Over a decade after founding Grindr, Joel Simkhai wants a do-over

With his new gay dating app, Motto, Simkhai said he hopes to “course-correct” and avoid the pitfalls of existing apps, like the wildly popular one he once led.

They should remove trans freaks, straight idiots, and females, but they won't.

Its that dye job Joel Simkhai has that wants doing over.

This new app will become a cesspool like all the others

"By requiring its users to have face pictures instead of “headless torsos” and limiting time spent on the app by serving users no more than 10 profiles a day, Motto differs from Grindr, Simkhai said. He also said Motto provides more profile information and requires a verification process for every user to increase safety and protect against harassing bots, which infect many dating apps. "

Yeah, this is going to work out really well.

"But racist, discriminatory and exclusionist tropes — or euphemisms for them — continue to pervade a number of LGBTQ hookup and dating apps. In many ways, they reflect the racism, discrimination and exclusion that persist more broadly within gay culture, particularly among white, cisgender men. In fact, this was a theme of this summer’s groundbreaking film “Fire Island,” which called particular attention to a racist phrase — “no fats, no femmes, no Asians” — that is still pervasive on gay dating apps through coded language, despite content moderation and discrimination policies. "

What the fuck is it with some people? We're talking about gay men looking to hook-up with or possible romantic relationships with another man. The heart (or dick) wants what it wants, end of story. If someone isn't into "fats, fems, or whatever" no amount of shaming them into widening their circle of potential candidates is going to work.

[QUOTE]particularly among white, cisgender men

Who'd have thought it was all our fault?

Not that I recognise the term 'cisgender' - white man covers it thanks.

He sold Grindr to a Chinese company for $250mm and is estimated to be worth $100mm.

I wonder what sort of tracking malware they're now putting on Grindr.

Whores, you in danger, guuuurls.

So “racist, discriminatory, and exclusionist tropes” don’t exist on apps that straight people use? So only gays are racist? Good to know!

None of this is new. Bars, clubs, parties even baths largely catered to specific groups. If you were a white gay back in day wanting BBC you headed up to baths in Harlem, or Keller's in West Village. That's if either would let you in...

Things began to break down a bit with clubs like Paradise Garage, Crisco Disco and other places were everyone was coming together for the music. But otherwise things largely went on as before moving onto internet and apps as they displaced bars and clubs as places where gay men went looking for sex or love.

[quote]What the fuck is it with some people? We're talking about gay men looking to hook-up with or possible romantic relationships with another man. The heart (or dick) wants what it wants, end of story. If someone isn't into "fats, fems, or whatever" no amount of shaming them into widening their circle of potential candidates is going to work.

Yes, but there is a big difference between condoning such behavior and allowing it openly vs. not allowing it openly.

Scroll past people who are fat, fem, or Asian. Why is it really necessary to announce it to the world? Is very nominal level of whoring efficiency really worth perpetuating bad stereotypes?

Yes, the heart wants what it wants. But, openly insisting that there is something wrong with fats, fems, and Asians vs. privately moving it along shouldn't be a big deal. Also, normalizing it also perpetuates it - it accepts the stigma. It's like sitting around and saying all black men are criminals, it does have an impact on perceptions.

You can't change or force people to accept others, but you can stop them from perpetuating the stigma.

So people are expected to wade through responses that they aren't interested in all in great name of inclusion and equality?

I have never ever seen the phrase “no fats, no femmes, no Asians” on Scruff (I don't do Grindr) or anything remotely similar. Occasionally I see something like "masculine preferred" but that's it. Is this really that common?

[quote]Grindr, meanwhile, continues to dominate the gay dating app space, with about 11 million monthly active users around the world last year,

Grindr started out as an app for MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN. It should never have allowed people who are not MEN (that includes people without penises) to be on there.

I had hoped this was going to say Joel was making a new app to get back to Grindr's roots...i.e. an app for MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN. but this description of Motto sounds lame.

If you can't say "no fats, femmes, no asians" you should't be allowed to say "no dudes" on an app for MEN!

There are a finite number of gay men. Those who want to be on apps are already on them.

We don’t need yet another app to find sex.

[quote]In many ways, they reflect the racism, discrimination and [bold]exclusion[/bold] that persist more broadly within gay culture, particularly among white, [bold]cisgender[bold] men.

By "exclusion", they mean gay men refusing to date women who "identify as" men. Any gay person with two simultaneously functioning brain cells knows that "inclusivity" in this context is not only homophobic but coercive.

[quote]limiting time spent on the app by serving users no more than 10 profiles a day...

more than 10 in the paid version, no doubt.

[quote] He sold Grindr to a Chinese company for $250mm and is estimated to be worth $100mm.

So he lost $150m?

In total Chinese company paid about $243 million for Grinder.

"Three years ago, a Chinese firm that owns both gaming and credit services businesses, Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. Ltd., a public company listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange, bought a 60 percent stake in Grindr, which is based in West Hollywood, Calif., for $93 million. Early last year, it bought the remaining shares for a little over $150 million."

Trump along with Congress forced Chinese to sell Grinder to an American company, total sum was around $600 million.

Grinder wasn't first, nor last either.

Elton Musk's purchase of Twitter may next be caught in crosshairs of Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Well, TikTok is the biggest case. Who knows what the Chinese are doing with that?

[quote]Well, TikTok is the biggest case. Who knows what the Chinese are doing with that?

Most likely laughing loudly as the west spends so much time gazing at itself that it eventually withers and dies from lack of dealing with the bare necessities?

In China, TikTok is limited to 40 mins a day for kids and is mainly science and patriotic videos.

The Chinese unleashed this evil beast on the west without any such limits.

Grindr sucks up more battery power and memory than any other app I have. Meaning - it’s sucking up every piece of data it can grab from my phone and sending it to our Chinese overlords. Tik tok and Grindr will be Chinas first element of global control. And since Russia has all our government data that it stole, we are only pretending to fight with the, They already own us.

R25

Grinder see links above, Grinder is no longer owned by Chinese.

Please keep up..

Every time I use Grindr’s “explore” feature, which evidently will show you thousands of gay guys if you scroll down far enough — even as a non-paying user — it makes my iPhone get EXTREMELY hot to the point that I can’t even hold it in my hand.

From looking at his photo, he would have a hard time getting picked up on his own app now.

R24, that's interesting if it's true. Basically all this social media is making us all frenemies with each other, just posting random videos or posts to show our "friends" how much hotter, happier or richer we are. And while I think these apps could be beneficial, the way they have been developed, promoted and advertised has solely been for the purpose of showing off to other people. These really are terrible apps for promoting any kind of social integrity. I can't tell you how many times I sit around with friends or whoever and they're complaining about someone's post. It's really all anyone talks about these days and it sucks. As I'm typing this, my bf is sitting on TikTok watching some thirst trap and telling me how he's not that hot (the dude is, but my bf is jealous).

Joel Simkhai is the runt of a family with all gay sons.

Like many pocket gays, Joel Simkhai does try, bless his little heart.

R4 The one bit in there that Grindr really needs badly is the "requires a verification process for every user". I'm glad he's understood at least that. Some of those other "features" though, I dont think are winners

[quote][R4] The one bit in there that Grindr really needs badly is the "requires a verification process for every user". I'm glad he's understood at least that. Some of those other "features" though, I dont think are winners

All hookup and dating apps should require age verification both to limit (obviously, it'll never eliminate) underage people, but more importantly greatly reduce the efficiency for creeps to use them as hunting grounds to find underage people.

Joel Simkhai made some money from Grindr, but not this sort.

Ka-ching....

This is what it really comes down to with tech; get in early and start redeeming shares soon as possible to cash in before things go south. Or at least take some money on table if things look good (think Amazon, Google, Apple, etc....).

R33, yes there should be a way to do age verification. The problem is so many in the closet gays don’t want to show ID to anyone, let alone a gay hook up app.

In of itself age verification doesn't mean very much. Fake ID long as been available and now thanks to modern and inexpensive tech it has never been so easily found for so little money. Thousands of illegals have all sorts of fake ID, that doesn't stop things from being accepted.

Only way to make age verification work is putting some teeth into things by verifying information supplied. There are many ways of doing this but how many are willing to do so just to use an app is the question.

Other worry (and not totally unfounded) is what happens to all this personal information used to verify age. All sorts of companies or whatever are hacked on a daily routine basis.

So now someone is on Grindr or whatever and is also "verified" that it's really themselves. That is a gold mine of information to certain persons.