A simple solution would seem to be an OKCupid clone that is strictly for friends and perhaps another for roommates. It is very good at aligning mutual interests and proximity and giving a sense of personalities. I see a large untapped market for older people as well. Unlike RL, you know going in that anyone on there is looking for companionship, which considerably reduces awkwardness.
If it's a simple solution, why hasn't someone built it?
I suspect that any such product that starts to get a significant user base is quickly overrun by people looking for cheap hookups, on the one hand, or "sugar" relationships (at best) on the other.
It's impossible to successfully steer that (to stop most of that activity). Forgo a native image service on Reddit and you get Imgur. Don't allow picture uploads on the platonic service and people will take care of the problem, they will route around it trivially. You will quickly be right back to people trying to turn it into a dating service. It's too easy to go around.
The best you can probably hope for is to swim with the current. Otherwise it will drown you. Set up a section just for dating to better contain the inevitable pressure in the system.
I've tried that. Turned out that most people took it as code for "friends with benefits" with heavy emphasis on the benefits and very little on the friends part. Which is ok for those who have that as their goal but a bit confusing for those who haven't figured out the code yet.
Yeah, I think the problem is that it’s clearly not the real purpose of the app. Even users seeking friends are sometimes seeking people who they may eventually date once they recover from a breakup.
