I disagree with the folks who say that contracting your development is ALWAYS bad. I've been doing the development under contract for SetForMarriage.com for over a year and a half, and it's going great (even though I have other client work) because we communicate daily (it also helps that the owner and I were co-workers before). I get pretty considerable leeway to play with features and design (approval is almost always granted), and because of that I really enjoy working on the site.

It only took a few months to hit our first thousand users, because the owner of SFM spent a few days compiling a list of contact info for every local news station in the country, bugged them multiple times a week, and used vacation days and skipped college classes to fly out and give live interviews (he works for an airline so his flights are free). I was unsure of his hustling ability before that, but boy did he prove me wrong. Plus, he's funding this whole thing with airline salary and whatever's left over from his student loans.

I think the reason the Date or Done guy is so depressed is that he was never able to admit to himself that either the idea was bad or he wasn't hustling in the right ways. It's cognitive dissonance. We didn't spend any time on SEO for Set For Marriage until a few months ago, and we didn't even have a real logo until a couple of months after the site launched. I always hate to see people get so attached to their ideas that they fool themselves. I think when you're in the early stages it's better to be afraid that everything is on the verge of miserable failure but always know that it's in your power to drag it out of the mud into glory (or decide to pull the plug).

Also, I really hate to kick a guy while he's down, but if your social website needs a walkthrough there's probably something fundamentally wrong: http://dateordone.com/how