| This Sucks!
Posted: 4/17/2009 7:13:46 AM | I had some great friendships I was maintaining with IM here.
Friends could see when I was on the site and chat with me.
And I could say hi to new people and vice versa. It was an amazing
freature. I imagine there has been no announcement due to being busy
changing the site around. I still will come here since it's free but it's
really going to put a crimp in my style without IM.
Userplane come back!! | |
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| IM is the best thing on the site!!
Posted: 4/17/2009 7:38:08 AM | ^^^^ LMAO
hope Markus finds out that this BIG FISH LOSER has ruined his web site cause he wants to be a IDIOT
Markus is BigFish. He is the admin posting here and owns this site and created it himself.
Cowboy | |
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| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 7:53:30 AM | I am lost without the IM system, that is how I got to talk with most people on the site. My messaging them, they decided right then and there if they wanted to talk with you.
I used IM alot to talk with someone that had been looking at my profile, thru the viewed area, which is awesome! Most of the time when I send emails I don't get a replies. Being able to IM them, is more effective...I get more guys that will talk to me that way. I think most guys are kinda shy in replying back to an email. OH PLZ BRING IT BACK!!!!!!
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| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 8:12:11 AM |
I don't mind one bit that IM is gone. That's my opinion on that.
My opinion on PoF making changes without some sort of 'announcement' that it's being done?
But oh well. He's gonna do what he's gonna do. Including calling people "idiots".
(found that one out by reading all the posts in this thread)
I do feel badly for those people who depended on the IM feature.. I imagine it was quite a shock.
There is always yahoo messenger and msn messenger.
Meet people on here.. exhange a few emails.. then take it to yahoo/msn.
Or.. there's always the telephone. | |
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| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 8:20:31 AM |
First of all, after three days it would have been nice to see a bulletin on the login page, explaining the problem; so that I wouldn't have been scouring the FAQ's and wondering what the hell the problem was.
absolutely.........really poorly done
i'm not sure what is worse, the discontinuation of the IM or the way it was handled
just waiting for my friends to set up accounts elsewhere that we can keep in touch, and i'm outta this fishpond
sadly, i don't think they will care until the bottom line suffers, which it ultimately will........it may not happen overnight, but people will leave this site for other sites that provide IM, and others will not join without the feature | |
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| IM turns me off.
Posted: 4/17/2009 8:37:31 AM | | PLEASE don't turn off the IM!!!! I have met a wonderful man and we had been IM'ing back and forth. Now we have to talk only through email and it is so slow!!! :( :( :( | |
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| this stinks
Posted: 4/17/2009 9:08:49 AM | I agree that IM was useful. I know some didnt like it, but hey, you at least had an OPTION for not using it and turning it off so you werent inconvenience. Now ALL of us have no OPTION whatsoever. Not sure why I would stick around at this point.
I think I heard C U P I D is free !!! | |
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| this stinks
Posted: 4/17/2009 9:16:17 AM | Turns out C U P I D uses the Userplane Webmessenger as well.
Here is a very interesting link another member had posted. Be sure to pass it around. Marcus was already turning a profit on the IM.
http://www.userplane.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=casestudies.casestudy&id=plentyoffish
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| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 9:32:45 AM | | It's still available on two competitor sites (exact same AV Messenger), so it's entirely a Markus decision. It really is a crappy product though and I was surprised so many services used it -- must not be a lot of choices out there. Still, it was useful. | |
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AceVII
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Joined: 1/6/2009
Msg: 188 | |
| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 10:09:39 AM | re: Software That Pays For Itself – And Pays The Site...etc.
Wait a minute....apparently, the story about Userplane discontinuing service was a lie....does this mean that claiming Userplane was an expense was a lie too?....Apparently, it was actually generating income for POF?
Quit screwing around and come up with an alternative or replace it....you can well afford it...I appreciate that your site has been free, but you can't just yank this feature away when it may represent someone's chance at lasting companionship...that's pretty shitty. | |
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| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 10:16:27 AM | Wow...are you all really that naive???
This is his site, his business and he can do whatever he wants with it. He provides a service to us for free and we have the nerve to tell him how he should run it? If this is a bad idea, people will cease spending time on POF, the ads will go unseen, advertisers will pull away, and revenues will go down. And then, possibly, it'll be time to look at ways to rebuild membership. But until that happens, you can all **** and moan and threaten all you want and he's going to do what's in his best business interests.
This isn't a philanthropic effort designed to hook up lonely people with other lonely people. If you want to talk to somebody, pick up the phone or get a different IM service. But you score no points trying to poison people with your own petty frustrations. Grow up, people. It's a free service to you. He owes you nothing. Just be happy for the fact that you did have this service for awhile.
I don't get people who are so focused on what they do NOT have, that they lose sight of the good things they DO have. | |
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| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 10:28:55 AM | ^^^^ Then he is misrepresenting his site saying its FREE. It is no longer free if he removes features and keeps them only for paying members.
He can do as he pleases...but so can we. If people want to voice their frustrations...let them.
Your post is nice...really. Except he is making money from the IDIOTS that he has in his site as he called us. Read message 12.
Luckily I'm not dating...and the friends I made for the most part have my email address...that is not the case for many members that made good use of the feature.
I did use a lot, but its not vital.
This site is degenerating into a paid site. Fine with it, just call it by its real name..... | |
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| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 10:40:02 AM | Afternoon, this is my first time posting on the POF forums, so is there any record for the shortest amount of time to get banned!!! But I just wanted to post a thought on the discontinuation of IM. This might get me banned but it does seem to make a sense at a business level.
Websites like POF usually have one of two life cycles. The first is an imaginative individual gets an idea and creates a site that becomes very popular and successful. But eventually due to neglect and or bad business sense it becomes stale, fades away and is replaced by newer sites. The second is the same imaginative individual creates a site, it becomes popular and successful, and then the creator cashes in by selling it to one of the big players on the web for a huge amount of cash (dosh for the UK POFers!!!). Then they immediately head off to share My Ties with Mick and Madonna on Richard Branson’s private island.
I hate to say this but I think our creator of POF is going down the second path. The metric for assessing the value of website ads is “eyes on screens” that is translated into “hits” or “traffic”. The fact he is claiming discontinuing IM has resulted in an increase of around 10% more traffic or hits not only raises the value of the ads on the site (and so the realized revenues) but also raises the value of the site itself. It seems pretty obvious that raising the value of the site would result in a bigger selling price if it’s sold to say Yahoo or MSN. If I’m right, my bet is on Google.
I actually hope I’m wrong, but experience and history are telling me different. But if I’m right, look for all this to happen sometime in the next three to nine months depending when the rating of the site is scheduled. It will be a very sorry day when I log on to POF one morning and find out I now have a Yahoo or Google account! | |
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| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 11:01:49 AM | ^^ I also have been believing for awhile that he is getting close to selling the site.
Gotta say it.. if I were in his shoes, I'd do the same thing. 
Come on, a whole lot of you would do it also.
Make your millions.. then go off to do something else.
Hopefully selling to someone 'decent'.
Or... even being happy with millions and not selling at all, just throwing a big PoF party and leaving.
And life goes on.
BUT... I WOULD put up a notice and inform.. say 'bye' and 'thanks'... before I left.
Not too sure if this one will do that when the time comes. oh well.
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AceVII
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Joined: 1/6/2009
Msg: 193 | |
| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 11:09:22 AM | -->Wow...are you all really that naive???
What's naive about having intelligence enough to detect bullshit, diligence enough to research and confirm it, and articulation enough to call someone out on it? What's naive about asking for the truth, and voicing your opinion?
-->He provides a service to us for free and we have the nerve to tell him how he should run it?
No, I have the nerve to call him deceptive, dismissive, and non-sensical.
-->This isn't a philanthropic effort designed to hook up lonely people with other lonely people.
Maybe not, but in the hands of someone with some compassion, it could be. After WE made him a millionaire, perhaps we should debate the responsibility of the moneyed for a little philanthropy...
-->If you want to talk to somebody, pick up the phone or get a different IM service.
See, this misses the point entirely....Having a different IM service is not the problem...I have two others....The entire concept is that an organized dating site, such as this, makes it possible to locate those individuals who are active, presently online, interested, available, and receptive to chat....THEN, you can move to another chat client or even the telephone....Unless you have a starting point like POF, you have no way of knowing these things. It's easy for extroverted, popular, socially-active, attractive people to find other avenues for dating; but what about the shy, the introverted, the socially-awkward, the mobility-challenged? This site was a God-send for us shy folks who aren't comfortable in bars, churches, or trying to approach women you can't tell are married at the local supermarket produce section; and, as I said in my previous post, "Cold-Calling" by sending unsolicited IM's was the ONLY strategy that worked, gently persuading members to reply. Even if women didn't reply, they at least usually read my profile.
...something else I don't understand....so many women claim that it's rude to send an IM request before emailing with a request for permission to do so....what's the difference? Why is an unsolicited email acceptable, but an unsolicited IM is not?? | |
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Posted: 4/17/2009 11:11:58 AM |
Everyone wants the IM back.
No, not everyone. I applaud it.  I just now have to make some changes in my profile where I lament the im. I shut mine off ages ago and it's been great. | |
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| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 11:30:31 AM | Everyone wants the IM back.
Not me. I could care less...
I hate to say this but I think our creator of POF is going down the second path.
So what?? It's HIS site and HIS business to do with as he pleases. Hell, I'd probably sell it too, if the money was right - retire in the Caribbean & sip Mai Tais all day - probably get really fat from eating filet & lobster all the time and my GF would probably leave me. However, I wouldn't care 'cuz I could just buy hookers with all of the cash I made from selling my web site.
Seriously though, I'm more than grateful for my time here so I say, more power to Markus, whatever he decides to do and congrats on his success! | |
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| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 11:35:37 AM | It sucks, but it is what it is. I think everyone wouldn't be so pissed off had the guy just been a little more honest.
His one reply about not bring it back now due to his 10% increase just seemed a little childish (not that some of the replies in this thread aren't, but you would think a CEO would act with a little more class).
I think, in the end, all anyone wanted was honesty. Just sayin'.... | |
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| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 11:42:07 AM | You know...you can say or do anything you want to. It's no concern of mine. And you're certainly entitled to your opinion. But unless POF has suddenly become a democracy and we get to vote on it's future, Marcus rules. It's like any other business. If you like the product, you'll pay what you need to, to continue using it. If you don't like the product, then find another one.
If something productive could come of all that negative energy, that would be one thing. But why waste your time and breath moaning about something that you have no control over? I don't mean to sound arrogant or pompous...but I'm so happy that I have a life beyond POF and that the presence or absence of IMs doesn't define me and how I spend my days. I posted on this thread because all the drama amused me. It's starting to get old already.
As for not understanding why an unsolicited IM is not acceptable? The mere fact that anyone would ask about that explains an awful lot. | |
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| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 11:54:59 AM | | which other dating sites use userplane? | |
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AceVII
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Joined: 1/6/2009
Msg: 199 | |
| IM
Posted: 4/17/2009 12:19:07 PM | ...so tell me Mosaic, just exactly what is "unacceptable" about receiving an unsolicited IM, if it's respectful and salutary, as opposed to an email?...You can ignore/delete both with the same amount of effort. What is the logical extension of that thought?...Perhaps one should send a telegram to ask if it's OK if one sends a letter to ask if it's OK to call on the phone to ask if it's OK to send an email, to ask if it's OK to send an IM?!?! If you want to believe that it's gauche and ill-mannered to send an unsolicited IM, then change your preferences so that you don't receive them; but don't preach your arbitrary concept of messaging etiquette as if you were the self-proclaimed Emily Post of POF.
I have a life beyond POF, thank you so much; and who intimated that IM's defined how I spend my days?
Many women don't understand that they don't have to "sell themselves" as us guys do...Getting a woman's attention initially is apparently no different than asking for the sale, or applying for a job...and with the loss of IM, a powerful tool has been taken from our arsenal,...like sending a resume without the ability to make follow-up calls....and before I'm criticized for a non-personal approach, prove me wrong... | |
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| a notice perhaps?
Posted: 4/17/2009 12:30:53 PM | | did someone twist your arm and make you turn your IM on? | |
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