I was trying to explain federated websites to a friend and she asked if there is a federated dating app. She recently went through a break up and the apps are dreadful as I’m sure many of you know.
It’d be hard to launch a dating system on the fediverse because it the type of service that relies heavily on network effects. People want to be on the dating app with the most people. However, I think there is an opportunity because the mainstream apps are so notoriously awful, monetized, and enshitified.
It could be a community within an existing network or it could be its own website. I don’t know, I’m just putting the idea out there.
I’m a woman who has mostly dated men, and I’m firmly in the “no pen pals” camp. Without body language, tone of voice, etc., there’s a lot of missing information that my brain fills in. I find that the more I text with someone before meeting face to face, the more likely I am to feel disappointed when we finally meet because they don’t live up to the image conjured up in my brain. If we’ve both expressed mutual interest on the app, my preferrence is to go straight to planning a low stakes in person meetup.