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OkCupid’s Unblushing Analyst of Attraction

nytimes.com

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Re: OkCupid’s Unblushing Analyst of Attraction

#41

Post by iamdave »

philip1209 wrote: post #23

I'm always confused by the phrase "African-American." OkCupid is international. Why does somebody with African ethnicity have to be classified as "African-American"?

It's a question I've been asking, as a black man for a very, very, very long time.

Couldn't count on two hands, even a third if I had one the number of different answers I've gotten, and not a single one of them-no matter the rationality or validity behind the history of it, has yet to answer why we still use it.

That said, "Person of Color" seems to be the new trendy thing and that baffles me even more (well, to be succinctly snarky about it: other people's reactions to that phrase are what baffle me. That's an entirely different conundrum not fit for HackerNews, though.)

Re: OkCupid’s Unblushing Analyst of Attraction

#42

Post by burgers »

beachstartup wrote: post #36
burgers wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people in the general public will use this kind of thing to say stuff like, "I read online that they did this study about Latino men and it said that they all think black women are ugly". Maybe you should go back and read what I wrote one more time. I said that "people in the general public", not "I think that". 1. I know this is pseudo science so I don't read anything into it. 2. Plenty of people have no experienc…

so in other words... i'm right, you're a white guy.

No, I was just trying to point out how racist you sound. Saying things like "my white friends"? Seriously? I now just realized that you are a very stereotyping person and exactly the kind of person that makes these okCupid releases dangerous. Yikes.

Re: OkCupid’s Unblushing Analyst of Attraction

#43

Post by tracker1 »

philip1209 wrote: post #23

I'm always confused by the phrase "African-American." OkCupid is international. Why does somebody with African ethnicity have to be classified as "African-American"?

As an Irish/German-American I find your confusion to be racist and insensitive.

I kid, and kind of agree... I sometimes see Asian-American, but not as much as simply "Asian", and really don't see it from any other culture the same as "African-American" ... Frankly, I really don't see the point in labeling as it just persists stereotypes.

Re: OkCupid’s Unblushing Analyst of Attraction

#44

Post by burgers »

hueving wrote: post #38
burgers wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people in the general public will use this kind of thing to say stuff like, "I read online that they did this study about Latino men and it said that they all think black women are ugly". Maybe you should go back and read what I wrote one more time. I said that "people in the general public", not "I think that". 1. I know this is pseudo science so I don't read anything into it. 2. Plenty of people have no experienc…

Your last link is irrelevant. Did you read the part where he said he was Asian?

I'm not sure what part of my link talked about being white.

Re: OkCupid’s Unblushing Analyst of Attraction

#45

Post by burgers »

mpweiher wrote: post #35
burgers wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I guess the KKK isn't racist. Interesting... > "We're not racists," Chambers told CNN Monday. "We just want to be with white people. If that's a crime, then I don't know. It's all right to be black and Latino and proud, but you can't be white and proud. I don't understand it." http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/12/a-kinder-gentler-k...

That statement is not racist. I doubt that statement is the full extent of the KKKs racism...

> We just want to be with white people.

I don't know. If someone told me "I just want to be with white people", I would think they were racist. That said, the word racism definitely has multiple and nuanced meanings at this point, so it could be more a part of my interpretation than the more established official definition.

Re: OkCupid’s Unblushing Analyst of Attraction

#46

Post by shawndrost »

beloch wrote: post #12
cbhl wrote: post #5

I really enjoyed reading OkTrends posts, but having near radio silence for three years (apart from one post last July) followed by a full-on PR blitz for a new book (comes out on Tuesday) makes me a little sad. This piece almost makes it sound as if Rudder has been blogging based on OkCupid results this whole time... and if you go to the OkTrends site, you see huge inline placement for Rudder's new book.

OKTrends went dormant when OKCupid was sold to the company that operates match.com. I don't know what Rudder's involvement with OKCupid was after that, but he was no longer one of the owners. He might have still worked there, but kept his blog silent under pressure from management.

The blog went silent b/c Christian was put in charge of everydamnthing at the OKC office as Sam (the old CEO) moved up after the acquisition. I don't think there was any pressure from management, which would have been dumb -- the blog was a great asset to OKC/Match aside from that one post that they deleted for obvious reasons.

(Source: I used to work at OkCupid Labs, one of the things that Sam went on to do under Match, where he is now CEO.)

Re: OkCupid’s Unblushing Analyst of Attraction

#47

Post by blumentopf »

beloch wrote: post #12
cbhl wrote: post #5

I really enjoyed reading OkTrends posts, but having near radio silence for three years (apart from one post last July) followed by a full-on PR blitz for a new book (comes out on Tuesday) makes me a little sad. This piece almost makes it sound as if Rudder has been blogging based on OkCupid results this whole time... and if you go to the OkTrends site, you see huge inline placement for Rudder's new book.

OKTrends went dormant when OKCupid was sold to the company that operates match.com. I don't know what Rudder's involvement with OKCupid was after that, but he was no longer one of the owners. He might have still worked there, but kept his blog silent under pressure from management.

"Rudder's blog went on hiatus between April 2011 and July 2014 while he wrote Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking), a book based on the same ideas that inspired the blog."

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Rudder

Re: OkCupid’s Unblushing Analyst of Attraction

#48

Post by chimeracoder »

beloch wrote: post #12
cbhl wrote: post #5

I really enjoyed reading OkTrends posts, but having near radio silence for three years (apart from one post last July) followed by a full-on PR blitz for a new book (comes out on Tuesday) makes me a little sad. This piece almost makes it sound as if Rudder has been blogging based on OkCupid results this whole time... and if you go to the OkTrends site, you see huge inline placement for Rudder's new book.

OKTrends went dormant when OKCupid was sold to the company that operates match.com. I don't know what Rudder's involvement with OKCupid was after that, but he was no longer one of the owners. He might have still worked there, but kept his blog silent under pressure from management.

I used to work at OkCupid, on OkTrends.

You're not the first person to propose this question - there's a comment like this almost every time OkCupid makes the front page - and here's what I wrote the last time[0], which I think explains it well:

There were a number of factors. A bit part is that, in 2010, there were 2.5 people working full-time[1] on doing research for OkTrends, which allowed us to research, write, and publish posts much more often.

The blog posts took a lot of work. "The Real Stuff White People Like"[2] took almost two months of my time, plus some from Max and Christian as well. (Much like the product design process, since we didn't start each post off with a clear end result in mind, not all the work was visible in the final product).

I left to go back to school. Max ended up taking on more responsibility for other data/stats work, which slowed the pace a bit, and he left at the beginning of 2012 to do his own stuff. And Christian became in charge of running OkCupid after the acquisition, which meant he had even less time then he did before Max and I joined.

People asked me for the last three years whether the reason OkTrends hadn't posted since 2011 was because of the Match.com acquisition and whether Match shut them down and I had to tell everyone "No, trust me, they're still around! It's just a coincidence!". Thankfully I no longer have to. :)

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8097780

[1] 2.5 full-time means: Two of us full-time, as well as Christian, though he split his work time between OkTrends (the blog) and other stuff.

[2] http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-real-stuff-white-peopl...

Re: OkCupid’s Unblushing Analyst of Attraction

#49

Post by vacri »

iamdave wrote: post #41
philip1209 wrote: post #23

I'm always confused by the phrase "African-American." OkCupid is international. Why does somebody with African ethnicity have to be classified as "African-American"?

It's a question I've been asking, as a black man for a very, very, very long time. Couldn't count on two hands, even a third if I had one the number of different answers I've gotten, and not a single one of them-no matter the rationality or validity behind the history of it, has yet to answer why we still use it. That said, "Person of Color" seems to be the new trendy thing and that baffles me even more (well, to be…

I remember seeing an article talking about a black British model, born and raised in the UK, in a French fashion shoot, described as African-American. Her own country would refer to her as British, not African-British...

Here in Australia we're getting infected with this compound term, to reassert that heritage doesn't mean non-citizen. It's really annoying, because I grew up in a suburb of Greeks and Italians, who were also Australians... and now (from some corners) it's Greek-Australian and Italian-Australian. It wasn't perfect - the stereotypical Australian is still seen as a WASP - but this compound noun system isn't the answer to fixing the problem.

Re: OkCupid’s Unblushing Analyst of Attraction

#50

Post by lclarkmichalek »

jeorgun wrote: post #29
paulhauggis wrote: post #18

I'm still not sure why this article is equating preference with racism. If I'm attracted to white women and I'm white, it has nothing to do with racism.

Individual preference (it seems to me) isn't racist, but in aggregate it at the very least raises questions about where those widespread preferences come from.

Institutional vs incidental, if you will
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