Proposal: Faster Hookups via the Voucher Method
All-
I would like to propose a new functionality to the site.
The new functionality would afford an additional method by which hobbyists can acquire recommendations from previous providers.
I believe this method would greatly streamline and expedite the requesting, receiving and providing of hobbyist recommendations.
Before describing the new method, I would like to first identify the drawbacks of the current most commonly used method.
As I understand it, the current most commonly used method by which a hobbyist acquires recommendations is:
1- He gives a prospective provider the eccie handles for two previous providers that he expects will give him recommendations, and hopefully do so in a timely manner.
2- The prospective provider contacts the two previous providers thru Private Mail (PM).
3- The previous providers: a) respond with yea or nay, or b) never respond, or c) take so long to respond that the prospective provider and/or hobbyist have grown tired of waiting, lost interest, or just forgotten the whole effort.
For short, we can call this the “PM Process”.
Drawbacks of the PM Process:
1- It slows down the time to hookup. I’ve read a lot of provider reviews, and in a good portion of them (perhaps half) the hobbyist mentions how it took a while for them to meet due to communication and scheduling issues. I’m sure that the PM Process contributes to these issues and unnecessarily drags out the time to hookup, or kills it altogether.
2- It creates work for previous providers – work that won’t necessarily earn them more income. It’s basically an annoyance. Providers have better things to do than respond to PMs regarding hobbyists they may never see again, which explains why they can take a while to respond, or never respond.
3- It allows previous providers to “cock block”: she finds out a previous client is looking to hookup with someone else so she sends him discount offers, or intentionally fails to respond, or responds negatively.
4- It impinges on the hobbyist’s privacy. The hobbyist may not want previous providers to know who he hopes to meet with, especially before he’s even met with them. [Later, after the deed is done, if the hobbyist wants to do a review and tell the world who he’s been with, then that’s up to him.]
The new method I propose would not have any of the above-described drawbacks of the PM Process.
I’ll call the proposed method the “Voucher Method”.
1- To enable the Voucher Method, the website would allow providers to vouch for a hobbyist. When a provider creates a voucher for a hobbyist, it results in the provider’s name and the date of the vouch being listed in the hobbyist’s profile, beneath a section heading that reads something like, “The following providers, on the specified dates, have indicated that they would recommend the hobbyist to other providers.” This would look similar to how reviews are listed in provider profiles – the main difference being that there would be no review behind each voucher listing, just a link to the provider’s profile. That’s it; that’s all there is to a voucher.
2- At the end of an encounter a hobbyist can ask a provider to vouch for him.
3- After the encounter, if she wants, the provider can go to the eccie website and “vouch” for the hobbyist. This results in the provider’s handle being added to the list of providers in the hobbyist’s profile that have vouched for him. The listing includes the date the vouch was made.
4- When a prospective provider has a meeting request from a hobbyist, she can go to his profile and, in the same way that she can currently see all the providers he may have previously reviewed, and all the things he may have written in various forum posts, she would now also be able to review the list of providers that have vouched for him. Hopefully the quantity and/or quality of the vouching providers would be sufficient for the prospective provider, and she would not feel the need to send and receive PMs, saving everyone time and hassle.
5- A provider can remove any voucher she’s created. Let’s face it, hobbyists (like providers) can turn from good to bad, and in order for the process to have credibility there has to be a way to keep the data “current”.
6- Likewise, the hobbyist would have the ability to remove a voucher from his profile if for some reason he no longer wanted the world to know that he’s met with that provider.
Obviously the Voucher Method is not intended to replace the PM Process. It is simply another option, one that I think can streamline and expedite the hobbyist recommendation process, with the ultimate goal being faster hookups. In this age of instant gratification, it’s pretty frustrating having to wait several days, weeks or even months to meet with someone that peaks your interest. If the Voucher Method helps reduce the wait to a few days or even just hours, then it’s well worth the effort to write the html.
Looking forward to the feedback on this.
Thanks,
Thysa
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