This is a rather unusual dating site. It’s owned by the same folks who run RoommateAccess.com and ApartmentAccess.com. The design is flashy and fun, with sound effects and Flash animations. There’s censorship here: the chatroom *BLEEPS* out what it defines as “profanity,” and profiles can’t contain what they declare obscene or profane. But the chatroom talk is about as raunchy as it gets. Even I was rather put off, and I pride myself on my urbanity.
When you fill out your profile, you can be a M or F seeking M or F, and then you can also include your “gender preference,” by which I believe they mean sexual orientation: hetero, homo, bi. Unless you’re bi, you’ve just stated your preference above. If you are bi, then you were just forced to choose one sex to search for. I think this is a big glitch in their system, but if you’re not bisexual, you won’t care much.
The list of body types is nice and varied, and non-judgmental: slender, average, athletic, voluptuous, large, big and beautiful, and even disabled. I don’t think “disabled” should be a body type (what if your disability is ADD or blindness/deafness?), and what if you want to list yourself as disabled but also athletic or disabled and voluptuous? But I’m glad they included the option anyway.
The religion list has several Christian options, and Buddhist/Taoist, but no Pagan, just “other.” Other multiple-choice questions are ethnicity, occupation, income, drinking, smoking, relationship status, relationship desired, and children. “Unhappily married” an option under relationship status, which is unusual. Most sites would use “separated” or “open marriage;” this version seems to actually encourage cheating.
The one and three-month plans automatically renew; the six and twelve-month plans do not.
Features include an IM program (for which you need Macromedia Flash Player), chatrooms with sound effects, Who’s Online, information on upcoming 8 Minute Dating parties, and upon login, a list of all the new members in your area.
Free members can go into one chatroom and can’t private-message anyone, but can respond to private messages. They can send emails, but only paid members can’t read them. Members aren’t allowed to include any contact information in their profile to try to circumvent this. If they’re caught, they’re banned from the site.
Paid members have full email access: you can contact and reply to anyone, and any member can read and reply to your emails. You can also send and receive unlimited IMs with text, audio and video. You get full access to all chatrooms, including the ability to do one-on-one private chat, and to create your own chatroom. You get instant notification when one of your interests comes online, unlimited use of video/voice email, and priority placement in member matches.
One more thing: when someone on the site expresses interest in you, you hear a wolf whistle. The IM also makes a sound effect with every message sent. You can turn off some of these sounds if they get on your nerves. I don't like the way the IM system works. When someone IMs you, you can either accept or decline. If you decline, you don’t get the opportunity to be polite about it and tell them why: "I'm sorry, but you live too far away," or whatever. So you either have to get sucked into a conversation, or be totally rude and essentially slam the door in the person's face.
I spoke with S.R.O., a 33-year-old hetero man from CA, who has been a basic (free) member for about five months. He says, “I found the site while wasting time at work, and stuck with it because you can chat for nothing. Plus, I get paid 25 bucks an hour to do this on slow days. Makes me resent having to work sometimes.” Is he looking for a partner or wife? “Wife? Hell no. Been there, done that. Just looking for entertainment.” How about a girlfriend? “Not a girlfriend, not from here. The desperate to non-desperate ratio has got to be something like 70-30.”
Charming. Good thing he’s not looking for a girlfriend; with that attitude, he’s going to be left quite alone.
Then I interviewed R.W., a 37-year-old hetero woman from NY, who has been a member for two years. She joined because she was bored, and looking for interesting people to talk to. She says, "I’ve made some really nice friends who I wouldn’t trade for anything. We call each other all the time, and go out to each other’s houses. I was never really looking for a boyfriend. I met people who were interested in me, but I never pursued it." I bet if she were in the market for love, she'd do great. While I was in the chatroom interviewing her, she seemed to be doing very well with a guy who was also in there. So we'll see!
If you've has used this site and you want to tell me about it, email me!
