Gender balance

bond007

way too many guys as compared to women
there needs to be a better way to have fun casual dates with fun cuddling without all the hassle of cuddle parties
because they are just awkward unless you know the people and its not organic
just my opinion

Bruin

Lol! You can't *make* women join and enforcing a cap on the number of men would probably be unworkable.

Mark

Improving gender balance will always be an objective. However, unlike dating websites, it's less of a problem here as there is no assumed exclusivity for the individual. People can have multiple ongoing cuddle relationships without any social stigma as it's entirely in the spirit of the website.

bond007

good points i was just making an observation

Colourful

I think a lot of people don't know this site even exists, or they would be on it! I only found out about it as a severely touch-deprived male friend sent it to me for my opinion, and I thought it was such a great idea that I joined :-) Doesn't seem to be many people on it in any of the areas I'm in anyway, unfortunately.

Also you have to realise that, from a female perspective, there are great security issues, and this requires a level of trust well beyond the norm. This site does not require much from its members - you don't have to fill anything out on your profile if you don't want to - which is highly discouraging from potential female joiners, especially as there's no obvious rating or reporting system so we can know who is safe and who isn't.

Aleron

I completely agree with Colourful. I literally just joined today thinking it might be a good way to find nice, platonic cuddling relationships with other people. But as soon as I saw several men's profiles, most of them were clearly aiming towards romantic/sexual tendencies. That is a huge put off to someone completely new to this scene, as I was thinking everyone would be on the same page of "just cuddles, nothing more".

Even the registering process makes it seem like another online dating site, asking your relationship status, if you want/have kids, etc. Which none of those should have any bearing on a cuddle buddy anyway. I felt like I was joining another dating site, which already put me on edge before I even saw anyone's profile.

I feel like in order for this site to work, a more strict screening process would have to be put in place, or else people (mostly men, I'm sorry, it's obvious) will abuse the basis of the site in order to see what they can get away with.

Even if you could put up a warning system for members clearly looking for dates, to make women feel a little less like they're being tricked by the premise of this website. I'll stop my rambling here, but it definitely needs a lot of improvements to work smoothly and properly, as it should.

JoeSomebody2

Dig the fact Mark pointed out the poly potential inherent in having a cuddle buddy. Kudos.

Gender Balance is an ongoing thing with many online communities, and Cuddle Comfort suffers from it at as well. The aspect of dating is discouraged on CC, yes, but many take issue on cuddling with someone whom they aren't otherwise attracted to. Perhaps that's what should be worked upon? Making a disconnect from attraction and focus upon the comfort of cuddling? Hmmm...

docgatorb

I would agree with all of the above observations except the pointing to males as the major offenders. Men are generally the more likely to take the action of making contact and have fewer security issues, but they are not alone in having sparse profiles or a profile suggesting that they are looking for a relationship,although I would agree that women are generally more subtle, although not always.
Either way, there needs to be more discussion of what should be in a profile and how what members expect to get from a cuddling session. Cuddling is a powerful emotional stimulant and although the asexual members may be more immune to aspects of this, it will undoubtedly effect many members more profoundly than they expect. Context is everything and I would encourage newbies to follow strict no sex rules, at least initially so that they can fully appreciate cuddling as it's own experience.
So let's make a list of those traits that should be part of a profile. I would agree that relationship status and whether you want to have kids is completely out of place. How about something about your cuddling experience, your idea of a good cuddling session (no, I don't like cuddling in front of a TV), how you would go about creating an ideal meeting, etc. Just saying...

JoeSomebody2

Our voices are heard, and the larger discussion of what makes a better profile is being had at...
http://www.cuddlecomfort.com/forum/discussion/257/profile-fields

Hamlet

You know there is another solution to the gender gap. If we are talking about asexual cuddling, I'm not sure why we can't convince more of the guys to sign up to cuddle other guys. I personally like the fact that it asks about relationship status in that I kinda want to know if I'd be cuddling with someone who has already committed to a relationship with someone else in which case I might end up taking up someones time when they already have someone they could be cuddling with. I'd sorta feel like I was robbing someone out of spending time with their partner.

MikeAC

I completely agree with what Hamlet said about the relationship status option, but I would like to add that another reason I think that is a useful bit of information is that a lot of people, myself included, would be uncomfortable with the idea of cuddling with someone who is in a committed relationship with someone else, because what if their significant other is uncomfortable with their sweetie cuddling someone else? I wouldn't be comfortable being that "other guy" nor would I want someone I'm dating to be cuddling other men, because I would want to be the one cuddling her. Although if for some reason I can't, (long distance relationship, for example), and she needs a good cuddle, I wouldn't mind if she were to cuddle with one of her gal pals, but I still wouldn't feel comfortable with her cuddling other men, because sexual or not, cuddling is quite intimate.

huggernaut

I'm toying with the idea of "advertising" Cuddle Comfort here in Toronto.

Just some guerrilla marketing with some flyers or some cards to leave in stores, etc.

I figure the more people who know, the more potential cuddle partners.

Not sure it would address the gender imbalance, but it might... 

depending where I would leave the flyers, etc.

Ideas?

Mark

University or college campuses seem to work well. I've seen a couple of people notice them and then take a photo to share on Instagram. 

I actually put some of these up on a campus. I thought they might work better because they're direct to the point.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwB_T54kCphoMUEwdThDZFhFbTA/view?usp=sharing (PDF)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwB_T54kCphoUjRndGRwTld4ODA/view?usp=sharing (Original .docx, font might not show up correctly unless you download it and open it with Word)

JoeSomebody2

For more discussion on how to get over gender balance by realizing gender is a notion forced upon you by your peers, read more here. :P

If Cuddle Comfort was like Russia then there would be more women than men on here. Men outnumber women here.

docgatorb

Men probably outnumber women on this site but not overall in the USA where females have the lead.However, men still have an edge when it comes to money. These numbers loose their meaning when you consider that census figures only allow for two genders.

That's life.

Dating websites fix this by adding fake women profiles lol.