Big news for dating and social networking site owners growing weary trying to keep their Dolphin, Webdate and other dating-site-in-a-box solutions up and running. Ben Brown has announced at SXSW this week that his Consumating dating site is going to be released as open source.
Nothing against the aforementioned dating scripts, a scan of this blog unearths negative reactions as well as positive for almost all site scripts. As always, your mileage may vary. Almost all scripts can launch a simple dating site easily, but who wants a simple dating site when there are so many additional features available? For example, take a look at KickApps. I listened to their founder speak this week at MIT, creating social networks around your brand just got ridiculously easy. I’m working on the next “How to launch a dating site in 90 days” article, should be ready sometime next week. Prepare to be impressed by the new Web2.0 services that take a lot of the sting out of starting a dating or social networking site.
I’m a big fan of Ben, we have talked several times back in the day about his plans for Consumating. I always liked how I would complain about something on the site and the next day it would be fixed, with additional features often baked in overnight.
I expect any number of small and medium sized sites to relaunch on the Consumating platform over the coming months. I can’t wait to see what people build on top of the core platform.
CNET bought Consumating in December 2005 for around a million dollars. Now Ben is spreading the goodness back into the community. Good boy, Ben!
Let me know if you are interested in learning more about Consumating, reducing your time to market with your dating site or are thinking about moving to a new platform.
