Dating app aims to spark a love inferno

Roll up, roll up – we’ve got a new dating app in town. Forget Tinder. Tinder’s name may have hinted that it would help to spark a million flaming love infernos but potential datees have apparently grown tired of the constant come-ons from complete randoms and the oh-so-polite invites for a quickie.

So the 21st century world’s Cupids – or at least Cupid’s corporate accomplices – have put their heads together and come up with an even hotter, more female-friendly dating app.

The website is a little darker and broodier than Tinder and hints at a more grown-up approach to the Mate-for-Life dating campaign.

Yes, meet Wyldfire, the newest lover on the dating block – one whose name doesn’t just imply hotter than hot love matches but promises you’ll be in a towering inferno of love in no time. What’s the difference between the two services? Well, Tinder allows users to pre-approve pictures and profiles of the individuals they like the look of and thereby avoids unsolicited messages from people who don’t tickle their fancy. Wyldfire takes this one step further: it actually places women as the gatekeepers of the site. Men have to be approved by their female friends in order to even acquire a Wyldfire account.

This is meant to weed out the less savoury characters – ya know, the ones who will casually ask you for your breast size before inviting you for supper. Darwin’s answer to The Sun-reading, chest-oogling weakest links of the species, you might say. Except... this approach supposes that all women fully know, understand and have had extensive access to the personal messages sent by the men they approve. Now, I have a great many close male friends. I also have a bunch of male acquaintances. Men I know reasonably well and have spent some time with – and men I would probably approve for Wyldfire. Of the first bunch of close male friends, I’m fairly certain I can trust most of them not to send unsolicited pictures of their exposed nether regions to unassuming single females. Of the second bunch, however... well, frankly, who knows? We’ve shared chat about politics and the weather – they seem nice enough.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean I should trust them with your heart – let alone your phone number.

All it takes is one weak link in that female chain of gatekeepers and poof we’re back to the Hot or Not? dark ages.

Plus... why are we imagining that men are the main creepy offenders on dating sites. I’m sure there are some women out there who inappropriately proposition men online while sending naked pictures of their sacred bits, right? Ok, that’s doubtful.

However, one promising outcome of this app is, interestingly, a positive outcome for men. Since all men on the site have to be allowed access by the women the male/female ratio will have substantially more women than men, unlike most sites where it’s usually 80 per cent male dominated. This will be true initially, at least. If most women are anything like me they will have copious amounts of male friends and acquaintances. We could presume that each woman may have up to five or ten male datees she could unleash into the wilderness of Wyldfire. I bet some of those have not been well vetted. I bet some of those will send inappropriate messages.

Another quirk of the site is that they limit the amount of messages you can send: 20 messages in an exchange before you have to ditch the person or bite the bullet and meet in real life. It’s supposed to stop all unnecessary flirting that could go on for weeks and months, with one or both parties never having any intention of meeting up.

But the end result means that there may be a pool of 10 men for every female, some of which may not have been carefully checked before gaining entry, and who you have to meet up in real life, before being able to exchange crucial life details and having the time to stalk them via social media from the safety of your bedroom. If this is the case, why is anyone bothering to internet date? This sounds like a normal night at Maxwells.