http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/news/2009/05/userplane-ist.html
I removed userplane from plentyoffish a few weeks ago. Userplane cost me more per month than my hosting does…. I wonder what the future of IM is in dating, my UK pageviews increased 30% in 2 weeks and my visitors and signups also dramatically climbed after removing userplane.
May 4, 2009 at 8:57 pm |
Is pageviews the correct measuring stick to be using here?
What’s the rate of successful meets in real life before and after getting rid of IM? Actually, how do you even measure that? Ugh…
May 4, 2009 at 9:14 pm |
Marcus,
We are launching our site next month, and i’d like to show you a quick demo of how we enable people to create love notes with music, creative writing and photo/video, and leveraging materials from Youtube, Google, facebook and Flickr. I think it may complement your site.
We are a Toronto based firm with an interesting cast of characters from the online world, and a board of v successful Canadians from tech and music.
Regards
Shaun
May 4, 2009 at 9:45 pm |
Is it not possible that the pageview increase is a result of users spending less time in the pop-up instant messaging (actually talking to each other ) window and more time browsing for people to talk to?
It would make perfect sense that an increase in pageviews would follow but I would venture to guess it will be short lived as I have to imagine you are going to push the user base to seek other mediums, outside of your site, to have real time conversations.
Very interesting stuff, you should revisit it in a few more weeks and let us know if the bump is sustained or if it dips.
May 4, 2009 at 11:19 pm |
Everyone has an IM client. Why should the site provide that functionality?
May 5, 2009 at 12:13 am |
Hey, I got a survey from match.com where they listed 5 new concepts for dating sites targeting younger people. I don’t think I figured out your email address, if you’d like me to forward you the info just send me an email.
May 5, 2009 at 1:02 am |
How does removing an IM feature increase your number of joins?
Maybe the money you save in Userplane bills and extra revenue generated from increase in PV you spend on ads… that would maybe explain your statement.
May 5, 2009 at 3:06 am |
I have a new revenue model for dating websites that is absolutely mind blowing. I have asked numerous people who use dating sites if my idea is good and they all said yes or “makes sense”.
The only problem is i don’t have a dating site with traffic to use the idea. I can easily get a dating script and throw up a site that is not the issue it’s the traffic. This idea will greatly benefit websites with mass traffic no doubt in my mind.
You would be able to eliminate advertisments on your site totally. The idea has nothing to do with:
paid monthly memberships, virtual gifts, trials, etc.. its completely outside of the box!
I have the idea and nowhere to implement it.
May 26, 2009 at 11:46 pm |
hi, what is the idea? send me an email to uwstand@gmail.com maybe i can use it on my site.
June 2, 2009 at 3:55 pm |
Hi ed, email me uwstand@gmail.com with details on this.
September 3, 2009 at 1:47 am |
I’m starting a new site. I could use some help. What’s your “out-of-the-box” idea?
Warmest regards,
Randall
May 5, 2009 at 12:30 pm |
test
May 5, 2009 at 12:43 pm |
Hi everyone, my name is Felix and I am co-founder and CEO of toksta.com.
I would like to invite all Userplane customers to give toksta a try:
We offer a 15-day free trial and an extra 10% lifetime discount for all current Userplane customers if you sign up until May, 15th. toksta also features:
* Super easy implementation (copy & paste script or Plugin)
* 100% hosted by toksta
* No bandwidth or A/V chat limitations
* Integrates with your user DB
* Complete design customization, logo branding and CSS support
* And much more!
Please contact support[ at ]toksta( . ) com if you have any questions!
- Felix
May 5, 2009 at 10:48 pm |
@eD Cool story bro.
May 8, 2009 at 8:33 pm |
Markus,
Why is it everytime I sign up with you, I have a profile for a few days or a week, then I am deleted? I completely filled out the profile, didn’t harass or say anything remotely rude to anyone, and poof I’m deleted.
Its highly annoying.
May 8, 2009 at 8:33 pm |
Felix,
Everyone pretty much uses yahoo messenger. its free, has good control, and it faster.
May 26, 2009 at 10:15 pm |
I happen to love the userplane webmessenger. Lots of dating sites still use it. Works great. Keystrokedating.com still uses it I believe.
June 2, 2009 at 11:43 am |
I got a survey from match.com where they listed 5 new concepts for dating sites targeting younger people. I don’t think I figured out your email address, if you’d like me to forward you the info just send me an email.
thanks.
June 4, 2009 at 10:30 pm |
I just don’t get the relation between the down of the chat and the increase of the visits and sign ups.
I could see an increase in pageviews, but visits?? sign ups??
Markus! Please could you explain it with more details?
Thanks!
June 8, 2009 at 3:55 pm |
Userplane was, without exception, the worst IM tool I have ever used – and I have used many. It was clunky, quirky and disruptive.
Let people use their preferred tools. If two people really want to communicate by IM (which is another issue unto itself) then they’ll select a tool with which to communicate. Markus…why not OEM Meebo’s online IM platform (it’s like Trillian/Jabber for a browser)? Whenever I am on a computer that is not mine, I use Meebo. It allows me to use one of several IMs with a single sign-in and no client application. Just a thought.
June 8, 2009 at 10:37 pm |
The decision to remove the IM feature made this site much less desirable. Period. That’s a fact. I will certainly pay more attention to other sites and am willing to work with anyone on developing a new site. Have wanted to do it for a long time and believe that user desires, even demands, would result in a superior site providing a superior experience.
June 9, 2009 at 12:17 am |
I really miss the userplane…emailing messages wastes so much time !!!
June 9, 2009 at 2:32 am |
I can’t get into the site this evening. What is up with that?
June 9, 2009 at 3:03 am |
I can’t reach the from anywhere either…feels like I’m blocked. No message about server status, nothing. What is this about?
June 10, 2009 at 7:24 am |
I think a lot of people used the IM feature and didn’t view someone’s profile before they IM’d (i.e., contact was made solely based on liking someone’s profile photo), so when you disabled IM, to contact someone you have to email a person. To do that, you have to go to their profile, and that’s why the big increase in page views. No doubt you already figured that out.
June 12, 2009 at 2:36 pm |
No doubt you’ll hear more complaints from men than women about the lack of an IM tool. It became very clear to me that men were contacting women without so much as reading their profiles first. Most of the women I have spoken to (using traditional email and not IM) found IM to be one of the most annoying and intrusive features of the site.
Men loved it as a way of getting around email and used it to get the attention of women online – women who may not otherwise desire their attention. Generally speaking, these men could care less that they were not invited to speak with these women via IM. They simply decided it was ok.
For every man with manners, there appears to be ten without. A majority of the women on the site are probably thankful that Userplane is no more.
September 14, 2009 at 2:48 pm |
I think a site can go around this issue by allowing users to IM only their friends. As it is now in Facebook.
June 18, 2009 at 12:10 am |
nice post, keep writing thanks for sharing
June 18, 2009 at 2:25 pm |
test, test
June 18, 2009 at 2:55 pm |
Being under pressure of userplane official shut down, thousands of web site owners seek alternative solutions. In response to market needs flashcoms will be releasing hosted chat and instant messaging solution.
Being among the speakers at the upcoming iDate conference held in June 2009 flashcoms will make an official announcement of Z5messenger and Z5chat release.
Anticipating the official release live demos can be already seen at z5messenger [dot] com , z5chat [dot] com.
June 19, 2009 at 7:39 am |
Hi,
We are still using userplane on our dating site and so far we got no informations about userplane being closed. Can anyone advice on alternate options for video chat software (hosted or server installed)
Thanks,
Fbuds
June 26, 2009 at 8:04 am |
I can highly recommend toksta – great support and very nice UI
September 14, 2009 at 2:49 pm |
http://www.avchat.net has a nice video chat.
June 20, 2009 at 7:55 pm |
I read your posts for a long time and must tell you that your articles are always valuable to readers.
p.s. Year One is already on the Internet and you can watch it for free.
July 29, 2009 at 8:11 pm |
We utilize Userplane’s chat room on our swingers site and had trouble with it when it displayed ads. We set up a new test machine and ran the chat room only on it and found that the ads were throwing viruses. Since we removed the ads we have had no problems.
August 7, 2009 at 9:31 pm |
IT IS SAID THAT MORE MEN MISS THE IM..U R CORRECT!!! BUT WITHOUT THE MEN ON POF , WHICH BY THE WAY MOST ARE LEAVING CAUSE OF THE MISSING IM, THE WOMEN WILL NOT BE THERE..THEY WILL LEAVE TOO….
PS… ON POF MARKUS SAID THAT AOL WERE THE PEOPL THAT REMOVED USERPLANE..NOW HE IS SAYING IT IS HIM…!!!
MARKUS, I AM ALREADY ON ANOTHER SITE CALLED BOOK OF MATCHES THAT FRELLY USE THE IM USERPLANE…