Wednesday, November 14, 2007

iminlikewithyou: now with video, and no, not so much anymore


filed under: Unpersonals, Web Sex Index by Melissa Gira | 2 Comments

iilwu-videopopup

That? That was the shiver of agreeing with Valleywag for this tip: 2007’s standout flirting-for-nerds site iminlikewithyou, in trying to adopt web video’s hotness, has jumped its own rainbow-striped shark. Where the limited interface and smarts required to seduce well with it once drew out the best in commitment-free wit, the rapid-fire comments users can now leave in exchange for dropping some points are needlessly lowering the bar. Unsolicited suggestion: find some way to integrate a CrazyBlindDate-esque feature, and fast.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Online Dating: Still Pathetic?


filed under: Dating 2.0, Unpersonals by Melissa Gira | Leave a Comment

No, it doesn’t make you pathetic. Please. Even at our worst, Sexerati is just not that judgy.

But seriously, I cannot describe my identity (hint, actually, that can be a hard question) & desire with a series of pulldown menus:

okcupid - pulldown

And nor can I find satisfying answers even after a never-ending flood of questions. Scientific sluttery dictates that I will still try, but I will be secretly wishing for a better way.

Is the future of dating really going to be the online equivalent of a sidelong glance on the subway, whether or not it turns into lurv?

Until the day comes that you can fuck a textbox, what do we modern lovers do? (It’s the weekend. Go work it out in the comments.)

Friday, November 2, 2007

The Birth of the Proto-Bubble Hottie


filed under: Bubble Hotties, Retrosexual by Melissa Gira | Leave a Comment

Name that year, kiddos:

The area has sprouted computer-themed art galleries, a billiard hall and a Gold’s Gym, where former geeks can acquire new muscles to match their beefed-up social status. There is even “Gulch Gossip,” a column in a local computer magazine. Its author, who writes under the name Jonathan E., says, “My attitude is, if there’s going to be a media industry, it’s going to run by media morals — people will get drunk and swap each other’s wives.”

That would be The New York Times, on San Francisco’s newly sexed-up web culture, c. 1994.

(photo by & link via Scott Beale/Laughing Squid, gloriously reminiscing)

Friday, October 26, 2007

That Facebook App for Sex We Were Asking For?


filed under: Design for Sex, Web Sex Index by Melissa Gira | Leave a Comment

Only 5% of the Facebook users who actually installed it are actively trading Naughty Gifts, but that’s nearly 200,000 people, just saying. And no one is ever just saying, so consider: there is a social function in these app-driven gestures. Already the poke has been graphed for it’s sexual possibilities:


(img: Dave McClure)

So what, then, does offering blue balls, whipped cream, and SILF’s mean, some people will have to know. Because the corresponding behavior offline is already so easily understood. Perhaps to be explored at three people-in-the-same room parties in the next week, organized by the app developer’s at Going.com (a social party sharing site, naturally), scheduled around Halloween: Friday for New York and Chicago, and in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Hip to the scene, or just hip to innovation, condom purveyor Durex, has their own Facebook app, Free Condoms, where you can receive actual physical condoms. Condoms are spread around, ha, virally, with users scoring “Bangin’ Bucks” for users they recruit to install the app. More later in what personal information one must open up to the app to get said condoms in hand.

Of course, their tagline?

“Poke safely.”

Monday, October 15, 2007

Web Porn Zen: Wikipedia, You Have the Right to Objectify Me


filed under: Erotic Elite, Web Sex Index by Melissa Gira | 1 Comment

Tatum Reed

As found on the blog of postmodern pornstar Tatum Reed: “I, Tatum Reed ackowelege [sic.] the public domain and license of the above photograph taken in New York City, May of 2007.” Is Reed still working out her notoriety with Wikipedia users? Her argument for her entry’s continued existence is that her media appeal is as mainstream as it is pornographic (see this archived discussion for evidence: “Keep Reluctantly. Tatum Reed is indeed a minor celebrity in the San Francisco Bay area. There are a number of independant articles about her written and easily accessed. Her being a prostitute (as well as a porn actress) is immaterial. I think she is just well-known enough of prostitute to make the cut.”).

keep looking »