Month: November 2004

SexyIntro adult dating website review

Posted on By thomas

Sexyintro.com is an adult-oriented online dating website, which has been around for about 2 years. They currently have over 7000 South African members, and the website grows at around 300 members per month. The only local competition is a website called Erotic Personals. When a user signs up for this service you have to complete two screens of basic information before you get an email to activate you account. While other many other websites force you enter screens full of information before your registration is complete Sexyintro.com allows you to complete your profile at later stage. You are reminded to complete you profile and post a photo at the top of the website. The profile itself is just an additional 8 questions of which most are short descriptive boxes instead of drop down lists. This is tedious and could be improved. The matching technology cannot be that sophisticated with this implementation.

If one photo is not enough you can upload as many as 20 photos to Sexyintro.com! The photo’s can be added to your adverts and are included in your profile link, and like most services out there this can make you stand out from the pack. Premium membership gives you access to a rich list of content e.g. all photographs, access to fantasy photo shoots, forum topics, working girls and strippers section. Subscription rates start at R79.95 per month, going up to R479.7 for 12 (giving you 6 months free). You can pay by credit card or cash/bank deposit. Your credit card is processed on a secure server with 128 bit encryption. This is the same level of encryption that all online banks use, and is the accepted minimum standard for ecommerce.

The main feature of Sexyintro.com which makes is a bit different from other websites is that it tries to encourage a community feeling. You can place ads to find your partner, you can read ads from other people, and sometimes it’s for models, sometimes its photographers advertising their services, men seeking women, women seeking men. Although there’s a HIV section no ads exist at this point. Posting and ad is done by country and specify the province, city, location for the ad (section) and a subject along with the actual ad. You’re allowed to attach a photo to the ad and also your telephone number if you’re gutsy enough. You have to select whether your ad is of an “adult nature”. If it’s not then you wait 48 hours for it to be checked and approved. Sexyintro.com obviously wants to encourage you not to by shy when trying to satisfy your needs ?

Overall impression is that this website offers a lot of value and it’s very interactive community. As the user base grows the interaction will increase and a more diverse profile will emerge. The photo galleries and the section on fantasy shoots, strippers and working girls are very much focussed on the male species.

 

Six million Britons sign up for singles bars in cyberspace

Posted on By webmaster

Up to three-quarters of single people could soon be finding new partners online – and many could form long-lasting relationships

By Steve Bloomfield

Online dating, once seen as a last resort for the desperate, has become mainstream, with new research suggesting as many as six million Britons are signed up to internet agencies.

To underline the internet’s emergence as a legitimate way of meeting a partner, a second academic study suggests relationships borne out of online dating are now likely to be as long lasting as those of couples who meet in more traditional ways.

There are now 150 online dating agencies in the UK alone, up 20 per cent in just 12 months, according to a report by Hitwise, the body that analyses levels of internet usage. It found that online agencies are growing at a rate of 30 a year, with people in London and the South-east making up a third of all UK users. Fifteen per cent are based in the Midlands and 11 per cent in the North-west.

People aged between 25 and 34 make up the largest group of users at 29 per cent, with 35- to 44-year-olds representing 26 per cent of the market. A significant number of online daters – 18.5 per cent – are aged 18 to 24, while one in 10 is aged over 55.

The 30-somethings tend to have been dating for more than a decade and are tired of looking for new people at work or in bars and clubs.

Academic research led by Richard Scase, professor of organisational behaviour at Kent University, shows dramatic year-on-year increases in the number of people turning to the internet to find new partners.

“Two-thirds to three-quarters of single men and women will be members soon,” Professor Scase said. “There are about six million using these services now and by 2005 there will be seven million.”

The three biggest online dating agencies, Dating-Direct.com, Udate and Match.com, all claim to have more than a million active members each.

Samantha Bedford, managing director of Udate, said: “There is this big pool of people to choose from online, instead of having to just settle for that new guy in your department. You don’t have to trawl the bars and you don’t have to go through the embarrassment of being turned down.”

Online dating is partly fuelled by the rise in the number of single people. There are currently around 11 million singletons under 55 in the UK; that figure is expected to rise to 16 million by 2010.

The boom has led to services springing up to cater for those who don’t like the idea of a mass-market agency. Last week saw the launch of Compa.co.uk, a group dating website that matches circles of single women with a similar group of men in an attempt to remove the potential for awkwardness on a normal one-to-one date.

The more confident single person can always join Gorgeous Networks – or they can at least try. Classing itself as an exclusive club, Gorgeous Networks asks prospective members to place a picture and profile of themselves on the site. Current members are then given the opportunity to decide whether they should be allowed to join.

Researchers at Bath University claim that couples whose eyes meet over a crowded chatroom will stay together for an average of seven months. The Bath report’s co-author, Dr Jeff Gavin, said: “It’s clearly now an everyday activity, and our research shows that the relationships it produces are no better or worse than traditional relationships.”

Source: The Independent Online

 

From the Dalai Lama to African ICT Achievers

Posted on By thomas

This past weekend I had the honour of attending a lecture by His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama from Tibet. The spiritual leader of Buddhism and symbol for peace. This is his 3rd visit to South Africa. The lecture took place at Vista University in Soweto. The main message I took from this lecture was to meditate on compassion. I often felt that I have not been very sincere in my actions or things I do to help other people. There has been some kind of unwritten expectation that the favour be returned. Well no more of that! I just want to be genuinely compassionate towards my fellow human beings and animals on Earth. I found the Dalai Lama to have a very good understanding of how scientifically the positive affects of meditation has been proven by medical science. He also has a sense of humour and speaks with some much humility when questioned at the end of his lecture. Afterwards me and my friends went to visit the home of Nelson Mandela in Orlando West, Soweto and the Hector Pieterson museum.

In the evening I attended the 6th annual African ICT Achievers awards. This very sophisticated event took place at the Dome in Northgate. Representing the Computer Society of South Africa I was very pleased to meet up with my cousin Lee Easton and his wonderful wife Connie. The music was fantastic. A few performances from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera set the scene.