THE TRIBUTE SITE
THE STORY OF SOULGEEK
GALLERY
Launched on June 20th 2007 SoulGeek was the brainchild of voice actor Dino Andrade and a former high school sweetheart Casey Lyn Keeney whom he had reunited with after 26 years.
Together, they conceived of a geek-dating site in which dating was only the beginning. There was Geek News, Convention Updates, Webcomics, Fan-Fiction Contests. There were multiple forums and chatrooms focused on different areas of geekdom from video games to creative arts. And there were the SoulGeek Gurus, professionals who volunteered to answer questions and give advice on subjects ranging from creating comics, to gaming, to working in the performing arts and of course dating. A whole geek world for a monthly membership fee well-below competing dating sites of the time.
AT THE BEGINNING
However, the true driving force behind SoulGeek was not known to the public. This was Dino Andrade’s strong desire to make something good come out of the tragic passing of his first wife, voice actress Mary Kay Bergman. Mr. Andrade was concerned that SoulGeek might be perceived as nothing more than a way to exploit his wife’s death therefore there was no mention of her on the original site.
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Instead, there was a “Who We Are” section featuring both an “About Us” page detailing the creation of SoulGeek, and a “Mission Statement” which mostly credited “Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling (a great hero of Mr. Andrade) as a chief inspiration behind the site’s dual nature as more than just a dating site. Thus the site had two mottos: “Find your Soul Geek at SOULGEEK.COM " and “Where the Passion of Fandom Thrives”. The original ABOUT US and MISSION STATEMENT are still here.
THE SECRET BEHIND THE SITE
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As the site approached its 1-year anniversary, members began clamoring for some kind of meetup and so a gathering was planned to take place the weekend of February 8th 2008 at what was then Quark’s Bar at the Las Vegas Hilton Star Trek Experience.
SoulGeek member Spectrum (Todd Vanderbeek) volunteered to organize the event with the help of fellow member Randomscraps (Jennifer Walker). Dino and Casey didn’t really know what to expect at this first gathering other than meeting members for the first time. What they were greeted with when they arrived was a total shock.
Dino and Casey were not met by individuals but by couples who had found each other on SoulGeek and came just to say “thank you”. These couples were secretly gathered together by Spectrum and Randomscraps as a complete surprise to Dino who was then presented with an “As You Wish” scrapbook of testimonials including one from Spectrum and Randomscraps whom also turned out to be a couple.
This was how Dino had finally learned that SoulGeek was working. Needless to say it was a very emotional weekend for Dino and Casey.
The joy of this gathering made it all-too-clear to Dino that the time had come to finally acknowledge publicly how Mary Kay’s passing was the true drive behind SoulGeek and so both the “About Us Page” and the “Mission Statement” were permanently replaced by a Mary Kay-centric “The Story of SoulGeek” page.
As far as Dino was concerned, all those happy couples he’d met in Vegas were now a part of Mary Kay’s legacy. This had been the plan all along and Dino was indeed succeeding in his need to make something good come out of tragedy.
Following the success of the SoulGeek Vegas bash Dino began hosting a SoulGeek booth and/or table at various conventions around the country as
well as launching monthly Geek Singles mixers at locations around the
Los Angeles Area.
IT WAS WORKING…
AND SECRET NO MORE
Over the next few years the growing influence of Facebook changed the online dating landscape. Soon complaints started coming in from members asking why they should pay for memberships when Facebook was free. There was also a growing schism between members only interested in Facebook-style social networking and those seeking a safe space for dating with both sides requesting that Dino take the site in opposing directions.
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SoulGeek was not alone in this as competing geek-dating sites all began lowering their rates in desperation as member numbers and memberships plummeted.
Add to this was the internet’s transition from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 which meant the site would soon be out-of-date, and once patches to keep the site going no longer worked the site would reach “end-of-life”. So plans for a SoulGeek 2.0 had to begin despite the decline in memberships.
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All this came to a head when a certain company (recognized as a leader in the geek community) met with Dino for what he hoped would be a new partnership that would help bolster SoulGeek. Instead, this company was intent on purchasing SoulGeek outright - something Dino was against as he could not see himself profiting in such a way on his wife’s death.
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Dino explained from the heart why SoulGeek was created and then offered instead to create an exclusive geek-dating portal for this company. This offer was rejected as the company made it clear that they weren’t interested in dating and that it was their intention to acquire SoulGeek, strip away all dating aspects from the site and then re-develop SoulGeek as their company’s exclusive social networking platform.
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It was then that Dino realized what he had to do. The acquisition offer was quickly turned down and the development plans for SoulGeek 2.0 had to be completely changed.
ALONG CAME FACEBOOK
AND WEB 3.0
Taking time away from the business for the birth of his son, Dino didn’t launch SoulGeek 2.0 until late 2013. The experience with the would-be acquisition company caused Dino to streamline the plans for the new SoulGeek by dropping many of its social networking aspects (which free networking sites already had well-covered) in favor of greatly expanding the dating capabilities.
By now many SoulGeek competitors had gone under due to the “Facebook effect” while others tried to survive by switching to free memberships.
By contrast, SoulGeek 2.0 adopted a tiered system with limited free services and unlimited paid services. This allowed Dino to maintain a small staff who monitored the site 24/7 to keep the growing number of dating site bots and scammers at bay.
Eventually, the rest of SoulGeek’s major geek-dating competitors would call it quits, and had Dino been solely focussed on making a profit he would have done the same, but he was not so SoulGeek continued. In time he would even switch the site to100% free as he came to accept that it didn’t matter if the
site made a dime so long as his wife’s legacy continued by
bringing geeks together.
SOULGEEK 2.0
Years later when SoulGeek 2.0 became outdated, plans immediately began for a SoulGeek 3.0 but it was not to be.
Investment and advertising dollars in all but the biggest non-geek Match.com-esque dating sites had all but dried up and bids from one development company after another were astronomical (even from those who had worked on SoulGeek 1.0 & 2.0) given the now massive database-heavy size of SoulGeek.
A freelance coder was hired but after months of work, that coder gave up having underestimated the magnitude of the job. Another freelancer was hired but then the pandemic hit and work ground to a halt for almost a year before that freelancer disappeared along with development funds Dino had paid in advance which was a serious blow to the project. Student coders and volunteers were also approached and that resulted in 6 wasted months and still no new site.
Add the ever-growing demand for also developing a phone app on top of building a massive new site and Dino had to face the reality that a SoulGeek 3.0 was out of reach.
THE SOULGEEK 3.0 THAT NEVER CAME TO BE
While it is not possible to know exactly how many people were brought together over SoulGeek’s 17-year run… friendships, relationships, weddings, etc… whenever Dino attends a convention as a guest, it is the greatest of joys when he’s greeted by a couple who met on SoulGeek.
As for life where life had ended, Miriam Howard, the first SoulGeek baby, was born on April 13th 2015. Dino would fly to Columbus Ohio and meet Miriam. It was one the most wonderful moments of his life.
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Dino once said that it was his dream that someday there would be a child in this world sitting in front of a TV watching something Mary Kay had worked on… “Beauty and the Beast”, “Batman SubZero”, Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island”… completely unaware that they were listening to Mary Kay’s voice. And yet, the reason this child was in this world was because this child’s parents had found each other on SoulGeek.”
This has now happened thanks to the hard work, dedication… and mostly heart… of Dino, Casey and everyone else who helped make SoulGeek a reality.
SoulGeek.com | 2007 - 2024
In Loving Memory of Mary Kay Bergman | 1961 - 1999
Dino’s remaining option was to have the site continuously patched and keep it running for as many years as he could. Eventually, in early 2024 when the site’s Linux support team made it clear to him that SoulGeek had reached “end-of-life”, Dino made the decision that SoulGeek should end its run on December 30th 2024, and replace it with this tribute site dedicated to both SoulGeek and Mary Kay Bergman.
The announcement of SoulGeek’s end was dropped on that December 4th and included a “farewell” video to members.
A GREAT RUN
