You could base your meet-ups on anonymity and uniformity. I've always wondered why these sites focus so much on pictures. I think they should be based on personality and similar interests. Take the pictures and user-ids out of the list of people going to meet up. Also you can add structure to the event. I find people are much more likely to meet a bunch of strangers if they know exactly what to expect and what is going to happen.
The social map idea isn't bad at all: you might not get a great idea about a person by their biased autobiographical profile. Looking at their facebook or myspace activity may glean much more insight as to their personality.
One of the things that strikes me about dating sites is how they're designed for people who are the absolute best at communicating and putting forth a good impression. If online daters were so good at that they probably wouldn't be trying to get a date online! There needs to exist mechanisms that help people to express themselves. Also, I could just be crazy, but it seems like there's some inherent dishonesty in presenting yourself via online dating. Are you lonely? Horny? Bored? There doesn't seem to be a way to express any emotions or desires that others may share without appearing undesireable. Some way for people to connect based on their emotional state seems useful to me, I just don't know how you'd present it to users (other than perhaps through hidden settings and a "show me users who feel similarly to how I do" list method).
The social map idea isn't bad at all: you might not get a great idea about a person by their biased autobiographical profile. Looking at their facebook or myspace activity may glean much more insight as to their personality.
One of the things that strikes me about dating sites is how they're designed for people who are the absolute best at communicating and putting forth a good impression. If online daters were so good at that they probably wouldn't be trying to get a date online! There needs to exist mechanisms that help people to express themselves. Also, I could just be crazy, but it seems like there's some inherent dishonesty in presenting yourself via online dating. Are you lonely? Horny? Bored? There doesn't seem to be a way to express any emotions or desires that others may share without appearing undesireable. Some way for people to connect based on their emotional state seems useful to me, I just don't know how you'd present it to users (other than perhaps through hidden settings and a "show me users who feel similarly to how I do" list method).