Dating Site Lets You Virtually Court Your Fantasy Mate [INVITES]


Remember Cloud Girlfriend, that mysterious startup we covered whose tagline was: The best way to get a girlfriend is to already have one? Well, its finally launched, and weve got invites.

The initial conceit of the site, according to founder David Fuhriman, was that it would employ a legion of women to write on mens walls as cloud girlfriends, demonstrating a dudes popularity to all of his female friends (who would apparently fly into jealous rages over the digital flirting and pounce #SarcMark).

The current iteration of the site is a bit different what Fuhriman describes as a mix between Match.com and Second Life. Users log in through Facebook and create a profile using a selecti! on of he adshots of attractive people (not their own snaps). They then fill out a rather simplistic profile, which allows one to choose between such options as Books or Movies (what if you like both?), Lady Gaga or Lady Di? (for women only and theres no sexual preference options) and Sunday Church or Sunday Football (for dudes apparently its church or sports, no in-between).

After looking through a bunch of photos of fake people and their accompanying profiles, you can choose someone to chat with. We allow people to define their ideal self, find their perfect girlfriend or boyfriend and connect and interact as if that person existed, Fuhriman says. It can help in learning how to manage a real relationship, and they then can take it into the real world. The site makes money by selling virtual gifts and goods.

While we admire Fuhrimans intentions he hopes that the site will build confidence and increase sharing and communication (hes also co-founder of volunteer site 5000Hands) the whole thing seems a little counterintuitive to us.

By choosing photos that are not, in fact you, the idea could be perceived to be that looks dont matter. But if that is, in fact, the case, why choose a photo of someone much more attractive than you are in reality when looking to score a date?

The words ideal and perfect are inherently dangerous when applied to dating and relationships (as rarely anyone is either) in fact, a recent study by dating site OKCupid shows that women who are more divisive (a.k.a. men find them either ugly or hot) get more attention. Why? Because they let their personality along with what could be perceived as flaws shine through.

Why build all your hopes on fantasy when you could get to know a more interesting albeit flawed reality?

Still, I guess we cant really knock it wholly till we try it. Cloud Girlf! riend has provided us with 500 invite codes (use the code mashable) for men looking to join the site. Apparently, women can join sans code, since the site was initially marketed toward men.

Photo courtesy of Flickr, Don Hankins

More About: cloud-girlfriend, online dating

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