WIRED — Apr 1 — TrueDater, not to be confused with True.com, is a database of reviews written by people who met through online personals. The goal here is not to rate (or berate) the person, but to compare how he or she matched the profile that got your attention. Does she look like her pictures? Is he really 6 feet tall? Currently, you can read and submit reviews for members of Match.com, JDate and AmericanSingles.com. To post a review, you indicate which dating site they belong to and enter their profile ID. Rate them with a "yes" (they tell the truth in their profiles) or a "no," and add a few words of explanation.
The full article was originally published at Wired, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Why do they limit to Match and Spark I wonder?
Maybe it is coincidental, but it is troublesome that their logo strongly resembles TRUE.com’s logo — even down to a design that suggests an underlined “U.” I encourage their CEO or a rep to post an explanation about this. The similarities in logo will certainly confuse consumers as to what company this is.
Thanks,
James Houran, Ph.D.
Chief Psychologist, TRUE.com
I have a problem with the whole concept of rating people that you’ve gone out with. Now, I admit I haven’t researched exactly how TrueDater.com works, but it seems to me that it would be difficult to prove whether or not you actually went out with or even had interaction with someone else on a dating site. This really opens up the possibility of abuse. If someone has an axe to grind it would certainly be easy to give the target of their ire a poor, and possibly undeserved rating.
In addition, personal chemistry is very subjective and anyone who puts too much store in another person’s account of their experience may be missing out.
As for the similarity in logos between True.com and TrueDater.com that Dr. Houran mentions, I don’t see it at all. They seem completly different to me.
Lee Phillips
Application Developer/Consultant
I think the concept of reviewing people is an interesting one. I work with another site, NiftyGuy (at http://www.niftyguy.com), where the idea of reviewing interactions is taken to a more expanded level. There you can read reviews of dates — but also of doctors, landlords, agents, etc. I’m excited to see how this whole reviewing people concept will thrive.