The Dating App Paradox: Why dating apps may be ‘worse than ever’::undefined

  • Hexagon@feddit.itEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    If you want a TLDR: every time dating apps work, they lose two customers, and they don’t want that

  • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    The only fix I came up with, is to charge people some amount up front, then if they’re still active weekly users in 6 months, they get a refund. That would create a better incentive structure for the app.

    • Troy@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      I’ve worked on open source software projects, some of them pretty major. And we had a sort of similar debate. In a non-capitalist software product, the users are not strictly required – particularly if they aren’t paying, you don’t really need them. Except that open source has this user->contributor treadmill that requires that some users become contributors in order for a project to grow. So you want to be as pro-user as possible, hoping and dreaming you’ll get patches out of the blue some day, or similar.

      But what happens when your users become hostile or entitled. What if they do the equivalent of calling tech support and demanding satisfaction. The customer is always right, right? How much time and effort can you devote to them without detracted from what you were doing (coding). Eventually as a product grows, the number of hostile users grows. What do you do to manage this at scale?

      Suddenly you’re facing the same problem Home Depot faces in your article, except your capital is not measured in dollars but time, motivation, mood… And you start putting up barriers in a similar fashion.

      • fjordbasa@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        The customer is always right, right?

        The full quote is actually “The customer is always right in matters of taste.” Which basically means that you should sell what your customers want to buy- not that customers can demand whatever they want 😄

      • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        In a non-capitalist software product, the users are not strictly required

        What’s the point of writing software without users? Even if you’re the only user, there needs to be a user, else it’s a waste of time and effort. If you’re just playing, studying, or whatever, why even publish and open source it? Users are a necessity for any software.

        The other issues of growing FLOSS projects are a serious issue though.

    • CM400@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      “How much does it cost to go outside today?”

      “Hmm… the weather is nice and it’s a weekend, so we’re at peak rates today. Did you want to go somewhere or just stay in the yard, they’re running a special on staying within RentCo property lines.”