Every now and then I do a plagiarism check for this blog. I've noticed that someone is scraping the RSS feeds and using my posts without attribution and without my permission. He's so unimaginative that he's even named the section of the blog "Oz Dating". He's done the same thing to other blogs as well.

It's quite fascinating that someone would be this lazy and unprincipled. Surely it's just as easy (and a whole lot more satisfying) to do your own research and write your own posts, linking to stories that you quote or cite so that those websites and blogs get some benefit as well.

My suggestion to him would be to take some pride in what he is doing, and not simply lift other people's work and pass it off as his own.

As we get closer to the federal election  in Australia things are getting very interesting. Not only are the main parties at each other's throats, but some intriguing stories are popping up relating to the minor players. One of these is the claim by the Australian Sex Party that a staffer from the conservative Family First party approached them to make a preference deal.

Family First vehemently denied the claims. However some e-mails were produced that seemed to back up the story.

If true it certainly gives weight to a widely held view about politics: when you go into it, sooner or later there'll be immense pressure on you to discard your principles.

From time to time there are reports in the media about variations on the speed dating theme. The latest one I've found is "weed dating", in which singles get to mingle while pulling out weeds in a field.

Somehow, I just don't see the attraction.

Most people are familiar with that oft-used phrase, "Everything old is new again". Well, here's a perfect example of that:

Councils in the Netherlands are offering unemployed women taxpayers' money to join a popular dating agency and get makeovers. The hope is that if they find long term partners their overall sense of wellbeing will improve and thereby their employment prospects.

It's a remarkable application of what many would deem to be somewhat old fashioned and conservative attitudes to relationships (that is, that single women are unfulfilled and unhappy). The fact that it's occurred in ultra-propgressive Holland is even more intriguing!

Pundits and commentators have long been saying that the huge rise in the use of online communication such as e-mail, live chat, and vidoeconferencing has contributed to the erosion of relationships and the lack of empathy. It seems they may have a case, with two Amercian studies showing that while these online methods make connections easier and quicker, they are not as valued as those maintained offline.

In an interesting development the Australian dating site Oasis Active has now been rated as even more popular than the huge and long running RSVP. What's really notable about it is that Oasis Active is completely free to use, while RSVP is not.

I suspect there might be a few more cases like this, but there will be a limit to the trend. One of the main ways free dating sites make money is by serving ads; ads for paid dating sites. So, the situation is a little bit like a miniature version of what occurs in capitalist societies. That is, if they get too generous with their welfare, and people prefer the dole to working, the economy suffers hugely. The government has to tighten the purse strings eventually and reward business instead.

So, unless things change radically and the free sites find completely new and very reliable ways of making money from their traffic, paid dating will always be around.

UPDATE: Commentor Fred below has real insights into the marketing of big dating sites. It seems that content ads not working now as a means of generating profit for free sites. The landscape is clearly changing. So, it will be interesting to see what happens.

Here's still more proof that you should be careful using Facebook and other similar sites if you are in a relationship: Their use as a source of evidence in divorce cases is extremely common.

Paid dating sites are still going strong, but they certainly aren't the cash cows they used to be. This is due in major part to the great profusion of totally free to use dating sites - some of which have so many members now that they rival some of the big paid sites in size. Then there is the massive popularity of social networking sites, which many single people use to meet others like them.

This situation has given rise to predictions that the paid dating site model is outdated, and that sites such as Match will eventually disappear. But I don't think that this will happen. These sites will just make a few adjustments. They'll tailor their marketing to people who are serious about meeting others for love, relationships or casual arrangements; people who want to keep their love and sex lives separate from their social lives. These people will always be prepared to pay for such services, thereby keeping quality paid dating sites in business

Facebook is getting a lot of bad publicity lately. A lot of these complaints relate to how the social networking site negatively affects intimate relationships.

So, if you're already involved with someone, you should probably be very careful how you use it. Whatever you do or say on it could easily get passed around your Facebook "friends" and get back to someone close to you in real life, potentially causing them grief.

However, this aspect of having so many people knowing so much about you via direct and indirect online contacts could also be a bonus for people who are single, and hoping to meet others like them. Which is why it's not surprising that a new dating site is combining several of Facebook's characteristics into its own structure.

As this article states, "the idea behind this site is that everyone on it shares their single friends".