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September 07, 2005

Fast Cupid seeks Fast Cash

I knew Spring Street was becoming Fast Cupid, and that they would be making changes to the service.

I never would have guessed, however, that they would do the following:

It's shocking that a company that had such a great membership and community would pull such an insulting move. My time on the network is limited, and I may ask for a refund for the $25 I recently spent for more credits.

The email I received touting the new features follows...

Dear member,

The Onion Personals Frequently Asked Questions
Welcome to The Onion Personals, the personals for people who don't need personals – it's flirting, redefined. The Onion Personals has gone through a few changes. Below you'll find some of the most commonly asked questions and our best attempts at answering them. You can find answers to most questions in just a few moments. If your question is still unanswered, please contact our Customer Service department.

Let the games begin...

I used to have more than one profile, but now only have one. What happened to the others? Can I get them back?

Our new system offers many more features than the old one did, including various types of social networking. In order to make this possible, each member must have one identity on the site. To these ends, when we migrated your information, we chose your active profile and made that your "handle." Your handle is what you are known by on this site. We believe that by choosing your active profile, we chose the face you were presenting to the world and that you'd want to keep. There's always the chance that you would rather present another face on the site. If you have a problem or question, please contact Customer Service.

In the past, I had contacted people through a different profile name and now they see my emails listed as my current/only profile name. They weren't supposed to know that!

We apologize for any inconvenience that may have been caused by our transition from the old system to the new one. We have made every attempt to retain what was good about the old system while adding more features that members have been requesting. Some members were using multiple profiles on the site, and while we hope that the consolidation of profiles didn't expose anything you meant to keep hidden, we hope that the site is used with the full openness and honesty that makes for a solid foundation for any relationship.

I was able to view unlimited profiles without upgrading to a premium membership but now I can't. What happened?

We think that we've created the best system for meeting people online. It's more than just a way to browse/search for people, but a chance for you to get to know them through our new social networking features. To best take advantage of the new features, we believe that a premium membership is the best way to go, and we've fine-tuned our system for this. To help ease the transition from one system to another, we've allowed each member the chance to use the new system as they used to, but we hope that after getting to know the new site you will want to upgrade to a premium membership.

What is the difference between credits & points?

Our new system uses points instead of credits. They're basically the same, but with a different value per unit. Just like one British Pound has an equivalent value is US Dollars, there is direct relation between points and credits. Any existing credits you had were migrated over and converted to the equivalent number of points (roughly 200 to 1).

Why does it costs me more to email in the new system (by points) than it did before (by credits)?

Our new system uses points instead of credits. We've migrated any existing credits you had to the equivalent cash value in points (roughly 200 to 1), so you didn't lose any money. But if you have seen the pricing chart, you might notice that 200 points costs a bit more than 1 credit did (prices vary with the package you purchase). While we regret the confusion, we think we've provided ways to make up for the difference. First, in the new system in addition to the usual ways to SPEND credits/points, we offer ways to EARN them. By doing things such as uploading photos and referring friends, you can earn points which you can use towards contacting other members. More importantly, we offer premium memberships so that you never have to worry about how many points you have. Even more exciting, we're offering features you currently had to pay for (Instant Messaging) as well as new social networking features which are new to the site. We think that overall you're getting much more for your money.

What's the advantage of upgrading to premium memberships?

In the past, you've had to search very carefully and try to decide who to spend your precious credits on. Almost hoarding them. You just might have let that special someone slip by. But never again! With our new social networking features, you'll have many more chances to get to know other members and you're going to want to send messages to carry on the conversation. Premium memberships give you unlimited access to all the features on this site, so you never have to think about points again.

I'm getting so much more email, what do I do to stop it?

It's a fine line, we know. The old system might have left you with too few emails in your inbox as members hoarded their credits. And now the new system, with premium members' ability to send unlimited* emails, may mean you have too many. While you can't do much to save an empty inbox, we do offer useful tools to help you filter out unwanted emails. The Message Center offers a series of filters that allow you to direct email from unwanted contacts into a "filtered" folder rather than your inbox. Those filters can be part of your Cupid settings (age, weight, height, location, etc.). We give you the power to get it all, yet sift out the good stuff. We're tempted to call it "Panning for Love."

What happened to the "Get Matched" feature?

It's there and improved! Check out Cupid and choose what you're looking for. You now have the ability to apply Cupid settings to filter your search results. Cupid allows you to set many of the same preferences like before, plus you use those same settings to help filter incoming messages, to make sure you get emails from just the people you're looking to meet.

What happened to the people on my Hot List?

People in your Hot List didn't move, but they may be called a different name (handle). Since members now have one profile, some of their less active personas dropped off. For some, that means you can search the listings and find that member to re-add them with their right handle. It could be that the person you had in your Hot List didn't log in for over 12 months. In that case, you can find "new" Hot List-worthy members.

What happened to the "Find Online Matches" feature?

This feature is still there, just called something different. To see online members, just choose "Who's Online Now" on the home page. It's in the "Find Your Special Someone" section of the page. This search, like all others, can be filtered using Cupid settings that include things such as preferred age range, location, etc.

What happened to the "Don't View Again" feature?

It's been improved to cover a wider range of members fitting (or not fitting) certain criteria. When searching, use the Cupid Filters to avoid undesired members. You can also use your Message Center Filters to free your inbox of unwanted messages.

How do I hide my instant chat status?

You don't need to. The new system works a little differently. In the old system, anytime you were logged in, you were "available" for chat. In the new system, you choose when you'd like to chat or message someone. When you've entered those sections of the site, you'll see other members who are ready to chat and they'll see you.

How can I hide my uploaded photos?

Hide those "special" photos or old pictures by setting your profile to "off". For more information, see "How do I temporarily turn my listing off?" in the Help section.

If you have any questions or comments, please logon to the site and click Help.

Thank you!
The The Onion Personals Team!

Posted by bengel at 11:58 PM | Comments (11)