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OkCupid on Trial - 4 Month Experiment

jonmillward.com

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Re: OkCupid on Trial - 4 Month Experiment

#91

Post by tghw »

goodside wrote: post #44
tghw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any chance of OkTrends coming back any time soon, if ever?

There are no plans to permanently stop doing posts as far as I know. OkCupid's user base has been growing rapidly over the past year, to put it mildly, but we're still only ~30 people so we haven't had much time for the more peripheral aspects of the site. I know there are some things in the works, but I'm not directly involved so I can't really give a time estimate.

That's good to hear, but with the last post being over a year old, it's firmly in dead blog land right now. You guys have a fascinating collection of data available to you, and since (I'm assuming) you'd never release it, your posts are the only view the rest of the world has into it.

If you wouldn't mind, could you poke whoever is in charge of the blog and get them to start assigning some posts. I'm sure your employees would love a short respite from their current work to run some interesting stats.

Re: OkCupid on Trial - 4 Month Experiment

#93

Post by jacques_chester »

goodside wrote: post #46
jacques_chester wrote: post #11

I don't know if any of this strikes me as particularly new. Every new female account on any dating site gets absolutely hammered with messages in the first few hours. What's missing from a lot of discussions is simple supply and demand. I was on OKCupid for a few weeks and paid the $10 for the creepy stalker upgrade. Out of curiosity I started comparing male and female profiles in my city. In Perth, Australia, for pr…

"Basically it is men who are using these sites, not women. And until someone cracks the code on that, it's going to be a fairly one-sided experience." Correction: There are more men using the site who happen to be similar to you than there are women. Filtering your pool to people with a 90%+ match percentage is like showing up at a comic book convention and saying "Damn, this city is a sausagefest!" There could simul…

Granted, but most of the questions aren't of the "what are your favourite sub-cultural markers" variety.

Plus if I turned down the match % I literally never reached the end of the men.

Re: OkCupid on Trial - 4 Month Experiment

#94

Post by jacques_chester »

dr42 wrote: post #84
impendia wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I coud have saved you a lot of trouble. Your results confirm what all dating web sites have always known, and which we've made no secret about: Nearly all initial messages are sent by men. I am curious: Are there any variables which, after you control for them, make this go away or diminish? i.e., high income, feminist leanings, political beliefs, etc. ?

no. men are on the whole, put off by sexually aggressive women, so women have evolved to use much more subtle forms of invitation. The "message" is not the beginning of the story. The women selected her photos and wrote her profile, which was really her way of instating the process. Basic human behavior is the women presents her availability, men respond with courtship rituals - that vary from culture to culture and…

In legal terms you're suggesting "an offer to treat"; ie an invitation to negotiate. Not binding but providing terms you're willing to work within.

Re: OkCupid on Trial - 4 Month Experiment

#95

Post by KingMob »

DrJ wrote: post #6
untog wrote: post #2

For anyone not aware, OkCupid has a fantastic blog where they do all sorts of statistical analysis on their members: http://blog.okcupid.com/ It hasn't been updated in over a year. Downer. Getting bought by match.com has clearly had an effect. I have the extremely dubious honour of having had my profile featured on there once as being of "average attractiveness". People still visit my profile to this day, despite me…

if anything, I wish they would update the blog. News from some inside sources says that they are so over extended (running too lean?) that it takes them weeks to get new stuff started (that aren't in the pipe line).

I wonder if it's one of the consequences of writing it in C++. Seems like that would hurt developer velocity relative to other sites.

Re: OkCupid on Trial - 4 Month Experiment

#96

Post by klipt »

rmc wrote: post #88
klipt wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feminism != lesbianism. Most feminists still want men as romantic partners. Now if you're saying there are more jerks online than offline, that would be a valid point, but it has little to do with feminism.

I dunno why you're bringing lesbians into this. My point with feminism is that feminism is about treating women with with respect, and not expecting them to do thing, nor critizing their appearance all the time (too fat, too skinny, not enough make up, etc.) This could explain why some women do not like online dating.

Is this any worse in online dating than in real life dating?

If anything, women seem to benefit from sexism in online dating - they take advantage of the fact that men are expected to initiate by rarely doing so themselves. It's much easier and faster to sit back and read personalized messages than to write them.

Re: OkCupid on Trial - 4 Month Experiment

#97

Post by chii »

jaems33 wrote: post #72
mootothemax wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be interested to know your race and your height. Pasty white with a beer gut that shrinks and grows according to the season, and somewhere around 5'10" or 5'11". At the end of the day, women still have deal breakers regardless of your personality, boldness, income, skills, etc. Are you saying that men don't? I think it's fair to say that everyone has deal breakers. Personally, I'm put off by people who judge othe…

In terms of race, you have your choice of white women PLUS higher probability of success with other races (based on inter-racial marriages rates, OKCupid stats). Then with height, you are about average, which is a good thing. You have your pick of women who are short or average height. I realize everyone has deal-breakers but height and to some extent race for women are almost universal. It is extremely rare that a t…

"The fact that I worked my tail off in university and on the side to build up my skills so that I could earn a great living should be more of an attraction than say the fact that I inherited certain genes from my parents."

if only that were true - good genes almost always trumph hardworking mentality. Wealth can trumphs genes (but only if its vast amounts). In other words, good looks (which is an indication of good genes, not just good clothes etc), is highly desired. And rightly so, for the biological requirement of reproduction demands such selection.

Re: OkCupid on Trial - 4 Month Experiment

#98

Post by allenwlee »

sophacles wrote: post #59

It may be an artifact of the different city problem in data collection, but assuming it wasn't, I find it interesting that the woman who was 'second most attractive' got significantly more messages than the 'most attractive'. To me this suggests interesting game theoretical stuff going on here. Does anyone know any good research/math on strategies that would optimize for this phenomenon? e.g. I can see a thought proc…

I was not surprised due to this study that I read recently where You see similar nonlinearities http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2009/09/physical-attractiveness...

Re: OkCupid on Trial - 4 Month Experiment

#99

Post by pmiller2 »

personlurking wrote: post #54

"If they are hot, the girls can pick and choose which men they interact with." There was a video on Youtube on dating and game theory where 5 women and 5 men were given a number which corresponded to their attractiveness. Basically, those who were 5's, when accepted into the 8's group were made more attractive in the eyes of the opposite sex, even if they were still 5's physically. Conversely, those who were 10's got…

Do you happen to have the link?

Re: OkCupid on Trial - 4 Month Experiment

#100

Post by personlurking »

pmiller2 wrote: post #99
personlurking wrote: post #54

"If they are hot, the girls can pick and choose which men they interact with." There was a video on Youtube on dating and game theory where 5 women and 5 men were given a number which corresponded to their attractiveness. Basically, those who were 5's, when accepted into the 8's group were made more attractive in the eyes of the opposite sex, even if they were still 5's physically. Conversely, those who were 10's got…

Do you happen to have the link?

I searched for it but couldn't recall the search terms. I tried a few to see if I got a bite but nada. I originally saw it a year or two ago.
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