Part 2 My Ongoing Mistakes

2009-04-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

My first experience of creating free dating site was a shambles. I decided to add a database so that users could add their own details automatically. The big problem was that I do not know a great deal about creating online databases and I ended up modifying templates from a program I purchased. None of the templates really suited my needs so I selected what I thought was the nearest.

Well it worked people where able to add their own details automatically and even upload their own photos automatically. The problems I had with this approach were.

The cost of the program and the additional expense of an online MYSQL database.he
The type of people that were uploading profiles and the pornographic photos they were uploading.
I soon found out that my database was not secure and indeed the way I had created it anybody could delete anybodys profile, there own or indeed somebody elses!

I decided to ask for help with the creation of a database but despite lots of good intentions a working database never materialised. I was about to give up on the idea when I decided on this latest idea in that people now have to email me their details, I will vet them and I now upload the profiles. This gives me total control but it is also very time consuming or will be should I receive a high volume of new applicants. Further in order to keep the project managable I have had to make a few compromises, the biggest being that there is no search facility. This means that the only distinguishing feature between the members is that they are broken down into only two categories, they are either male or female.

This means that the only way a visitor could find a potential partner would be to either select the male or female pages and then sift through the members manually. On a positive not this does offer an element of fun in that it allows you to read member profiles that you would not normally consider. Visitors now have to use their common sense and find out the old fashioned way if someone is compatible or not by getting to know them slowly and then deciding to end or explore the possibilites further.

This method does appear to be working but you will soon find out by visiting the site it is very slow to take off if you would like to see for yourself visit

www.able2date.co.uk

As always if you would like to offer any constructive criticism or help then contact me via this blog by posting a comment or at least leaving an email address for me to contact you.

Further episodes of this ongoing saga to follow.

Bye for now

Able2

My search for free dating sites!

2009-04-13T12:54:00.000-07:00

I had been thinking of starting my own free dating site for some time and thought that I would search the Internet and check out what was already available. I quickly discovered a number of difficulties.

1. Finding them. Many said that they were free but were not and many others were only free for a limited time trial period only.

2. Registration. I have yet to find a free dating site that I did not have to register with before trying out their service. This is a time consuming experience especially when finding out it was not what I was looking for anyway.

3. Advertising and Popups. Many sites I visited were so full of advertising, popups and popunders etc that I found their site practically unsuable.

What are your experiences of this? I would really like to know if anybody else faired any better.

This experience further encouraged me to have a go at starting my own free dating site (don't worry this is not a plug!). But this too led to many problems.

1. Starting a free dating service costs money but OK, I thought that I would try it on the cheap whith the cheapest web hosting service that I could find.

2. Next I had to create a name for my web address one that was not too cheesy and yet was available to register.

3. Creating the website, what format/layout colour scheme to use and which program to use to create it.

4. Help the whole point of anybody visiting a free dating site was to look for people they might want to communicate with but where do you get the people from to begin with? You could make them up but that would leave you very busy indeed creating false email accounts and answering any replies, this is just not practical. You could promote yourself on the web and wait for genuine applicants but search engines do not like pages with little or no content and therefore it is a vicious catch 22 circle!

5. I actually managed to persuade I few genuine people I know to apply and add their details but only half a dozen of either sex hardly a dazzling search for visitors. I thought that I would go with this and wait for further genuine applicants to apply, therein I discovered my next problem.

6. ID fraudsters I came across a small number of applicants who were trying the old Nigerian scam and varients of this. How is it that they seem to find the site quicker than anyone else. Those that were obviously only after your bank details I simply rejected but the cleverer ones may well have still got through. To my way of thinking however anybody who gives out their bank details or even too much personal information to what could only realistically be called a perfect stranger wants their head examined.

I think that this is enough of my thoughts for one day and I will contine this blog when I next have a little time to spare but I would like to hear from anyone else about related experiences and information, help etc on this topic.

Bye for now

able2

Are there any truly free dating sites?

Part 2 My Ongoing Mistakes

My search for free dating sites!