Mac dating site Cupidtino opens beta to the public | Hacker News Reader

Mac dating site Cupidtino opens beta to the public

tuaw.com

25 pointsYaggo30 comments

While it's not that I wouldn't date someone who uses a mac, I probably wouldn't date someone who would only date someone who uses a mac, and I certainly wouldn't date someone who would only date someone who would only date someone who uses a mac. And certainly none of the higher-order terms.

Do Mac owners find they get along better with other Mac owners?

I ask this because I suspect the reason for using (and creating) this site isn't necessarily that the user feels more likely to meet someone he/she will get along with. I suspect that the reason may be that the user feels they are more likely to meet someone who appreciates them for certain qualities, in particular the qualities associated with owning Apple products.

I think the site is odd, but nothing about it seems to say that you can't also be on other dating sites.

This is just a way to overcome the chicken/egg problem when starting a dating site by latching onto Apple's marketing.

I've often thought "If only I could meet a nice girl who defines herself entirely by the operating system she uses".

Finally someone has solved this problem for me.

How is this fundamentally different from, e.g., the bodybuilders-seeking-bodybuilders site FitnessSingles?

The most obvious one I can think of is that bodybuilding alters your physical appearance, and that is an important component of attraction for almost everyone. If you go to a site called FitnessSingles you expect the people you meet there to look a certain way (ie not fat).

Bodybuilding is a shared interest: something they can do together, talk about, have friends in common, etc. Owning a mac is owning a product... not a lifestyle, or even a hobby... at least I hope not.

The difference is that one is a brand, and the other is a lifestyle. It would be like seeking bodybuilders who only use Bowflex; completely arbitrary, and not just a little bit weird and cultish.

I found this to be a brilliant idea! Pushing the "I'm a Mac", I'm different and cool thing to its logical conclusion. Tells a lot about how Apple has created a subculture. Think about coming up with a Windows only or, god forbid, Linux only dating site.

I'm going to strike gold with my Plan 9 only dating site.

Dating for people older than dirt with both beards and ponytails past their navels?

The Linux only site would consist purely of guys sporting long hair and trench coats. Getting some girls in there would be tricky.

mac users must be chronic daters....they are always going for the shiny new thing on the market.

Alternate title: "Hipster Dating Site". Seriously, I use Apple products (not exclusively) and this makes me cringe.

An Apple device required for login! If anything, the existance of this site tells a lot about Mac users. Too bad I'm not a single myself.

>If anything, the existance of this site tells a lot about Mac users.

Dating sites are notorious for fragmenting the daylights out of the total dating pool. There's dating sites for "geeks", for "gamers", for "sugar daddies", for "golddiggers", for "just messing around", for "goths", for "insert word here" etc. A fair number of companies actually take a basic site engine, re-skin it so it doesn't look anything like sister sites, re-brand it towards their target audience, buy the appropriate domain and search keywords and launch a new site.

Honestly it's not much of a different model for porn sites that aren't simply licensing their media assets to thousands of sites. Same girl, similar media assets, 8 different sites.

Dating sites aren't that far removed from porn sites. Many dating sites have poor or only rudimentary search functionality, so you end up with a similar experience to a porn site -- browsing a bunch of media and clicking on what you fancy for a better look.

Dating sites aren't that far removed from porn sites.

Porn movies, musicals, and martial arts films have structural similarities as well. People have published academic papers on this. Modern effects-driven action movies should be in that list too.

I suspect most dating sites are really just a kind of targeted link-bait. Those that have real utility will be more like Facebook. (okcupid seems to be one of these)

>There's dating sites for "geeks", for "gamers", for "sugar daddies", for "golddiggers", for "just messing around", for "goths",

I love that you see being a Mac user as on the same level as those other, ahem, subcultures.

>I love that you see being a Mac user as on the same level as those other, ahem, subcultures.

I don't. I've been using OS X as my primary OS since 2005. The point is, there's a "dating site" for everything as evidenced at the ads I saw the last time I poked at one. Christians. Cheating moms. Busty Russians. I wouldn't be surprised if some sites simply register all sorts of keyword combinations.

“If anything, the existance of this site tells a lot about Mac users.”

How so? I’m a Mac user, they didn’t ask me whether their dating site is a good idea. The existence of this website tells you nothing about me (and, by inference, a lot of other Mac users).

The fact that it doesn't speak of all users doesn't mean that it doesn't speak of any.

(No, I am not a platformist. Some of my best friends are Mac users!)

I’m pretty sure that there exist at least some people who care about the OS or hardware the person they want to date is using.

That said, anyone can start a dating website and there not necessarily exists a causal link between group properties and website features (i.e. the website which limits your choices to other Mac users was started because of knowledge about group properties).

I don’t think the developers of the website did any formal research. They might have some anecdotal evidence for this supposed group property, but that’s at best very weak evidence. If the website turns out to be successful you might make a point that we then have stronger evidence.

(Whew, that sounded needlessly complex. I hope you understand what I’m trying to say :)

Well, if the site will have any success, it tells that Mac users value platform-loyality much more than say, Windows users. Hey, got an idea: dating site for Linux users! I guess the male/female ratio would been about 5000/1.

Well, I think there was a time when Macs stood for being different and appealed to those with an open mind and brave enough to try new things.

Looking at this it seems like they now stand for closed-mindedness and eliteness.

It's a step in the right direction, but not enough. Too many losers out there are still using OS X 10.5. I wouldn't want to date them.

Exceptionally bizarre.

Everyone knows women love rebels and bad boys!

What better way to show your rebellious side than sign up and declare to the ladies, "Windows 7 was MY idea..."

Or, if you're the dark, mysterious type: "I'm OSX by day, Ubuntu by night..."

I don't know. there's a part of me that thinks this is the lamest thing I've ever seen and there's another part of me that thinks there's almost endless opportunities for dating site verticals.

niche to win

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