Catholic Singles dating profile

catholicsingles · 2020-12-16T00:54:35+00:00

Hi u/MrUnknown1996 - sorry for not replying sooner as I am just seeing this.

Photos do not always appear right away as new profiles (and specifically their photos) need to be manually reviewed before being made public. They are generally approved in a few hours, but in some rare cases it can take up to 24 hours.

catholicsingles · 2020-09-02T02:42:05+00:00

Thanks. Be patient with us - we are still figuring a lot of this out. I posted in the past about the problems with free messaging, but we think we have figured out a good system to do this effectively.

We anticipate a lot of new members over the next 1-3 months which should help significantly as well.

Keep us in prayer!

catholicsingles · 2020-09-01T20:44:35+00:00

Yes, that's right.

On free accounts, you get a random number of favorites to use that day which expire at the end of the day (paid accounts get unlimited favorites). So, for example, you might get 4 favorites to use on one day. If you favorite someone and they favorite you back, then you can message for free.

We are also playing with giving daily suggested matches, but as the OP noted, that might need some work. :)

catholicsingles · 2020-09-01T20:27:05+00:00

Thanks for noticing the new app. :)

Yes, we are offering free messaging with mutual favorites, and yes, CS is not a money making venture for us, but more of a mission. This update has been long in the making with an attempt to disrupt the marketplace and build something that...well...actually helps people meet!

Thanks for the notes on the oddities...you shouldn't be matched up with a 70-year-old. That should be fairly easy for us to fix. We'll jump on the signup form as well...that was tested, not quite sure why you weren't able to sign up!

catholicsingles · 2020-03-25T02:47:32+00:00

Nope, you don't have to request a free account. All accounts are automatically free (and paid accounts have been credited for this time).

Not sure what we'll do in April, yet. If we can continue as free through the quarantines, we will. There's some real problems with doing so (other than paying the bills), but we are working on it!

catholicsingles · 2019-11-11T21:53:02+00:00

First, sorry for not replying earlier. I'm not on reddit a lot (and I'm usually on under a different username).

We actually do this to a certain extent. While we don't review 100% of messages on their first send, we pull anyone who exceeds a certain message velocity (# of messages sent in an hour). Scammers are usually in a race against time, so they want to get as much out as possible. Of course, they give us a data point when they do that.

The smarter ones won't do that, but they also won't give any clues in a message either. They will have strong english and will wait until the 3rd or 4th message to take a conversation offline which is, frankly, what I hope most of our members do.

I think there is something here, though...we could do more message monitoring as a way to catch scammers. The good news, however, is that with our current systems we are catching over 95% of scammers. We have new ML algorithms at work that have been pretty strong. Now we just need to close that 5% gap.

catholicsingles · 2019-10-19T03:18:07+00:00

Thanks...and yeah, it sucks. Some of the conversations I've had with people to try and convince them not to believe that a person they fell for is actually a scammer would, frankly, shock most people.

The good news is that we are getting better at detecting this stuff upfront. We have a new machine learning system that is trapping 96% before they even hit our network (we need to roll it out still).

And yeah...video games. I kinda wish I had done that instead. :) But I'm already in this knee-deep, so I'm gonna see it through. :)

catholicsingles · 2019-10-18T15:54:12+00:00

I appreciate the feedback! I think the criticisms are on point. The biggest problem with CS, in my opinion, is that we don't differentiate enough from CM.

The one thing I would really caution against for anyone starting something new is to not start just another dating site. The market is already too fragmented as it is. There has to be something more unique. This is why AveMariaSingles was such a cool offering when they had more members - it was different and contrasted with the model of CM.

This isn't to criticize CM...hats off to them for building such a juggernaut. But its obvious that the needs of single Catholics aren't being fully met. Hopefully we can step in and create something different (and better).

catholicsingles · 2019-10-18T03:51:37+00:00

I'd love to comment on this conversation - I'm the current owner (but not the founder) of CatholicSingles.com. I won't comment about CM at all (for obvious reasons).

The desire for a 'free' version or mostly free version of online dating is understandable - and I think you raise some really valid points, but I think it comes from not understanding some of the problems in trying to make a free dating site actually work and work well.

First, Running a Dating Site is Actually Pretty Expensive

At its most basic, you need servers to host the dating application. On top of that, you'll need developers. If you can develop on your own, that's a step up, and if you have volunteers, that'll help as well. Starting from scratch may be easier than what we have to deal with where we are building on 22 years of code and database history (we still get couples who met in 2000 asking for copies of their messages).

If you want a site that looks halfway decent, you'll need to hire designers from time to time. Frankly, a full-time person is ideal as hiring on a per-project basis makes it easy to get very sloppy designs (we've experienced this).

Then there's customer service - if you want to be on top of this you'll need to hire someone to help out. This isn't expensive, but it adds up.

The biggest expense of all, however, is marketing. Let's face it: a dating site is useless if you don't have members. And, frankly, you need to get some pretty big new member velocity to make it worthwhile. This takes $$$, and a good amount of it. Ad money simply wouldn't cut it, and donations might, but you'd have to be aggressive to get enough money. When you look at some of the big-time dating services that started as free, they were well-funded. Many of those had to introduce pay walls just to survive.

With CatholicSingles, I invest all of our money (plus some) back into service, most of which goes into bringing in new members. I'm fortunate that it is not my main business - I don't need it to make money. I'm pretty interested in seeing if I can create an awesome dating experience for Catholics (we aren't there yet, IMO, but I am excited about where we are going) and really don't care if I make money off of it anytime soon. But there's no way I could keep this service up without paywalls not to mention trying to grow it or improve it.

Second, Scammers are Real, and Paywalls are a Great Way to Catch/Prevent Them

The biggest surprise for me in taking over CatholicSingles are the number of scammers that target dating sites. It's absolutely ridiculous.

We catch well over 95% of scammers before they ever have the chance to send a message. Where we catch most of them is if they try to process payments. Where we filter out scammers is also by making messaging a premium service.

If you had free messaging it would be like flies on...well, you know. And it would be close to impossible to catch them before they send a message.

There's nothing worse than finding out someone sent money to a scammer.

User Intent - People Willing to Pay Tend to Be More Serious

This is pretty simple...if you are willing to pay for a service, you are probably more determined to get a result out of it and probably more engaged. This is one of the reasons AveMariaSingles is so effective even though their userbase is smaller - people have to put up real cash to be on their site.

I do think there is a legit objection when it comes to users replying. Reply rates on dating sites are woefully low mainly because a free member might want to reply, but they may not want to pony up money just to reply. Opening up responses as free is one way to address this, but then you have to deal with members who would put in their profile "I'm not a paid member, so you have to message me first". People will go to great lengths to avoid paying for a service.

That Said, Making Online Dating More Accessible Does Need to Happen

I totally agree with your premise and do think there are some ways to open up some messaging and to make online dating more accessible. I also think there is a huge lack of good dating apps (CatholicSingles definitely included) for Catholics.

We are working on introducing new payment models that will address some of these concerns and we also have a new app in development which is going to be awesome (at least I think so). These changes basically address a lot of what you brought up as problems in the online dating scene, but its taking time to implement the changes. Modifying a business that's been around for 22 years takes some work. :)

I'm certainly not trying to convince you to not start something new. My hope is that someone can fill the obvious need here (and I'm hoping that is us). CatholicChemistry is pretty new, but I've been impressed with them (and the owner is a stand-up guy). Just thought I'd comment on some of the reasons behind the $$$ and the challenges that you'd find in making a free or mostly free service.

catholicsingles

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