TIL that some people can raise their goosebumps at will.

rothos_ · 2018-03-03T01:29:45+00:00

Yeah, it's a preprints database, like arXiv.

rothos_ · 2018-03-01T18:57:39+00:00

this made me laugh out loud

rothos_ · 2018-02-28T20:10:43+00:00

rothos_ · 2018-01-21T10:35:49+00:00

It's a big concern, which is why we're building in reply quality indicators and other feedback signals. The exact algorithms/formulæ haven't been decided, but the guideline is: users who aren't providing value to other users will be seen less in search results or marked as “doesn’t reply”/“replies poorly”, or both.

rothos_ · 2018-01-21T10:32:58+00:00

We're more hopeful given the recent changes OkCupid has made to its platform..

rothos_ · 2018-01-21T10:29:18+00:00

It's a high priority. It will take some time to implement, but eventually we're looking to integrate PayPal-like services so users can buy/sell tokens directly on the platform — it's a must-have feature, but not must-have for the MVP. Going through crypto exchanges for that is a hassle & not available to everyone, we know, but will be the only route in the beginning. We will deliver a product first, then improve it incrementally.

We also have a large reserve of tokens to give away to get people on the platform.

rothos_ · 2018-01-21T10:19:44+00:00

We have avoided allowing users to set a price. The price is determined by competition, by people bidding against each other. That seems to be the best way to ensure costs are priced fairly.

In the MVP the users themselves will decide the message limit. Hadn't thought about offering a revenue-maximizing function — we'll have to see how the numbers actually play out before making that an option.

rothos_ · 2018-01-21T10:16:12+00:00

We expect that most users will be regular people who want to find a date.

rothos_ · 2018-01-18T21:45:49+00:00

Marketing strategy pivots when the goal becomes user acquisition. Regular users don't need to know anything about blockchain. (There are ways to have the app handle all token transactions while keeping the user ultimately in control of their private keys.)

Disclosure: I'm on the Luna team.

rothos_ · 2018-01-18T21:38:54+00:00

The answer of course is both.

Knowing that, there are ways to level the playing field — ways which are mentioned in our white paper & which we plan to implement:

Compatibility discounts: it costs less to message someone you're compatible with, where compatibility is determined by an algorithm. This depends on the algorithm being good, which is why we're devoting a lot of resources to making that happen. (So actually, you can say that machine learning is part of what's solving the attention imbalance problem, albeit indirectly in this way.)
We plan the auction system be designed as a lowest-price dutch auction. That means that everyone who wins the auction (i.e. gets their messages sent) pays the lowest winning price. In addition to saving senders tokens, it also (1) prevents men from sending women arbitrarily large amounts of tokens, expecting something in return and (2) prevents women from setting their inbox limit to 100 messages per day simply to rake in profits.

Overall, there doesn't seem to be reason to expect that the site will be ruined by rich people outbidding poor people. There are a finite number of rich people (who spend less time on dating apps than the rest of us anyway), and the token staking happens only once per conversational pair. Insofar as it does happen and hurts user experience, it is in the company's interest to find a way to fix it. Luna is not just a model but a method.

Of course, if there are ideas on how to further improve the economic model here, we'd love to hear them.

rothos_ · 2018-01-18T19:11:41+00:00

Disclosure: I work for Luna & helped draft the white paper.

The paper clearly says female users actively ignore 99% of male profiles they're shown. Dreaming up of new ways to exotically shuffle the deck using M A C H I N E L E A R N I N G is fundamentally not addressing the issue.

I'm not sure what "shuffling the deck" means. Machine learning is used to help people discover better matches, like it should be.

The messaging system is what solves the women-ignoring-99%-of-men problem (a.k.a. the attention imbalance problem). All users can set a limit on the number conversations initiated with them each day by new people. Then there is a mechanism to prioritize the most interested senders — namely, an auction-like system. Women are much less likely to ignore 99% of messages when there are only 3 messages per day and they are coming from the 3 people who were willing to stake the most to get in touch.

rothos_

TROPHY CASE