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| IM turns me off.
Posted: 4/20/2009 6:58:30 AM | so come on then....
if we are to have an exodus...
who is going to list some other sites where you can IM for free?
Honestly, what a bunch ungrateful b*stards. I can't believe all of the b*tching you people are doing because about this. What about all of the other FREE reasons to be on POF? I don't use IM (rather childish & unreliable for my taste), but I can say that I've been on paid dating sites and I've had FAR more success here than anywhere else.
So, if you're gonna have a mass exodus, then just do it! Otherwise, shut up & be grateful to Markus for what he does provide here... FOR FREE. | |
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| looking for new IM
Posted: 4/20/2009 7:05:20 AM | no one said aol was discontinuing service. AOL owns an application called userplane that POF was using for their IM connections and THAT has been discontinued. I dont know of any other DATING site that has free IM service.
I know of two such sites. Both free.... both with an inbuilt IM. | |
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| IM turns me off.
Posted: 4/20/2009 7:21:42 AM | Yes I agree. many people forget, this is an excellent site. yet it is FREE. Go somewhere else and see if they can match this site for FREE. I will gurantee you will not find one.
As I mentioned, I found IM annoying, in that I could not control who IM's me. I am not here to chat to anyone who wants to IM me. Then you have all those who just come here to socialize. That is the most inane excuse I ever heard. If you have so called friends or want to socialize, give them your personnal IM. Why are you doing it here Or are you that bored with your lives.
Plus all the lazy people who cannot write a simple email. They complain how much effort it is to do that, yet they have no problem typing for hours in an IM. I believe that is called a hypocrite.
While IM is a nice feature, unless on has control over WHO, it was best not to have it. | |
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| IM turns me off.
Posted: 4/20/2009 7:41:56 AM | I'm with the lovely Miss Allison. It's nice to have some sort of IM on this site.
Ken | |
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| IM turns me off.
Posted: 4/20/2009 7:45:25 AM | please bring it back there are so many people that have good relationships in the making and dont have time writing emails to each other. you will lose far more people without the im than you will from people getting ims when they dont want them. this site is the only site that is free and alot of people have left their other dating sites because of the awsome features this site has. you have been able to allow people to meet and have great relationships with an im feature and that one of the reasons they love this site sooo much. i believe this site will take a huge nose dive without it, you will def. see the member count plummit. please bring back the im somehow. i speak for everyone that we love this site and dont want to have to leave because we cant talk to anyone because it takes to long to email.
thank you.
2nightwetalk | |
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| AOL, Plenty of Fuss ... but No Change
Posted: 4/20/2009 8:16:29 AM | Marcus set-up plentyoffish, so it is 'his club', if he doesn't feel like listening to the membership that is fine ... but with that freedom goes responsibility. Unless the much vaunted success has gone to his head and he has acquired the usual 'delusions of grandeur' that often goes with Nobel Prize winners. I wonder if there an algorithm for that?
The Instant Messenger was provided by PoF (whether AOL supplied it or the Grand Poohbah, I actually don't care), it was used as a 'selling' feature, like it or not it has arbitrarily removed (for whatever reason) ... Even though there are lots of basic free stable IM clients out there (Trillian for instance) if Marcus had wanted to replace AOL as the provider.
As for those who argue that we should be grateful to Marcus, OK 'Thank you Marcus for being the Andrew Carnegie of Internet Dating', thank the lord you are not some geeky megalomaniac with bad communications skills.
No doubt Marcus has his fans (short for 'fanatics') and they will attempt to 'spin' this ... or deride/abuse Non-Marcus dissenters - you can see this beginning to happen in earlier responses. Our options are limited ... and there is a great deal of speculation going on.
My personal suspicion is, having built a successful site, Markus being rather clever, does nothing 'on the spur of the moment' or in reaction to outside influnces, so this is either a strategy to generate demand for a 'pay-for-it-IM-facility' (cause you demanded it back) or prep. to closing/ selling PoF and setting up a bigger, better, spanking-shiny new dating site (with less free options and more paid for add-ons). YOU decide what sounds most plausible ... and whether this changes how you feeling about PoF - however be aware that most head-doctors will tell you, "past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour".
The lack of IM means we guys have to drop the 'txt spk' and write in half-decent sentences, which for some of us may be a challenge ... women aren't getting a good deal out of this ... they now can't do an on the spot 'psycho-check' ... so a lose-lose scenario all round.
Off to earn some pennies for the inevitable day-of-reckoning, Mark my words, you heard it here first PoF could soon come to meanPay.Or F.off. | |
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| AOL, Plenty of Fuss ... but No Change
Posted: 4/20/2009 8:39:42 AM |
As for those who argue that we should be grateful to Marcus, OK 'Thank you Marcus for being the Andrew Carnegie of Internet Dating', thank the lord you are not some geeky megalomaniac with bad communications skills.
No doubt Marcus has his fans (short for 'fanatics') and they will attempt to 'spin' this ... or deride/abuse Non-Marcus dissenters - you can see this beginning to happen in earlier responses. Our options are limited ... and there is a great deal of speculation going on.
WOW. You see, THIS is what you call complete disrespect and an in-ablilty to appreciate what is given here, free of charge. I'm not coming to Markus's defense, per se. I look at it from the viewpoint of someone who also owns his own business. It's very disheartening when people criticize the way you run it. Hell, some here have even become abusive - and for what!? When the hand that feeds them for FREE, makes a change, they immediately turn on him. If things are sooo bad, why not start your own free dating site? Then you can all have your mass exodus and be happy once more.
women aren't getting a good deal out of this ... they now can't do an on the spot 'psycho-check' ... so a lose-lose scenario all round.
HAH! If you think that IM is a reliable way to learn about someone's true character, then you're sadly mistaken.
BTW, so what if the site eventually becomes a pay site!? As a business owner, Markus has every right to move it in whatever direction he wants to. For those of you who don't get it, that's just one of the joys of owning your own business! If you don't like it, then take my suggestion above and start your own business. It's just that simple.  | |
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| AOL, Plenty of Fuss ... but No Change
Posted: 4/20/2009 9:10:34 AM | Well here I go again attempting to get myself banned!!
I’ve read a bunch of posts on this thread claiming all of us should just be happy with what we are getting for free. This is not the reality!! Our head fish (the King Fish?) is running a business that I’ve read in earlier posts in this thread that nets him millions of dollars. The product he is providing is “eyeballs on screens” to those who pay to place ads on the site. All of us who visit and use the site are providing those “eyeballs” that enable him to charge for placing the ads. So we are the value added, without all of us looking at the site he has no product to sell. I (and my employer!!) place a value on my time and when I choose to spend it on POF and allow the owner to make a profit off of it, it’s not free. | |
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| AOL, Plenty of Fuss ... but No Change
Posted: 4/20/2009 9:13:10 AM |
As I mentioned, I found IM annoying, in that I could not control who IM's me. I am not here to chat to anyone who wants to IM me. ...............
Plus all the lazy people who cannot write a simple email. They complain how much effort it is to do that, yet they have no problem typing for hours in an IM. I believe that is called a hypocrite.
While IM is a nice feature, unless on has control over WHO, it was best not to have it.
Well perhaps you go on a tirade you should know what you are talking about. You have absolute control over who IM's you. You have the option of disabling it completely and you have the option of not answering an IM box that pops up.
Secondly, it does take a lot of effort to craft a well written email. It takes a fair amount of time to write something personalized and good enough that it may elicit a response. And to have 95% of that effort wasted on read/delete or unread/delete is quite frustrating for most men on any dating site.
There is nothing hypocritical about typing in IM versus writing an email. IM is give and take, it is two way and it is not a static medium. You can garner so much more information via a 30 minute IM session than you can investing the same time in a couple of emails. Plus, I would prefer to see how someone thinks on their feet rather than when they have the time to think an edit an email response.
Navigator..........
WOW. You see, THIS is what you call complete disrespect and an in-ablilty to appreciate what is given here, free of charge..............When the hand that feeds them for FREE, makes a change, they immediately turn on him.
Perhaps as a business owner your perspective and ability to see this issue clearly is skewed. Try looking at this as a user and see how your perspective changes.
Markus is not providing some completely altruistic service here. This is not something he is engaged in simply to benefit us, the users. As users we are providing him a service as much as he is providing us a service. By using the site we are providing him with a revenue stream. We are providing him with income. Without us and our page views he does not have a business. This is a symbiotic relationship where each entity benefits from the other. When one side of the relationship changes it becomes less beneficial to the other side.
When you talk about disrespect of the users towards Markus it makes me laugh. Most responses have simply stated that they want the IM feature back. A few have gone off of the deep end, but for the most part there has been no lack of respect.
The greater degree of disrespect has been shown by Markus himself towards his users. To discontinue a key element of the site without notice is disrespectful. To blatantly lie to your users as to why you are discontinuing the IM feature is blatantly disrespectful. And lastly, his completely derogatory statements regarding the forum user community and their lack of importance to this site was blatantly disrespectful.
As I have said all along, it is Markus' site and he can do with it as he pleases. I think Markus is brilliant in what he has developed from a technical standpoint. However, i see a lot of opportunity for improvement in the area of customer service and evolving his business model from where it is now to where he hopes to be.
Despite what he apparently thinks keeping your customers happy is the key to growing any business. What he has done over the last couple of months wioth the Badge of Seriousness and now with discontinuing the IM feature without notice indicates a serious disregard to your customers. And I have noticed and know of a large number of people leaving the site. I have a feeling this will continue as his business plan evolves.
POF is no longer the only free dating site around. There are several others that are growing strongly and adding features rather than taking them away. Even Match.com has developed a free site. It is no longer a one horse race and you can't continue to operate as if it is. | |
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| AOL, Plenty of Fuss ... but No Change
Posted: 4/20/2009 9:16:52 AM |
BTW, so what if the site eventually becomes a pay site!? As a business owner, Markus has every right to move it in whatever direction he wants to. For those of you who don't get it, that's just one of the joys of owning your own business! If you don't like it, then take my suggestion above and start your own business. It's just that simple.
And that is the problem.
The attitude in business today that customers mean diddly squat, if you don't like it tough.
When they are about to lose the business because of that attitude, they want taxpayer money to bail them out.
I don't give a rats behind about instant messaging one way or the other, never use it.
Fact: members make the site, without them, there is no business.
I ask you, does your business depend on customers or do you think the customers depend on you? | |
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| AOL, Plenty of Fuss ... but No Change
Posted: 4/20/2009 11:16:19 AM |
And that is the problem.
The attitude in business today that customers mean diddly squat, if you don't like it tough.
When they are about to lose the business because of that attitude, they want taxpayer money to bail them out.
I don't give a rats behind about instant messaging one way or the other, never use it.
Fact: members make the site, without them, there is no business.
Of course clients are important to business however, if you don't like the service being provided then we all have the option of doing business somewhere else.
I ask you, does your business depend on customers or do you think the customers depend on you?
In my particular business, that's a two-way street. That being said, while I appreciate a client bringing a problem to my attention in a civilized manner, I certainly DON'T appreciate a client telling me how to run my business or criticizing/commenting on the amount of money it generates. That just wreaks of pettiness and is the kiss of death for them. These are the times when I politely suggest that perhaps they would be better served by another company. My father taught me that there are some jobs that you are better off walking away from. Because of our success & reputation, there is always another client ready and willing to take their place.
I believe that Markus is in a similar situation. The number of people who are upset and voicing their opinions, frustrations, and petty BS (the site makes millions of dollars) are just a very small percentage of his "clientele". Like it or not, there's really nothing that anyone can do about it. It's HIS baby. Frankly, if I was Markus, I might even consider nixing the forums because of all the backlash. Forum members also make up only a small percentage of POF's overall clientele and as implied previously, many of whom aren't even here for dating. So hopefully for everyone's sake, Markus isn't too much like me and finally says, "screw you guys and your lack of appreciation, I'm nuking the forums too!".
Look, I understand that for the most part, people are being civil here. However, there are quite a few who have no qualms about being petty and saying completely inappropriate & unappreciative things to Markus and how he's handling POF. I guess what I'm saying is, if you decide to go that route, I'd tread very lightly and keep a bag packed. A person is only willing to put up with just so much BS. Especially when it's so easily eradicated.  | |
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| AOL, Plenty of Fuss ... but No Change
Posted: 4/20/2009 11:45:44 AM | You make an excellent point, Navigator! One has to wonder how many posts on this thread may have already been censored out due to an irate member speaking his/her mind.
I tend to agree with you. Without seeing the numbers, I'd be willing to bet that most of the vocal folks on this issue don't amount of a hill of beans in the big picture. There are so many newcomers to POF, daily, who will never even understand what they might have missed out on, that everything will proceed pretty normally. And even all of this buzz will probably calm down in another week or so.
Granted, customers could have been told about this differently, but do you all really think it would have made all that much difference? You'd still be without your IM and you'd find another reason to grouse about having lost it. The only difference is you can complain about two things now...how you lost IM and how he neglected to tell us all in a forthright manner. But seriously...isn't that life, these days? | |
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| IM turns me off.
Posted: 4/20/2009 12:48:27 PM | | I liked the IM. its the reason I like this site. | |
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| IM turns me off.
Posted: 4/20/2009 1:41:01 PM | Nice move, instead of one click to get your message and one click on the userplane to reply, now you have to click like 40 times just to get a smiley face from the girl you like.
clicks = points=prizes
Clever dood :) | |
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| IM turns me off.
Posted: 4/20/2009 1:48:20 PM | | where is the chemsity page located ?? can;t find it | |
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| IM turns me off.
Posted: 4/20/2009 2:11:43 PM | | U GUYS HAVE TO UNDERSTAND that the owner of the server doesn't give a shit about the "im" anymore because he's making lots of money off this site, so if he loses like 500 to 1000 people because of it he doesn;t care there are thousands of people of this server we just have to deal with it now | |
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| IM
Posted: 4/20/2009 2:28:06 PM | The IM feature is a tremendous feature on POF. Please bring it back. The site loses a great deal without this feature.
Dennis | |
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| Instant Messenger Has Been Discontinued By 3rd party Vendor
Posted: 4/20/2009 4:00:56 PM | hi there, first time ive done anything like this so here goes, wouldnt it be a idea to let users of this site know that the im has been discontinued ? im sure there are a lot of users like myself that clicked on the other day and found it wasent there?.. now i appricaiate that there are other im systems E.g Msn and yahoo, but how many like myself have been left scatching our heads wandering why we cant chat to friends.
i have never looked at the forums and I ame across this by accident, even the FAQ;s doesnt mention the IM situation I appriaciate that this site is free and thank him for this,, but a little email would save a lot of confusion that im sure is out there, anyways thats my two penneth worth . And thanks again for reading  | |
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| IM
Posted: 4/20/2009 4:21:29 PM |
The IM feature is a tremendous feature on POF. Please bring it back. The site loses a great deal without this feature
x2.
Made things easier, without having to disclose much until one was ready.
Not a change for the better, imo. | |
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| IM turns me off.
Posted: 4/20/2009 7:15:13 PM | ***
Please bring IM's back!!! They and webcam worked great for me!!! Please Please Please bring it back!!!
Thanks so much!!! | |
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| IM turns me off.
Posted: 4/20/2009 9:09:52 PM | | if markus really cared about us.he would of gotten onther messenger for us to use already.this site really sucks without the im to use. | |
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| Gee, and to think i was coming to suggest a more robust im feature...
Posted: 4/20/2009 9:34:06 PM | | Like the friendfinder network uses. It really saddens me that the IM is gone. It was incredibly more rewarding to send an im and get a clear response of "This user has not accepted your IM, over the vague "read, sitting an in inbox for three days" of the email system. Honestly, anyone that still thinks that email is still the digital communication medium of choice for most people is painful to think of. I will in all likely hood be deleting my account once this last contact i've made is sorted out | |
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| IM turns me off.
Posted: 4/20/2009 10:25:21 PM | | How is it more effective without IMs? People who want to chat will now have to go off site to AOL or Yahoo. That means fewer people on the site, browsing, and reading the Ads. Fewer people reading ads could mean fewer ads and then no free site. | |
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