Cool things

I like The Onion [a political and not only satire newspaper in the US] mostly because of its personals space. And I like the personals space for three reasons:
1. I like the quirky and individualistic profile pages
2. I discover new interesting books among what the profilees read
3. I think it's a neat business model
[okay, fine, I also like to check out the men but hey, I am only human]
Theirs is really a smart way to capitalize on brand equity without doing irrelevant things online like so --> you expect your readers to be of a certain kind. you expect they also are aware they are of a special kind and would be interested in meeting people like themselves. so you let them, by setting up a personals space. BUT to preserve exclusivity you raise barriers: a demanding profile page [if you're smart enough to read The Onion you'll be able to handle the page] and a credit-based contact method - you can only contact the person you like if you have credits which you buy with real money...
Naturally no one minds this because they know that they will meet someone with the same likings, a similar mindframe and a sense of humor. I think at least a couple of sites in Romania might benefit from a similar approach :-)