Exactly the first thought I had. I started into MUDs back in '98 (high school) with CarnageMUD and even worked with some of the immorts there on a VB-based MUD. We poured so many hours into that and the project eventually fell apart because we figured, "who's into MUDs these days?" When WoW hit, I felt vindicated. Then, just a few months ago, my brother tells me he's playing this text-based online game called Mob Boss or something.

I gotta think one of the keys here is that our MUDs were fantasy-based and these more successful MUDs are crime-based.

We in the industry call it "low latency". Does anyone know where this term "high frequency" came from? Not that it matters.

It is somehow related - one can not achieve usable "high frequency" without low latency. So frequency = volume, latency = price accuracy in time.

Are you sure? I don't know if this applies in the world of startups, but in the broad world of "business", having a pigheaded belief in your own talent is almost necessary.

I don't see why it wouldn't be an asset for a startup founder to be brimming with confidence in his own product.

because most startups dont know anything, they have an idea that was shaped from their experience and assumptions about how the market will react to it.

Once you appreciate that these things arent much more than educated guesses, you can be a lot more focussed actually determining how people react to your product, as opposed to going off and coding what noone wants.

My advice (well, others said this before, but my experience confirmed it) is to build your first product the way you like it. If you are happy with the product and you really enjoy using it then you already have one customer :). And I am ready to bet others will come.

On the other hand trying to fulfill every customer wish and implement all features users suggest is not every time a good idea. Usually it leads to an over complex product that is not well adapted to "young markets" of "untrained" customers. Is like trying to sell them a dvr enabled TV set when they just learn how to change channels.

I wonder how much those spammers make per bogus listing. If it's more than what legit advertisers make per listing then charging per listing will only drive out the good guys or, at best, do nothing. If it's not, charge somewhere in the middle and, voila, problem solved.

I guess the reality is, you can only have a spamerless site when all your users are more lucrative than spammers.

Anyway, even if it would result in higher profits, CL would not be interested. Because they're not interested in driving up their profits.

I can only imagine what else OkCupid's data would reveal in adept hands. I could probably write a book if they sent me a spreadsheet.