we live in a burnout society, so even if the person is peculiar, burnout is a serious issue in our society and everyone of us could suffer from it.
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