The Riff-Raff Question

By Gareth 27/12/2005

Does higher attendance charges in order to keep the 'riff-raff' out of singles groups actually filter out 'down-market' people or does it instead tend to filter 'suckers' in? What exactly is 'riff-raff'?

Some of my opposition operators, rankled at my low costs, have used an array of ruses in attempts to undermine my success. They find the fact that I run my singles network and events largely for my own enjoyment rather than for high profits somewhat inconvenient. There is a long-standing belief that people looking for friendship and/or love are quintessential sheep to be shorn, fleeced for all they are worth. A parade of hopefuls with big dollar aspirations has entered the singles events industry in recent years. Some of the things they say about me are rather uncomplimentary. There is little wonder when my cover charge has been $2 at most functions while theirs often range from around $15 up to blue-sky figures.

The most common ruse used against me is to suggest that if you have low charges you attract all the 'down-market' people. Yet overwhelmingly, feedback about the quality of the people who attend our events is that the standard is very high. We have doctors, lawyers, scientists, psychologists etc. at our events as well as people in trades and administration.

What counts is not a person's profession but rather their social worth. There are some people in high professions who are socially obnoxious. There are some people in menial professions who are fabulous social value. I know which I would rather invite to my functions.

There are several points which I find amusing about this particular claim. The first is that some of the people who feed this information back to me attend my functions as well as the 'posh' ones. Surely an operator making the 'riff-raff' claim is holding these people out to be 'up-market' when they attend their functions and 'riff-raff' when they attend mine.

The second point is that by numerous accounts people have paid big money to attend 'up-market' functions only to rub shoulders both with the same people they meet at my functions, also with people who don't attend my functions and who are dressed and behave in a decidedly 'down-market' fashion. It would seem that the definition of 'riff-raff' is arbitrary.

When the emphasis is thrown heavily onto making money there is a strong tendency to accept anyone who is willing to fork over the cash. In some instances that amounts to people who are particularly desperate. I have seen a number of members of more 'up market' singles groups who are absolutely not welcome at my functions.

These other operators are entitled to try to make money. They are also entitled to say what they want, but they will need to put up with me setting the facts straight.