Idea-A-Day Four ~ Help a Brother Out.net

Idea Count: 4/20

Title: Help a Brother Out.net

Category: Social/Online

Feasibility: 8/10

Likelihood: 3/10

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I like to go on dates. Dates are fun. I should go on more of them.

But see, I haven't been on too many dates. My bad.

But I distinctly remember homecoming. I remember that after all was said and done, after we had dropped the girls and Ryan off, me and kyle hung out at his house for a few minutes. We were both in our nice suits. We talked with his parents about how everything had gone, and thanked them for letting us have dinner there. As I started getting ready to go I turned to Kyle.

"Man, we totally pulled that off great. That worked out awesome. Good job buddy, way to go."

I really meant that statement. I felt great about the way that things had gone. We were pretty new to this business. It was a big endeavor, really. We had to pull off a day activity, dinner, the dance, AND shakes at Arctic Circle. We had to do it without real drivers' licenses and on a budget less than 50 dollars. While I stood there in the doorway ready to leave, we both looked back and a big smile came to our faces.

"Yeah, we did do pretty well, didn't we? Wow, we nailed that one. Booyah, let's do it again some time."

I was proud of him and Ryan for pulling the date off. Heck, I was even proud of myself. I was proud of our girls for not calling us tightwads and running away when we made them run through the forest in their dresses.

At the end of the day, we could look back and realize that we'd pulled it off. We had such a good time, and everything worked out great. It was golden, really.

And really, I don't understand why I haven't gone on more dates like this. I guess you could ascribe it to my lack of money, lack of lady skills, lack of whatever.

But really, it comes down to ideas. I rarely have good date ideas.

To illustrate this point, I'll fill you in on the most recent idea I had for a date.

So, it's a double date, maybe more. In any event, you split up into your couples, and each couple gets a hunk of play-doh/salt dough (bonus points if you make the salt dough earlier as part of the date). Anyways, you begin with a random noun that you pull out of a hat, like a cat. It's the first team's responsibility to mold a cat in 60 seconds or less. And then, it's team two's responsibility to think of something that beats a cat and then mold it, all in 60 seconds or less. At that point, it's back to team A, who has to beat whatever team B molded.

So, for example-

Team A does water, so Team B, to beat them, does Ice. Team A melts the ice by molding fire, but Team B puts the fire out with a fire extinguisher. Team A makes a fire extinguisher with a hole in it, so Team B molds duct tape to fix the hole. Team A, faced with no other option, molds Chuck Norris.

It goes on like that till you get bored, or can't beat the other guy. I'm not sure why I think this would be so much fun, I just do.

But this illustrates two points. First, I rarely have cool date ideas. Second, my cool date ideas really aren't that cool.

So, how do we remedy this? I want to go on dates, but I don't have any cool date ideas. Michael wants to go on dates, but he can't think of anything either. I recently emailed my brother in Costa Rica asking for date ideas, I was that desperate. He pulled through with some good ones, things I'll hopefully implement by summer, but that's beside the point...

So, how do we fix the problem?

-Ahem-

It, like most of my social problems, can be solved by the Internet.

We create a new branch of the Taylorsville Alliance. We call it Help-A-Brother-Out.net.

The main attraction will be a huge collection of date ideas. Before the site is launched, we'll send out several dedicated individuals on quests to collect as many good date ideas as they can. They'll ask their siblings, they'll ask their parents. They'll take surveys around homecoming and sweethearts and Prom to find out what worked well and what didn't. They'll create a huge database, and we'll put it online.

But the fun doesn't end there, oh no. Once it's up and running, you'll be able to log in to the site. You'll have a few options at this point. The easiest will be our custom "Suggest-A-Date" feature. You'll click this little link, and then fill in some information relevant to the search. The site will ask a few questions to find out what you're looking for. Example

• Number of people involved?
• Price Range?
• Time Limit?
• Desired Complexity Level?
• End Goal? (Friends, Romantic, Impress, Obligation, Etc. Etc.)
• Fun? Serious? Adventure?
  
• Time of Day?
• Season?
• Etc...

Then, taking these things into consideration, we'll search the database and suggest five or so dates that will fit your needs.

That's the quick way out. Of course, you'd have to be able to search the whole database, search by price range, search by desired complexity, whatever whatever.

So, there are good ideas, that's cool. But we can take it one step better.

There'll be a rating and comment feature. After someone goes on the date, they can come back and leave a comment, that others will see when they check that date out. Stuff like "Worked great, they loved it." Or "Lamesauce, girls didn't like insect hunting as much as you said they would." They could give it a rating from zero to five stars, and you'd see that on the searches. If you see a date with all sorts of stars, hooray, it'll go over well. A date with fewer stars, well, that's harder to make go well, but still possible.

And then there'd by the suggest-a-date. Instead of having my team of crack dating ninjas provide all the ideas, people like you could suggest an idea. You could write about a good date you went on, or just a good idea that you had. The more people that come and use the site, the more ideas you'll have, making it a better site. It'll be a party.

Aside from the database, there'd be the general dating advice. Elements of a good date, tips, tricks, etc. Maybe there'd even be a section dedicated to dances, the whole, asking and answering whatnot. There'd definitely be a calendar talking about local events that would make for good dates. Something like "Free concert at the park" or "There's this high school play, or this exhibit at the planetarium" It'd help people out, and that's what's important.

Why is it important? Because people need good date ideas. It will make peoples lives easier, really. It'll let people with good ideas help people without good ideas. All in all, it's going to be a party. It'd rely upon the community to really make it work.

So yeah, your one stop resource for all your dating needs. What do you think?

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Title: Plan 5
Complexity: Epic
Results: Even More Epic
1,000,000 out of 5 stars.
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