Exclusive interview with DoNotDateHim.co.za founder

Do Not Date Him has been making waves of late. I took it upon myself to not judge and instead get the information I wanted from the source. So I did just that and got in touch with the founder of the website, Yolandi van Rooyen (28).Here is the interview a nh.com exclusive:Do not date him is a very intriguing concept. Should guys be worried about this particular website?I do understand that most men feel very worried about the site. The main goal of the website is to make women aware of conmen as well as men that are physically,emotionally and sexually abusive. The idea is to be more pro active about these concerns in society and to help women to make more informed choices next time they start a relationship with a man.Why did you start the website?I've been in an physically and emotional abusive relationship myself and I wanted to prevent other women and their children to experience the same pain and suffering.The idea isn't yours, tell me a bit about how you set up the website, did you hire developers and designers or is it all your skill?I read about the American website Dontdatehimgirl in a magazine and I immediately thought that this could be very effective with South Africa's high domestic violence statistics. I did call in the help of developers and a designer and I also had to get a lawyer to help me setup the terms and conditions for the website.You aren't very shy, you were written about in the Saturday Star recently. Aren't you nervous of being outed as the founder?The Beeld published my name in their article and I have to say I did feel a bit nervous about everyone knowing that I am the founder but now that the cat is out of the bag I have accepted the fact. I am still very camera shy though.How are you going to prevent abuse of the your service? What is stopping any woman from gaining revenge through your site?I do moderate all the profiles myself and I am definately in the process of evolving the website into a community site where women will be able to get information and healing. Any user can report a page for any abuse or foul language and when I communicate with my users I encourage them to be responsible with their comments and posts.This site portrays men in a very bad light whether you like to admit it or not. Is this not just perpetuating the cycle?Yes it does make some men look bad, but I,allot of women and men feel that it is time to seperate the good men from the bad. For many years and generations this topic has been a taboo and that also didn't help to stop the cycle. If women can see a very dangerous man's profile on my website it can prevent her from entering a relationship whith this man and can possibly stop the cycle from jumping from one abusive relationship to another.Are you aware of any legal action taken by outed men against the original Don't Date Him Girl website?Yes, Don't Date Him Girl had two lawsuits in 2006 and they won both of them.Have you received any hate mail yet?Yes,What are your plans for the sites future?I am already in the process of evolving the website into a site for information, discussion and healing. There will be experts writing articles about issues that envolve women and the struggles they are facing on a daily basis. A legal expert will help women with issues concerning their rights and the correct procedures to follow. I am also excited to introduce a forum and a rating system.Do you have a Do Not Date Her in mind?The domain was bought on the 3rd of the September when the news of Donotdatehim broke. The site launched this week.Do you plan on making money off the site?Unfortunately I do still need funding to pay for the hosting monthly and to keep the website live.And finally, do you have anything you would like to add?I would like to invite all men to join the fight against women and child abuse. It is not going to help if we stay silent and action have to be taken to eliminate this evil in society.I'd like to thank Yolandi for being so transparent and getting involved online. I truly do hope that the site reaches its intended goal of protecting women and spreading the word against abuse.I have my reservations about the potential success of the site, prevention of abuse and proper use of the service but in the end only time and lawyers fees will be able to tell if the site succeeds or not.

Some ideas I've had recently

Here's just a short list of some things I've been thinking of lately:The music industry needs to get its head on straight.What needs to happen is that CDs need to go bye bye. Ok that was harsh. They don't need to go anywhere but there needs to be an effective solution to purchasing digital music in stores.Here's my suggestion:Stores like Musica and CD Warehouse need to offer customers the option to purchase a removable disk (flashtick) that they can use as a "CD". Instead of going in to a store to buy a CD you can use the flashstick to plug in to a computer, pick music song by song, album by album, genre by genre or any other which way that they like, save the music, pay per song, check out, swipe credit card and legally have purchased digital music.I love shopping for music, not online all the time and this provides me with a perfect and effective solution.Then taking this a step further, I think that the flashsticks need to be identifiable as a specific customers flashstick. Why? So that you can go home, plug in the flashstick and connect to the store online. Then pick your music again, enter your credit card details and bam, you have music on your flashstick.Obviously there are issues that need to be worked out, but I'm not that guy. I am an ideas man, let someone else make it happen!The next idea has to do with PVR.This is what PVR is:

The PVR will revolutionise the television experience and the way you watch television.The DStv PVR Decoder is a Personal Video Recorder and decoder in one. With your DStv PVR decoder you will be able to take control of your television.Some of the exciting features of the DStv PVR decoder that you can look forward to include:* Record 80 hours of TV Programming* Pause live TV* Watch two channels and record a third channel at the same time* Rewind programming* Fast forward and slo-mo programming you have recorded

So the idea stems from a night at the pub. Someone I was drinking with was missing a programme, so he tried to call home to get someone to record it. Nothing. Another person at the table was however, recording the self-same programme.Here's the kicker. In the era of Internet and gaming platforms that are able to hook up to wireless and networked internet connection, why can't I send a recorded programme from one user of PVR to another? This should definitely be a function. P2P2P sharing (programme to person to programme).On top of that, if we have Internet capabilities then we should be able to set the PVR to record a programme from a mobile website that is linked to our account via the TV guide. I visit the mobile site, login with my PVR number or code, pick a timeslot, programme and option and BAM you are recording. Too easy.What do you think? Am I losing my mind?

Online Business Is Tough

Let us be perfectly honest. Making money online in SA is difficult unless you are employed by a big media house (which in itself is tough).Those who know me or read this blog will know that I am an entrepreneur and media practitioner and not necessarily in that order. This means that I am broke some of the time. This gets old really really fast, if you don't know, trust me on this one.What I am getting at is that it's tough to make a living online, it is. I am really curious to know if there are gabillions of online entrepreneurs in SA who are making boatloads of money or at least, are making a living? Are you out there? If you are, let me know cause I wanna know how you did it.Who am I kidding? As if anyone who made the dosh is going to splurge their secrets to me on this blog? Are you?