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New dating site for asexuals


Asexuals_Net

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Asexuals_Net

As per request of some of the users in my old thread, I'll post the news here so it will be more visible for everyone.
Because of my own frustration in finding asexuals in a logical way (both friendships and relationships), I decided to create a new dating site for asexuals/demi/gray.

The site includes search options to select one or multiple options (asexual/gray/demi and women/men/non-binary/agender etc)
You can also see romantic orientation and filter on these through your profile. As well as selecting options if you are looking for relationships or friendships.

The site went live yesterday and currently has around 200 users so we definitely need some more users so consider this your invitation!
🍰www.asexuals.net🍰

I'm working hard on improving it as I'm getting a lot of feedback these past 24 hours. So if you don't like what you see yet, please know I'm working hard to make it the best dating site for asexuals there is out there. And as for everyone who responded in my old thread: thank you for your support and feedback. Very much appreciated!

I hope everyone enjoys the site! 💜

 

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I was pretty excited for this, until I found out that key features such as Private Messages will be closed behind a pay wall starting January 2021.

 

Why? If someone really wants to make a place for the benefit of the community at large, there are plenty of ways to build and run a website for free. Even without charging members for their membership, websites that are free to use can hold up hosting costs just fine (and even make money, if they're popular enough!) with tools like Google AdSense and standard advertising.

 

This looks like just another cash grab to me.

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aces&eights
21 minutes ago, `Silver said:

grab

Hey don’t know if this has just updated but it looks like it’s fully free to be a member. On the front page the admin said they won’t be charging anything until 2021! And even then there’s a free version still available! (Correct me if I’m wrong but that’s what the website says on the front page)

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9 minutes ago, aces&eights said:

Hey don’t know if this has just updated but it looks like it’s fully free to be a member. On the front page the admin said they won’t be charging anything until 2021! And even then there’s a free version still available! (Correct me if I’m wrong but that’s what the website says on the front page)

It's currently free, yes, but only until 2021. After that, key features - including messaging and even viewing profiles - will be closed behind a pay wall. $25 may not seem like much for a yearly membership, but you can actually host a website for a fraction of that for a full year, and as I mentioned before there are also hosting solutions that are completely free of charge.

 

The way the site is set up, it's basically trying to build a userbase so that it will then make sense to offer a paid membership, and using the website without it will be completely pointless, because how are you going to know who to talk to if you can't even view their profile and check their interests? Setting aside that, you know, even messaging will be a paid feature.

 

I'll stick to the sites I'm already using, thanks.

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nutterwithasolderingiron

i was going to ask if there was going to be a paywall. 

 

 

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I think a charge for membership for dating sites is not necessarily a bad thing, as it puts off people who aren't really serious as well as idiots who just want to sign up to mess about and annoy people. 

 

I don't think the annual charge of $35 USD which is stated in the website as the price for the top membership is particularly extortionate.

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The cost for the site that starts in 2021 is quite reasonable compared to other dating sites. I'll be checking out the site and seeing if I like it for the next half year. I can decide later if I want to pay for continued access.

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Congratulations on your achievement so far.  Good luck getting that critical mass need to survive and thrive. 

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Asexuals_Net
8 hours ago, `Silver said:

I was pretty excited for this, until I found out that key features such as Private Messages will be closed behind a pay wall starting January 2021.

 

Why? If someone really wants to make a place for the benefit of the community at large, there are plenty of ways to build and run a website for free. Even without charging members for their membership, websites that are free to use can hold up hosting costs just fine (and even make money, if they're popular enough!) with tools like Google AdSense and standard advertising.

 

This looks like just another cash grab to me.

Hi Silver, I'm quite sad to hear you see this as a cash grab. The initial plan was to let the page be free for the first 2 months. But after listening to advice from people on this forum as well as Reddit I've decided to give this whole year for free for people to try out and for me to get all the bugs out before I start asking for any kind of money.

There will be a free membership in 2021 that will allow people to look around to check how many members there are, how active the community is, etc.
I want to put up a paywall for a couple of reasons. One is discouraging harassment and also making sure people are serious about looking for asexuals/demisexuals/grays.
The other side of it is that I really want to make something more of this. With the money that I ask (25 annual = a cup of coffee a month) from people, I can:
- Pay my costs for servers. This domain wasn't cheap and I've put the domain under the best provider we have in my country which comes with great security among other things. Sure, you could get free options but you also get awful quality in return.
- Pay my own hours. I've been working on this for the past 6 months and since launch been fixing bugs non stop, answering support emails, responding to people on social with their questions, this is honestly already a part time job (hour wise) and this is only the first week with a small user base. If I want to help others, I need to invest hours. I can't invest these kind of hours without asking money for it. Because I need to earn money somehow and if not this way, I'll need to put more time in another job which means less time for the dating site.
- I'm only paying myself what I need to make sure I get by. Everything else goes either back into developing the site or creating new ways to growing awareness for the community by supporting or starting my own podcasts, setting up meetings, and so on.
- Depending on the amount of users using paid memberships the pricing can go down which is also something I state on the website.

If you'd like to read more about my reasoning behind the whole paywall you can find that here:
https://www.asexuals.net/full-access-for-all-in-2020/

More information about the future plan can be found here:
https://www.asexuals.net/about-us/faq-asexuality/
under: General > Can you explain the different memberships tot me?

As for using Google Ads on my website: I mentioned in earlier posts that I've put on both Reddit and AVEN that I will not do this. I absolutely hate the intrusion and it's just very distracting from what you're doing on a dating site.

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Asexuals_Net

To everyone else: thank you for the kind words. They motivate me to keep going and making this the best website it can be! I'm looking forward to seeing you all on the site! 🍰

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Appreciate the effort and hope it's a great site.

 

I do worry that this will further spread the community thin across the various ace dating platforms, making it harder for each platform/site to reach critical mass and thus making none of them worthwhile.

 

Each one has its faults or quirks but I think the best strategy would be for everyone to reach consensus on a platform to use and then congregate there. Maybe your new site can be that place.

 

There is already Aceapp, Acebook, Asexualitic, Asexualcupid, OkCupid, Romanceonly, etc., and more. That is a lot of profiles one must maintain if they want to make themselves available to everyone in the already small ace community.

 

I suppose if the site is really great, then people will naturally gravitate towards it. Here's hoping!

 

 

 

 

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Asexuals_Net
13 minutes ago, ExcessivelyCurious said:

Appreciate the effort and hope it's a great site.

 

I do worry that this will further spread the community thin across the various ace dating platforms, making it harder for each platform/site to reach critical mass and thus making none of them worthwhile.

 

Each one has its faults or quirks but I think the best strategy would be for everyone to reach consensus on a platform to use and then congregate there. Maybe your new site can be that place.

 

There is already Aceapp, Acebook, Asexualitic, Asexualcupid, OkCupid, Romanceonly, etc., and more. That is a lot of profiles one must maintain if they want to make themselves available to everyone in the already small ace community.

 

I suppose if the site is really great, then people will naturally gravitate towards it. Here's hoping!

 

 

 

 

I'm very aware of this and am somewhat worried about that too. But I do feel that all of them have some downsides. And hopefully by improving my site regularly to the needs of the asexual community I'll be able to bring everyone together. I'm really hoping this will work as I'd love to do more, besides just this website. I'd love to eventually work together with AVEN and podcasts and really grow the network and help other asexual entrepreneurs out too. But I suppose those are big dreams for the future. One step at a time.

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Skycaptain

All commenting about this new dating site having some chargeable services, remember that AVEN itself is partly funded by donations from members. Sites cost $1000's per annum to run, and take time 

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Sennkestra

Heya @Asexuals_Net is there anywhere that we can learn more about who is creating / running / funding the website and taking in any profits? I'm kinda hesitant to give any money or sensitive personal information when there's so little information about who will be handling that information.

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Phantasmal Fingers

@Asexuals_Net, I'm intrigued that there is an 'aromantic' option on the site. To me, a dating site would be for those who are romantically inclined.

 

Does the site cater for friendship as well as romance? 

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@Moderne Jazzhanden

 

Not sure if you have checked it out yet but the front page says love and friendship. Also there are a number of groups you can join such as "science group" or "animal lovers group" that isn't specifically for dating purposes but, I think, more for fun.

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Phantasmal Fingers
2 hours ago, Hadgr said:

@Moderne Jazzhanden

 

Not sure if you have checked it out yet but the front page says love and friendship. Also there are a number of groups you can join such as "science group" or "animal lovers group" that isn't specifically for dating purposes but, I think, more for fun.

Okay, thanks, I hadn't noticed that. I just had a cursory glance at the first 'create a profile' section. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On May 23, 2020 at 7:53 PM, Asexuals_Net said:

- Pay my own hours. I've been working on this for the past 6 months and since launch been fixing bugs non stop, answering support emails, responding to people on social with their questions, this is honestly already a part time job (hour wise) and this is only the first week with a small user base. If I want to help others, I need to invest hours. I can't invest these kind of hours without asking money for it. Because I need to earn money somehow and if not this way, I'll need to put more time in another job which means less time for the dating site.

I can sort of relate to this; tying up loose ends with my own technical work can easily take as long or even longer than the initial task. My time estimates are never accurate.

 

If I power up the item in question after extensive work and it doesn't let out the magic smoke, I consider the project a success even though there may still be a lot to do.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Sarah-Sylvia

So I guess the site has been up for a few months now. Wondering how it's going and if there's any good reports from people who've used it. :)

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Low End Things

I've been on it for a while now and it's been pretty nice. I've connected with a lot of people on there, and everyone's really cool! No deeper connections yet but that's only because I'm focusing on people close to me, and my interests are very particular.

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Asexuals_Net

@Sennkestra Please do not worry about sending money. As mentioned before the service is free for the rest of 2020 as I can handle that financially. As for who's running the site.. me! :) However I do value my privacy a lot and since I'm only doing this on my own and people in my own surrounding do not know about my orientation, I try to keep a low profile. Which is why I'd rather keep it somewhat low-key for now anyway. Sorry! But again, don't worry about donating!

@Real Jazz Hands yes! Definitely. Friendship and more. You can select what you're looking for in your profile as well so others know you're just looking for friendship. Thanks for explaining @Hadgr I appreciate it a lot.

@Sarah-Sylvia
It's been about 2 months now (and what a journey it was.. I never expected this many people signing up in the first 2 months. Close to a 1000 people!) I've gotten a lot of compliments on Twitter from people, but also a lot of feedback in the beginning which I used to improve the site. As it's free for the rest of 2020 I'd suggest trying it now rather than later. If you're curious of course. No pressure!

@Low End Things That's really great to hear! I'm waiting to hear from some asexuals to get the first success story so let me know when you do ;)

@Skycaptain Thanks for explaining a bit more about the costs of websites. I definitely notice (and understand) not everyone is aware of the costs of running a (good and safe!) website. And even so, I've tried to keep it lower compared to other sites. Asexualitic is cheaper but also uses ads. Which in my personal experience is blocking out certain users information and buttons, making it hard to navigate as well as read profiles. One of the main reasons I do not want google ads on my website. Point being, I thought a lot about it and it definitely isn't just something I'm doing as a 'cash grab' as some have called it. So really appreciate your input here. :)

Everyone else who has been trying it out: thank you! It makes me really happy to see so many people joining and sharing the site!

 

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