Another twist on dating web sites?
ismarc: I had an idea at one point that the current sites go about it the wrong way.  They charge money to talk to the people, encouraging the catalog effect.  My idea was that you charge a reasonable fee to join, and then the system makes some guesses (not any of the "compatibility stuff", but provide a list of reasonably close matches so you'll have at least one thing in common) and provides you the list.  You can't see anything except their username and initials at first.  You then have "correspondence levels," basically, after x exchanges it reveals a little more about the profile (say, list of hobbies), and so on.  So you don't really know much about them at first, and it's after having to communicate that you can see what their profile.As for the group outings one, I just had an idea about that, too.  Most people have difficulties finding people they click with, and getting that initial conversation going.  I think a 6 person semi-speed date would be a way to alleviate that.  Essentially, 3 guys, 3 girls (or however their preferences lean, match it so there's 3 and 3) and they rotate through.  Each guy would get 15-20 minutes with each girl.  And during the "date", they have two coaches, one being a guy, and the other a girl.  It's encouraged for the coaches to interrupt and pull someone aside to give them a brief bit of advice, etc.