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from the Be-Charming. Like-a-Prince. From-Venus. dept.
Tricia Romano reports at the Seattle Times that Susie Lee and Katrina Hess have developed Siren, a new online dating app designed to protect against men who inundate women with messages that are by turns gross, hilarious, objectifying and just plain sad. As online dating options have grown, Lee noticed that her friends' frustration did, too: With every good introduction often came a slew of lewd ones. "I just started looking (at online dating options) and very quickly realized how many things are out there and how immediately my 'creepy meter' went up," Lee says. Lee hopes to change the nature of the messages and put women in the driver’s seat.
The free iPhone app, currently launched to a select market in Seattle in August, allows women to peruse men’s pictures and their answers to the “Question of the Day” (“You found a magic lamp and get three wishes. What are they?”) and view their Video Challenges (“Show us a hidden gem in Seattle”). If a woman is suitably impressed by a man’s answers, she can make herself visible to him. Only then can he see what she looks like. "It’s a far more thoughtful — and cautious — approach than the one taken by the dating app of the moment, Tinder, which is effectively a “hot or not” game, with little information beyond a few photos, age and volunteered biographical tidbits," writes Romano. "And the implicit notion that it’s a “hookup” app can be uncomfortable for some women." Lee and Hess are betting that men are less shallow and want more repartee. And they know that women want a little more flirtation than crude references. After all, Siren’s motto is “Charm Someone’s Pants Off.” “Before the ‘pants off,’ it’s more about charming someone,” says Hess. “Be charming.”
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Lagg on Sunday October 05 2014, @03:09PM
Frankly, this is reading to me like an attempt to capitalize on the professional victims infesting some otherwise good communities lately. You can tell because the disgusting hypocrisy shows quite quickly, in fact it shows in the very first sentence in the summary: "a new online dating app designed to protect against men". Firstly how much of a presumptuous jackass can someone be to think that men are the only ones that do that, secondly if you claim stupid shit like wanting to "protect" a woman you're no better than the stereotypical "go back to the kitchen" type. Pretty sure most women actively looking for a date are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves.
I swear, this hysteria was generated completely by people who have never kissed someone let alone dated or had sex.
Also some of the quotes in that article are equally disgusting:
Wow, you put your picture up, your personal information, your turn ons and who knows what else and you suddenly feel attacked and unsafe? Give me a break. These are the people responsible for diluting the pool of pretty horrible sexual assaults and harassment ladies and gentlemen. Give them a hand.
Yes I know I'm ranting but I can't help it anymore. This stuff is following me and affecting every facet of my daily reading, if people just sit there silently it's only going to get worse.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 4, Interesting) by kaszz on Sunday October 05 2014, @03:45PM
The operating modus is likely to create a walled garden such that the electronic community can get more females to the meeting forum. The benefit for females will be that they won't have to deal with "wanna fuck?" messages. Feels kind of like night clubs that charge males but let females in for free. Creates a feeling of that you paid for something and want the goods once inside. Rock stars don't seem to have the problem of attracting females. No protections in those settings, so the problem is likely with how people think (cognitive maps) and perceive things. Than what's actually goes on.
Otoh, a well educated groomed man like say.. Ted Bundy doesn't give of enough creep factors that made woman avoid him. So these "creep" factors seems more like some sense leftover from prehistoric times that is irrelevant in the current society.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Sunday October 05 2014, @04:31PM
I agree. However, I think the Internet actually reverses the sexual revolution a little bit in that there's "courting" before meeting. You get to know someone before figuring out of the chemistry is there.
You can already (sort of) do what this app does, if you register but hide your profile (at least on the 2 dating sites I've tried), you can peruse as many profiles of prospective mates as you want, w/o any of them finding out, if you use two browsers and Tor. I guess there's no instructions on the Internet on how to do that?
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday October 05 2014, @05:08PM
Yeah, if you expose yourself, you should not be surprised that you are exposed.
What's next? Posing in front of a web cam and then complaining you feel watched? Attending a nudist beach, and then complaining about feeling naked?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 05 2014, @06:59PM
> Yeah, if you expose yourself, you should not be surprised that you are exposed.
Man. That's so sad. The entire point of the app is to give them the ability to better control that exposure.
They are addressing the very issue you are denigrating them for not understanding.
I wish there was someone providing a similar service for other kinds of exposure - I don't want everybody who sees my license plate in public to be able to make a permanent record of my travels. I don't want the fact that I made a purchase from a certain store to go into a database where I have no control over who can see that information. I don't want companies to amalgamate my visit to indidivual websites into a single identifiable record that I have no control over.
Anything that gives people agency in how, when and to whom their personal information is exposed is a damn good thing.
(Score: 2) by physicsmajor on Sunday October 05 2014, @08:16PM
Can't speak to the license issue, but regarding purchase anonymity the solution is cash.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 05 2014, @08:27PM
Only works for brick and mortar.
Furthermore cash has its own set of risks.
And thanks, but no duh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 05 2014, @09:52PM
Read the summary again. This app has been written by women for women. No one is forcing this app on women for their own good. And, yes, it does appear that they have found an effective way to "take care of themselves".
Again, you should read the summary or even TFA (Yeah, yeah, heaven forbid. What was I thinking?) Their app was created because they were getting mighty tired of all the inappropriate responses to their profiles on dating websites. Yeah, it kind of sucks that you can no longer introduce yourself on dating websites with your dick pics. Deal with it.
From reading the summary it would appear that what made them "feel attacked and unsafe" was getting inundated with inappropriate dick pics and other lewd messages. It looks to me like the ladies have already given the guys on these sites all the breaks they are going to get. I'm afraid you will have to change your strategy if you want to visit those dating websites. Yeah, it sucks but if you are sending dick pics, you only have yourself to blame.
Yes, you are ranting. If this is affecting every facet of your life then I suggest you adopt a change of strategy. A good start would probably be to refrain from sending dick pics and encouraging other guys to do the same. Until that time, I'm afraid the ladies have found an effective way to block you through their new app. Personally, I can't say I really blame them for coming up with an effective "spam filter". Just sayin'.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Monday October 06 2014, @01:56AM
I agree with everything you said, except the part about you ranting. You said everything I was thinking, but more articulately.
On another note, articles like this are inflammatory. Thanks for your submissions Lagg, top tier!
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A