Solving the Chicken and Egg problem - Part II, Denial

To a casual observer it may seem that I have at least two chicken and egg problems with revmap (i was avoiding using revmap as an example but oh well), firstly all "review" websites have the problem that until there is a lot of data on them they aren't that useful, secondly until your social network is using the website its not very useful to you. Well this casual observer like all casual observers is very wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I will tell you why they are wrong:

1. People only care about things that there friends say, so the fact that volume is low doesn't matter.
2. The network is growing organically, so most people join have a friend on here, if they don't then they can add it.
3. revmap is not a review website! revmap is about whats popular and so its not about thousands of rubbish reviews on a whole bunch of rubbish places and events, its about the few interesting and exciting places and events that are worth someones effort of putting up.
4. revmap is not for when you are looking for something specific its just for browsing through your location and seeing what might be happening and interesting. (well you could be looking for something specific later on...)
   

Phew! Having said all that, of course once the network is bigger and there is more data I can see why it might be a bit more.. useful :-). So my point here is not really denial but you ignore the Chicken and Egg problem and provide value to the website in some other direction.

I have listed the solutions I have so far below, will update if new things come to light.

The purpose of this Chieck and Egg Problem solving is to prove

a) that it's not an unsurmountable problem so people should stop pointing it out all the time.
b) To give some effective strategies to overcoming the obstacle.
c) So I can think out the issue.
d) So other people can suggest further solutions.

Even though I complain about it, the chicken and egg problem is actually quite a good thing to face in a startup. If its a problem for you at the start it means when you get big you are going to have more of a protectable situation. It is this problem that protects ebay's, myspace's... (all social networks) position. In more traditional industry you might say the chicken and egg problem is like reputation, once you have it it's useful until you get it its an annoying barrier.

Solving the Chicken and Egg Problem Index:

Part I, Pick a niche
Part II, Denial
Part III, The chicken chicken strategy
Part IV, Miracle
Part V, False Pretenses