Friday, March 23, 2007

Is it True.com that you are a Married/Felon?

Check this NYtimes article if you can. Straight dating service, True.com thinks it's pretty special. Their politics don't really matter because people can use whatever damn site they want to hookup, however, they're pretty popular (rivalling match.com and yahoo personals), they're using sticky marketing tricks to make a lot of money, and they say that they contribute to online dating safety when they actually don't (because anyone can fake it).

My criticisms are brief. True brags that they "prosecute felons and marrieds." First of all, even if you are "separated" or have a pending divorce, forget about finding any True hotties. Second, what if you have negotiated with your husband/wife/registered spouse that it's okay to get in other people's beds, even the beds of other marrieds? Answer: find another dating pool (which will be cheaper than the 50 bucks a months True charges).

Okay, the felon part is really disturbing. I can understand some of the rationale behind corporate types wanting to cover their asses by booting folks from their site with sexual offenses, but what if you are a robber, a frauder, a runnaway? You need love too. But, as it stands, True doesn't care: "We can't guarentee that criminals won't get on our site, but we can quarentee that they'll be sorry they did."

I can see it now:
Felon: I was just trying to get a date, get some love and rejoin society. I've been in jail so long.
True/cop/law: You have endangered everyone on the internet. You must be punished.

Wouldn't it make more sense to work on protecting online daters from things they're more likely to be dealing with, like STDs, heartbreak and empty wallets?

2 comments:

Alicia said...

Of course it would make more sense - but how does one guard against heartbreak?? If you know please tell me :)

Phalligator said...

You're right, if you're dating at all, it's impossible.