VDate

So once upon a better time, there was likealittle (I still have no clue what a lucuma tastes like). And when it bid us an unfortunate goodbye, likememaybe made a valiant attempt to fill its shoes, and – with sleeplessinpoughkeepsie proving feeble competition – fell woefully short. And somewhere between-during all of that there was queerchatvc. But does anyone remember when VDate existed? Probably not.

Depending on whom you ask, you might be told that Vassar’s dating scene may better be described as a thriving hook-up scene interspersed with the occasional jackpot hook-up-turned-romance relationship. The school’s image as a college devoid of a dating scene has long persisted, even being publicly perpetuated in a scandalous Spin Magazine article from the late ‘90s. But on October, 24 2011, an unknown student (whose contact e-mail would have us dub him/her/them Tom Riddle) decided to challenge that notion by introducing a dating website for the Vassar community: VDate.

With a witty tagline that played on the idea of disappointingly “losing your VCard at the Mug”, VDate sought to counter the perceived prevalence of a hook-up culture as the norm, while also attempting  to create a space to share ideas on finding, building and sustaining healthy “affectionate and long-lasting” relationships.

Unfortunately VDate never really took off. Although a brilliant concept, the site did not enjoy much patronage and the flimsy, infrequent posts – the last of which was about 2 years ago – are sadly reminiscent of an abandoned love story. Whether due to a poor publicity, a lack of interest or intrinsic shortcomings of the site itself, we cannot say for sure.

And s/he-who-would-have-been-named-did-we-have-an-actual-name did not respond to any e-mails for further details concerning VDate. But if you were curious, it did exist – and still does.