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Re:Show HN: I have no friends so I created Strangers for Din... by ohyes on Monday May 14, 2012 @07:51AM (#3970557)
I was hoping for another way to sign in.

I killed my Facebook account a couple weeks ago and would rather not reactivate. Also 'strangers for dinner' makes me think of cannibalism. Not something I particularly want to be thinking about when getting the opportunity to meet new people in my own home.

It also doesn't seem particularly safe.

Re:Show HN: I have no friends so I created Strangers for Din... by chewxy on Monday May 14, 2012 @07:56AM (#3970577)
I've always felt dark humour works. :P

As for safety, we've actually fretted over it for a few weeks before finally writing it. Facebook as it turns out, can be quite useful in terms of safety.

We've put in place a system where we will work with authorities should security and safety be an issue (for example, if someone gets robbed). This is where we figured Facebook information would be quite useful.

It's a debate we constantly have internally though, and we aren't quite clear about how far is too far yet

Re:Show HN: I have no friends so I created Strangers for Din... by basicallydan on Monday May 14, 2012 @08:02AM (#3970603)
Yeah, Facebook does make it quite safe. Personally, and I know that this is a bit silly, but the thought of all my actual Facebook friends seeing that I have signed up to this put me off at first. Then I was like "fuck it, I'm curious!" - but it doesn't mean that others will come to the same conclusion. It's similar to announcing on Facebook that you've just signed up to a dating site. Lots of people do it these days, even talk about it quite a lot, but it's not something you'd make a status update about.
Re:Show HN: I have no friends so I created Strangers for Din... by chewxy on Monday May 14, 2012 @08:05AM (#3970619)
Nope, your friends won't know about it. Facebook is used for authentication and verification only.
Re:Show HN: I have no friends so I created Strangers for Din... by basicallydan on Monday May 14, 2012 @08:40AM (#3970775)
Great!
Re:Show HN: I have no friends so I created Strangers for Din... by jonhendry on Monday May 14, 2012 @09:57AM (#3971055)
I am reminded of the IT Crowd episode, "Moss and the German".
Re:Show HN: I have no friends so I created Strangers for Din... by digitalsushi on Monday May 14, 2012 @09:25AM (#3970943)
I think that we each have our preferences for safety and our own internal model of how we perceive the world to work. Roughly to me this is a matter of initial expectations of other people - do you consider people good or evil by default, is trust earned or given? And certainly we evolve these stages as we age. My trusting nature toward strangers in my home might close if I have a child to protect, for example.

But, thinking of a website where people literally sign up to consume each other is not my first inclination at the website's name. As with the roughly equivalent 'friends for dinner', my first notion was exactly what the site intends to deliver.

Re:Show HN: I have no friends so I created Strangers for Din... by ictoan on Monday May 14, 2012 @10:05AM (#3971093)
Was just thinking of that... I think 'Dinner With Strangers' would work better grammatically.