Group therapy in a blog.
What JDate Needs is a Digital Culture Evangelist
In this excellent, sure-to-become-a-classic post, Leah Jones enumerates a helpful list of “How Social Media Ruined Jdate For Me,” which is less a complaint and more a series of observations about how JDate isn’t living up to the technical expectations of a generation that lives increasingly online, and which increasingly requires more advanced features in order to surf and connect effectively.
If Jdate is monitoring any of the blogbuzz about their product and if they care about creating a system that works better (two assumptions, I know), hopefully they’ll take this free advice from someone who could actually fetch a high price for this kind of corporate technology assessment. But we’ll see.
Thanks for calling out the post! I’ve been surprised by the reaction from readers. I did send it to Jdate customer service, who knows if they’ll take me seriously, but we can all hope.
The lack of paragraph breaks is maddening, and of course I think that JDate needs to get with the times and adopt some social networking characteristics.
I find Facebook to be the new JDate. On Facebook people often come with references because you can see who you know in common or trawl your friends’ friends. In some cases you can get a better sense of who people are, depending on what’s visible/present in their profile. Of course, there will always be the annoying strangers who poke you because they came across your profile or photo and think you’re cute, but you can block pokes from strangers. I do, and I don’t add strangers who request me as friends. (People I know from the blogosphere don’t count as strangers.)
I tried to leave a comment w/Leah, but I think it did not take. But yeah, the site interface is maddening, and that from everyone I’ve ever heard from who used it.
And it means that you’re too smart for it too, but being the ‘supermarket’ of Jewish dating, means that your ‘competition’ is mainly focused on other things. But it’s not that ‘no one does it better’, it’s just that no one thinks they can get a better deal or one that better serves the community. Instead of going forward, were going backwards. And going to more open sourced networks might be the wave of the future, but at the moment they’ve (Jdate) got some very lucrative cows/’Clients’ that want milking rather than actually being ‘served’ or ‘helped’. That’s the way they’ve consistently seen it too.
But all Leah’s points were well taken. I fully expect them to be addressed sometime in the next few years too. But only if they dramatically keep losing market share with no prospects of replacing their ‘marks’. That does not seem to be happening, or not quickly enough. I say you’ve got your own ideas for how to tweak a good SM site, and why not try your hand at it yourself? It’s an idea who’s time may have come! Cheers & Good Luck, ‘VJ’
@VJ: Thing is, there are alternatives to JDate but people keep coming back to JDate because “everyone” uses it. If “everyone” didn’t, people would be less reluctant to leave and the other Jewish dating websites would be more successful. Great cycle, isn’t it? Many people have been complaining about JDate for year but most of them keep using it because they think it’s their only option- and when everyone thinks that way, it’s true. Everyone is instrumental in their own dissatisfaction because as long as they stay with JDate, JDate isn’t going to fix it. If customers keep returning, a company has no reason to think that their service needs major improvement. It’s frustrating.
JDate knows they have the market on online dating so they haven’t had much incentive to improve – only, social networking is applying the pressure.
Agreed. It’s a vicious circle of self reinforcing misery. Which sounds really familiar somehow too. Cheers & Good Luck, ‘VJ’
@vj I’m sorry the comment didn’t take, I’ve been getting that cmoplaint a bit, but am not sure what to do. thanks for taking the time to read and come over here to comment.
@andrea Facebook isn’t the new Jdate for me, b/c I try not to friend people I don’t know at some level. I already don’t have romantic interests in those people, otherwise I’d have dated them instead of friended them.
Sigh.
Facebook is definitely not JDate…you don’t have to pay out your ass to be a member of Facebook.
jdate is getting worse………………first off, if you arent elgible for law of return by Isareli law then you shouldnt be allowed on jdate…….but its about the $….notice the new willing to convert option……….in fact, the jdate is now owned by the same company that owns blacksingles and irishmatch or some shit……they arent jewish…..knowing this, im not comfortable with them having private info. regarding my dating life and so on………so talking to the manager, a buster named celine, it seemed he didnt see jdate as an invaluable service fighting intermarriage, but as a way to get paid….obviously he wasnt jewish…….i know its a business, but if i call and want to know who messaged me before i pay $40 they used to do it…..to help me out in case she was a lot older than i or if it was lady from michigan on vacation in my area for 1 day……..but instead he said i was cheap……..i told him enjoy working for $13 an hour on a sunday………
the site is so backwards, the technology SUCKSSSSSS