Business New chat site looking for contributors

[adulttext]

Hi!
I'm a software developer. A damn good one. I'm building a chat site. It started out as a lark. Something to learn websockets and Spring annotations. But, it's turned into something real.

I'm looking for a couple people to work with me on it. I need a hustler - someone that can drive traffic, industry partnerships and turn this thing into a real company. I also need a designer. I don't think it's bad, so far, but there are things I want to do that are beyond my experience.

Here's what I bring:
* An existing MVP. I can't both the url because of the forum's rules. adulttext dot club
* A short-term roadmap for improvements
* A greater tech plan that includes scalable hosting for very little money
* 10 hours/week to work on it
* The ability to add, quickly, new features as requested by customers, marketing and design
* The ability to add extensive metrics. I come from business, so I speak "KPI"


If interested, PM me or reply here.
Thank you!!!
Dave

[Adraco]

I will help you out by posting the link:
AdultText Chat

How are you going to weed out any kids, which all happens to have a cellphone and a computer?

How are you going to get people to signup, I mean look at Chaturbate, which lets you see the "product" for free, before you signup. Right now, if I landed on your page, I would not sign up, simply because I do not know what I would be signing up for! Sure, some type of chat, but how does it work? Why is it unique?

[Barry-xlovecam]

Where are the girls :P
We use Nginx proxy servers and JNode for chat in production for well over 100's of thousands of people a day. But I have live naked women on cam ...

Chat in itself is not a profit center but a auxiliary function to a larger marketing program that creates the need.

If this chat is your ''steak'' you have no ''sizzle'' to sell The sizzle and taste sell the steak -- without it it is just a piece of beef.

So what is your angle: a defining need?

[Best-In-BC]

If you know, you can contact ;)

[AdultKing]

Originally Posted by adulttext

Hi!
I'm a software developer. A damn good one. I'm building a chat site. It started out as a lark. Something to learn websockets and Spring annotations. But, it's turned into something real.

Why would someone use this over the myriad of free, web and mobile chat applications that already exist ?

You've got Skype, IRC, Slack and Camfrog etc which are ubiquitous.

On Android and iOS you've got LOVOO, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Wechat, MeetMe, Kik, Juamo and so on with millions of users between them.

If people are looking to meet others then there is Tinder, Grindr and the myriad of similar apps to choose from.

So why is someone going to be interested in your poorly constructed, Bootstrap designed web app ?

[xNetworx]

OP, Can you explain why anybody would want to sign up for this?

[adulttext]

Hi!
I can see my post didn't get the responses I was hoping for. Many of you asked why someone would use this site. It's a fair question and so here's my answer:

First, a better explanation of what it is -
AdultText is a room-based chat server. More similar to IRC than to Google Hangouts, Skype, etc. The closest site I've found is chatropolis. AdultText allows people to meet others in an anonymous, group setting and then talk one-on-one or in smaller groups. Currently, it allows only rudimentary image sharing, but other forms of non-text media is in the roadmap.


My Vision for the Site -
AdultText is primarily about fantasy fulfillment. Anonymous chat is a service where adults can talk out their fantasies. Being room-based gives participants the ability to meet each other in a non-threatening setting. Being anonymous gives people the distance they need in order to allow themselves to explore their most hidden fantasies. Text-based chat restricts the conversation in a way that makes it very difficult to invade the privacy of the person you're talking to. (It also restricts the market, but that's not always a bad thing.)

AdultText is actually psuedonymous. That means that people have a username, but it can't be linked to their real-life identity. That allows you to build a reputation. I even have ideas for interesting reputation management, like linkedin-style recommendations.

Markets
Right now, this market is poorly served. There are a number of sites out there, but they suffer from the same poor design decisions that most online porn sites have. They are extremely male-focused, overly cluttered with upsells and hawking "nekkid b00bs now!"

There are a number of highly desirable markets these sites don't serve:
1) Women. Professional women is the largest growth market, in terms of revenue, in the adult sector.
2) People who are not able to make in-person relationships. This can be married people, but in a way that's less skeezy than Ashley Madison. It can be people with fetishes that they are embarrassed of or are maybe illegal when done in-person. Gay, zoophilia, incest, etc. Pedophilia is still illegal on text-chat and will have to be forbidden.
3) People who want better technology. No frames, polling, applets or flash. Works on mobile, too. This opens the site to a far wider audience.
4) Extensible. The best websites are constantly updating. This means we can do a/b testing, testing of new features and markets, etc.

But, what can the site do, right now?
It's only an MVP. I have it up to attract people to work on it with me. As I said above, I have a short-term roadmap. But, I want to attract people who can contribute to the vision. Not a typical porn site, but something that is more of an open communication environment that focuses on fantasy fulfillment.

Credit card numbers are identifiable information. Without credit cards, how do you make money?
There are so many other ways to make money. If the main target is professional women, then cross-marketing deals with 2 blue industries - sex toys and cannabis - is an easy option. There are other options, but I really don't want to get into them on a public forum.

"If I join, what do I get out of it?"
Revenue sharing, plus partial ownership of the site and project.

[plaster]

That's a pretty well thought out explanation.

So it's like an aol chatroom with today's technology without the need to type?

[AdultKing]

Originally Posted by adulttext

Hi!
I can see my post didn't get the responses I was hoping for. Many of you asked why someone would use this site. It's a fair question and so here's my answer:

First, a better explanation of what it is -
AdultText is a room-based chat server. More similar to IRC than to Google Hangouts, Skype, etc. The closest site I've found is chatropolis. AdultText allows people to meet others in an anonymous, group setting and then talk one-on-one or in smaller groups. Currently, it allows only rudimentary image sharing, but other forms of non-text media is in the roadmap.

There are already dozens of web based and several iOS & Android apps which are room based and provide more functionality than you offer. You obviously have not done enough research before building this thing.

My Vision for the Site -
AdultText is primarily about fantasy fulfillment. Anonymous chat is a service where adults can talk out their fantasies. Being room-based gives participants the ability to meet each other in a non-threatening setting. Being anonymous gives people the distance they need in order to allow themselves to explore their most hidden fantasies. Text-based chat restricts the conversation in a way that makes it very difficult to invade the privacy of the person you're talking to. (It also restricts the market, but that's not always a bad thing.)

This already exists on several platforms, one which comes to mind is RedLightCentre which not only offers what you're offering but allows people to play out their fantasies using their avatars.

Your site will obviously not become an iOS or Android app, given the technology you've used to build it, so then you're competing against desktop services in the main.

Four Largest Chat Services (Text/Room/Channel Based)

Camfrog (all platforms)
ooVoo (all platforms + Gaming Platforms)
PalTalk (Windows, iOS, Android, Blackberry)
TinyChat (Web & Mobile Web)

Virtual worlds.

RedLightCenter (Desktop Windows & OS X)
IMVU (Desktop & Mobile Web, iOS, Android)
Second Life (Desktop)

Markets
Right now, this market is poorly served. There are a number of sites out there, but they suffer from the same poor design decisions that most online porn sites have. They are extremely male-focused, overly cluttered with upsells and hawking "nekkid b00bs now!"

This is incorrect and demonstrates a lack of market research.

Both Red Light Center and Second Life are diverse, immersive, group or one on one based.

As you have not built a mobile app then you are competing directly against these much more immersive experiences with what is essentially a web based IRC on your own closed standards platform.

Taking a step back from applications to pure web apps you have Active Worlds which provides a visual experience but on the web browser.

There are a number of highly desirable markets these sites don't serve:
1) Women. Professional women is the largest growth market, in terms of revenue, in the adult sector.
2) People who are not able to make in-person relationships. This can be married people, but in a way that's less skeezy than Ashley Madison. It can be people with fetishes that they are embarrassed of or are maybe illegal when done in-person. Gay, zoophilia, incest, etc. Pedophilia is still illegal on text-chat and will have to be forbidden.
3) People who want better technology. No frames, polling, applets or flash. Works on mobile, too. This opens the site to a far wider audience.
4) Extensible. The best websites are constantly updating. This means we can do a/b testing, testing of new features and markets, etc.

Again, you're demonstrating that you've not done any market research. See above.

But, what can the site do, right now?
It's only an MVP. I have it up to attract people to work on it with me. As I said above, I have a short-term roadmap. But, I want to attract people who can contribute to the vision. Not a typical porn site, but something that is more of an open communication environment that focuses on fantasy fulfillment.

You won't be able to compete with well established platforms with millions of users based on what you have described. You've brought a web based text chat app to a market saturated with better (and often free) alternatives.

Credit card numbers are identifiable information. Without credit cards, how do you make money?
There are so many other ways to make money. If the main target is professional women, then cross-marketing deals with 2 blue industries - sex toys and cannabis - is an easy option. There are other options, but I really don't want to get into them on a public forum.

Given the above I am not surprised you mention cannabis.

"If I join, what do I get out of it?"
Revenue sharing, plus partial ownership of the site and project.

Based on what you have described there is no revenue to be had.

Please let me know if I have missed something, because what you're talking about takes us back to the lame web based chat rooms of the 90's. There's nothing new here. This is 2015. The market demands either an immersive experience or a mobile app. You bring neither to the table.

[marlboroack]

Originally Posted by Adraco

I will help you out by posting the link:
AdultText Chat

How are you going to weed out any kids, which all happens to have a cellphone and a computer?

How are you going to get people to signup, I mean look at Chaturbate, which lets you see the "product" for free, before you signup. Right now, if I landed on your page, I would not sign up, simply because I do not know what I would be signing up for! Sure, some type of chat, but how does it work? Why is it unique?

Dude....

[adulttext]

Thank you all for the good feedback. Particularly AdultKing. Your answer was quite complete, and I appreciate the time and thought you put into it.

That being said, I'm going to charge forward. I don't want to get into a point-by-point, except on the choice of technology. Choosing Spring meant that it could be done in 100% REST, while still having the advantages of a more stable platform. The reason I went this way is that we can radically change the way the platform works easily, without causing a bunch of technical debt. That way, if I bring on contributors who see a niche, we can pivot to it easily.

Again, I appreciate the cautions. But, if anyone reading this wants to work on a platform that can be built to do exciting new things, please let me know. I'm looking to build the medium-term roadmap now. Even if the nay-sayers are right, it's a time when we can build something cool with no investors, board or outside pressure. If you've used those sites and thought "If I had a talented coder, I could do better", then I'm looking for you.

[adultmobile]

Originally Posted by adulttext

If you've used those sites and thought "If I had a talented coder, I could do better", then I'm looking for you.

The adult site guys are not venture capitalists or silicon valley guys, they just look at actual profits and usability, no matter what tech. No investor will buy adult sites for trillion dollars because no bank want even to work with us, so no dream of exit strategy. Most do this since so long and run 10+ years old php code which generates most the profits. While new tech experiments often fail to pay back even the hosting costs. Not investing, used to declining sales since 2008 or before, so keeping on what keeps selling and not taking risks, even if they have cash. (re)Investing cash in non-adult stuff is the trend.

Said this, some adult site guys give free advice. So posting here it is useful at least for that. Getting practical help or investors that's another story.

[clickity click]

I liked. Anonymous good. Group chat good.