Certifications on Online Ads

[Vespertine]

Originally Posted by Mr & Mrs Naughty

Everyone is talking about the certification thing.........we state in our profile that we do not certify nor do we accept certifications-because we did that with our old profile & were sort of, how shall I say......virtually stalked I guess.

Swing Lifestyle techsupport will certify you if you submit a video recording.

I snipped a part of Mr. & Mrs. Naughty's post from the profile review thread, I was interested to see how important people think the certification feature is.

I don't feel comfortable with the certification features. I would be more comfortable if the certifications could be left anonymously.

I like knowing a couple is for real, that's the best part of the certifications. My greatest peeve with it is that everyone else can see who you've met.

I don't like that.

Who I've met is my business and I don't feel comfortable making it public knowledge. It's all very indiscreet.

I've actually declined meeting a couple because of their certifications. I didn't find one (or several) of the couples that certified them to be desirable. Not in the sexual sense, but in a sense that they appeared to be a couple I wouldn't even want to stand in line with at the post office. It makes the couple "guilty by association", IMO.

Do you think the quality of couples that have certified a potential couple make a difference to you?

[biblonde]

certs do let you see who they have been with...kinda. but they really dont matter to us. On lifestyle lounge you can get cert. with no one knowing who did it. I like that feature! and only by a member who is cert as real and paying for the site. It would be nice is Swing Lifestyle did that also.

but that is just my 2 cents for the day

[BloomoCoupleFun]

Maybe I am missing something but it seems that only Swing Lifestyle uses that 'certification' feature. We never attached much credibility to it.

Problem one is that it only is supposed to attest that another Swing Lifestyle member is 'real' or not. Has nothing to do with indicating their honesty or credibility.

Problem two is that since free accounts are permitted on the site there is nothing stopping a nefarious person from simply creating a bogus second account and 'certifying' their main account.

Its much like the 'testimonials' on AFF. Most are "I'd really like to meet them and..." meaning they are coming more from wanna-be's than a reflection of reality.

[JustAskJulie]

I thought they were anonymous on Swing Lifestyle, did that change at some point? Probably when they added the comment feature.

I find it a little disconcerting as well that they put the names out there like that. I like the original idea better, people were simply certified or not, no comments, no names, just yes I've met this person and they are real - that was the whole point after all.

It's not just Swing Lifestyle, I don't even know if they were the first but several of the swinger ads sites use various techniques to "certify" their users. Whether it be having them send in a picture with them holding a sign TOGETHER with the site name on it, or having other users certify that they've met them... or the most extreme I've seen, asking them to send in a letter and copies of their IDs.

[DandS]

I voted "whats a certification"...obviously we're not on Swing Lifestyle. We have a profile on Swappernet but thats a feature I've not seen or used before.

D

[ALilOEverything]

We've allowed one so far and that's because we really hit it off and have a great time together. At first it was a little weird because a few of the people we talked to said "oh I see you chat with so and so too" and I realized how small the circles were. But then those people would invite us all four of us to functions and parties and it worked out fine. I don't except them anymore though, it just seems strange to me to acquire a list.

Originally Posted by Vespertine

My greatest peeve with it is that everyone else can see who you've met.

I don't like that.

Who I've met is my business and I don't feel comfortable making it public knowledge. It's all very indiscreet.

You just summed up why we don't like to certify or accept them. We know people "Certification Surf". Just following the certifications around to see who has been with who.
We are guilty of it ourselves. Surrender

We use to have an ad and we certified and let others certify us. But people assumed just because we played with the same person they have we want to play with them to.
Not so.

When we use to certify we use to be "Certification Snobs" (Don't flame me, it's suppose to be a joke. )meaning that if someone wasn't certified we would not even consider them. But now that we don't certify we can't quite have that attitude.

We are only seeking single males and we might be missing out on some quality encounters because we have no certifications. But so be it. If we meet someone, we meet someone. If we don't, we don't.

By the amount of mail we get from single males even though we are not certified and will not certify is quite high. I don't think MOST single guys take into concideration wether or not we are certified.


Mrs naughty may drop in a post if I did not cover all the bases.

[Kari&theWuff]

Originally Posted by BloomoCoupleFun

Problem one is that it only is supposed to attest that another Swing Lifestyle member is 'real' or not. Has nothing to do with indicating their honesty or credibility.

Problem two is that since free accounts are permitted on the site there is nothing stopping a nefarious person from simply creating a bogus second account and 'certifying' their main account.

Actually, if you have a free account on Swing Lifestyle you cannot certify another couple. You have to be a paying member, which we are not yet. We learned that fact this past weekend.

May I point out that just because someone's been certified it doesn't necessarily mean that they've played with the certifying couple. It just means to us that they've met face to face and weren't fake ad trolls. For newbie couples, like ourselves, it may be easier to get started with someone who's been around the block a time or two while we get the hang of everything.

And that's my .02 Surrender

Kari

[jcbicouple]

We voted against for a few reasons:

1) It's no one else's business who we've met.

2) Who's to say that we aren't for real just because we haven't met someone from that site? We rarely contact anyone from ads, and haven't met anyone that has contacted us through Swing Lifestyle (We signed up there the same time we signed up on this board).

3) We don't know much about the certification feature, but it sounds like you have to be a paying member, and we won't pay to place an ad on a site.

Are we fakes? That's funny! Sluts maybe.....

[northindycpl]

I will admit that I shy away from those with too many certifications or those who have played with couples that aren't our type.

I guess I am looking for one. One. Just someone else who says, yeah this is really a couple and these people are real.

Do we rule out those without certifications, no.

I don't like the lack of discretion with it, and have disallowed certiifcations too.

I am fairly certain free members can't certify or be certified.

I do also look for others who have paid. For some reason that offers me a little comfort in knowing that they can afford the site, and take it seriously.
We are free member snobs.

[TNT]

Originally Posted by Kari&theWuff

May I point out that just because someone's been certified it doesn't necessarily mean that they've played with the certifying couple. It just means to us that they've met face to face and weren't fake ad trolls.

I think when looking at certifications this is very important to remember...we do have certifications and have certified others, but it only means we have met them face to face, not necessarily that we've played with them.

We do agree that it would be better if the certifications were anonymous but, on Swing Lifestyle you are allowed to say no to a certification (you must approve it before it's attached to your profile) if you don't want anyone to know that you met whoever is trying to certify you.

Whether we contact a couple/single or not is not based on if they are certified or not and actually we rarely even look at the certifications. We like to base our opinion of someone from our own experience with them and not other's experiences and opinions of them.

Teresa

Originally Posted by northindycpl

I do also look for others who have paid. For some reason that offers me a little comfort in knowing that they can afford the site, and take it seriously.
We are free member snobs.

We were paid members when we first listed ourselves on there, but have since let it drop, and we are free now. When we first started on Swing Lifestyle it was nice to see the certifications to see what kind of cpls they had played with, what they were interested in, gave us a little more confidence I guess. But now we dont even pay attention to if some one is certified or not. The one cpl that certified us, did it before we ever had sex with them, I liked that because it showed that we were for real and that we hit it off as friends not just sex seakers.

[Spoomonkey]

After finding out what it means, I am kind of surprised that many people would actually be for it... I mean - discretion, folks! I don't want people to know who we have or have not played with. That is our business...

We are going to post our pics and take our chances with that. But, still, the club will be our primary "connection" outlet.

Spoomonkey

[scky_cpl_4_bif]

I actually look at many of the certifications, especially to see what other "types" of couples may have been considered. I happened to run across one this morning, and was quite surprised. The gal was drop-dead gorgeous in her pics and so I chose to look at their "1" certification. I am of the opinion that they themselves created a dummy profile just to certify themselves. The entire profile of the certifying couple was nothing but jumble, ie: jfaldlkfjladkjfldkafj aldfjladjfaljdfklfjlvjciov adjlkjiovjne

That was annoying as hell ......need I say more?

~M

[Handyman69]

We choose not to vote as it didn't really list what we look for. We are certified and have certified others. For us........they don't have to be certified but the chances of them being serious.....real (don't really care for this term)......and Knowing exactly what they are looking for is about 20 times better. As we look back at the couples that we have recieved messages from or we pursued.........all the non-certified ones have never panned out and too many games were played. So, I guess certification isn't mandatory but extremely liked on our part.
John & Rhonda