Ok, playing cupid
Ok, so while I've been sitting here on the couch first after periodontal surgery I've also been playing around with online dating sites. Not that I'm actually contemplating dating, but enough other people do that I thought I ought to at least see what it's all about.
I signed up for several free services and while they all seem fairly similar I wound up spending the most time on OkCupid. That's ok, I think, because it seems to be both pretty popular and also pretty representative. (Though actually except for maybe the addition of photos, instant messaging, and an HTML front end I don't think there's been that much change in these services since the very early computer-punch-card days of "computerized dating" back in the 1970s.)
One fun thing about OkCupid is that while a well-designed matching survey probably needs less than 100 questions to match two, or ten people with a very high degree of confidence, this site allows anyone who's answered x number of questions to add questions of their own. Consequently there are now thousands.
Now fortunately you don't have to answer them all -- after about 300 you reach a theoretical "match" rate in the mid-90's percentage-wise, and past that point you need to answer on the order of hundreds more questions to bump your theoretical maximum even a bit higher. (Note: this is the same reason polling companies can get such small margins of error after asking only "a random sample of 1024 likely voters:" surveying ten thousand more wouldn't change the margin of error enough to justify the additional cost.)
So *if* answering hundreds more questions doesn't really provide that much extra benefit why bother? Well, one reason is that, at least with OkCupid, if you find someone who's listed as, say, "85% match, 82% friend, 3% enemy" you can request what they call a "WTF report" that lets you compare their answers and yours. Another section, "Tests Taken" shows the scores of any of the little "personality" quizzes the system offers (more on that in a moment) as well as questions the other party has marked as particularly important to them. Yeah, yeah, that's why you'd take all that extra time, right?
Well, the other reason is they're fun, they give you something to think about, and, when you stack up all your answers, they give you something to *think* about.
All good fun. In fact, so much fun that "Just here for the questions" shows up fairly often in people's profiles.
Anyway, you can now learn more than you might possibly ever want to know about me via my OkCupid profile.
p.s. As with any number of unexpectedly successful websites some of the core features weren't developed with an epitome of good taste. For instance they refer to people who've visited your profile as "Your OkStalkers." Which might not be *that* ok for some people. Other than that it's an, um, ok site. Certainly the people it decides would be highly suitable (80% or higher) matches and friends seem like very nice people who I really would be compatible with.
I've been on OK Cupid for awhile... .
74% Match, 77% Friend, 12% Enemy
^_^
[See? There are all kinds of great reasons to like it -- including, evidently, old friends. Thanks, DN! --fl]
So I took the basic okcupid test (without making an account), and got The Sudden Departure. (http://www.okcupid.com/personality?type=RBLM&g=0&o=1)
I find this amusing since I just celebrated my 14th wedding anniversary. Of course maybe okcupid is telling me I should expect to depart suddenly at some point. But still, not what I would have expected.
[If it's any consolation I think the first time I took it I came out a "Playboy," the next time "Loverboy," neither of which I think suits me. And, since I notice that it takes a little while to get used to the style of questions (gee, just like the SATs :-)) that if I were to take it again it might come out somewhere closer to my actual style. (I'll probably try that experiment shortly.) Thanks, E! --fl]
OK I'm apparently a Maid of Honour, a name which I don't like *at all* - maid!! Couldn't they think of something better? To be fair, the way they go on to describe me is not too far out, it's just - maid!
It's quite interesting though. I tried to stop answering questions at 90+ and now I'm in the 200s... It seems we could be good friends figleaf (which I would have hoped anyway) but how did you turn up on my list twice?
[Heh! Oh yeah, I turned up twice because at one point I created a second account as a way to try some of the comparisons (e.g. the "WTF" and "MatchMe" features) in a way that let me see both sides. I should go delete the bogus one. As for friends and matches? I never doubted we'd be compatible as friends, A. And finally, yeah, answering those questions is sort of like eating peanuts -- just one more can't hurt, right? (Believe me, it's way more compelling than any of the other services I've checked out, though obviously I can't speak it's actual *match making* track record.) Thanks! --fl]
I, too, have been on OkCupid for quite a while.
85% match, 82% friend, 4% enemy
Not bad!
I've had pretty good results with their matching system, and I enjoy the way their user profiles are set up so you can get a pretty good feel for the type of person someone is. I've met/dated/become friends with a couple people through the site.
[Yeah it's pretty cool. It's *possible* that some of the other sites are (as they promise) more likely to produce psychologically precise life-partner matches... but they're a) expensive and b) not nearly as much fun. Thanks, Albinosquid. --fl]