6 ms·

I'm not quite sure what the problem is. OkCupid's goal is to help its users find dates. People rarely date someone who's very significantly more or less attract

by karzeem 16y ago

I'm not quite sure what the problem is. OkCupid's goal is to help its users find dates. People rarely date someone who's very significantly more or less attractive than they are. Directing people to users with whom they're much likelier to find success actually seems quite sensible, not "less than OK".

jim_dot 16y ago
I know what the problem is... After seeing some of the pictures of the people who got that letter, I'm pretty convinced they gave it to the bottom half.
- callahad 16y ago
  I do wonder if they're bisecting their pool of active accounts, or all accounts. It could very well be that every active account falls within the top 50% of all accounts.
- jules 16y ago
  That would be...interesting. Are these pictures public?
  - jim_dot 16y ago
    There were a bunch of people posting about it in the forums when this first happened.
hugh3 16y ago
It might make sense behind the scenes, but was it a mistake for them to actually tell their users about it? They must have known the uglies would find out about it, so you've gotta balance out the fact that you've just flattered some of your users with the fact that you've insulted the rest. Besides, ugly users are probably a lot more profitable than good-looking ones.
- patio11 16y ago
  As you might have noticed from OKCupid's copious release of cross-racial dating data, and similar "Skipping through a minefield" marketing activities, I think they've decided "You know, dating is crowded. Better to be loved by many and hated passionately by a few than to be unknown by all and crushed by Match.com's nine figure AdWords spend."
- karzeem 16y ago
  Cutting the userbase sharply in half, with ugly on one side and attractive on the other, is probably a bad way for them to explain it to people. They'd be better off saying something like "we show you other users based on how much you have in common, including age, interests, attractiveness, personality, etc."
  - jrockway 16y ago
    Who cares? I didn't get any mail saying I'm beautiful. But I still see plenty of pretty girls that are a good match. So whatever.
  - SapphireSun 16y ago
    True, but they already say that. I don't think that they stop showing you 'ugly' people, they just shift the distribution. In any case, the bottom 50% of users are probably cluttered with abandoned profiles, joke profiles, people with serious personality defects that can't get a date, et cetera. If you're an active serious user, you probably only have to be in the to 70-90% of active serious users to meet the criteria. We know they run statistics all the time from their blog, so they probably saw something like 90% of active users are in the top 50% and saw it as a way to flatter them and keep them engaged with the site.
alexyim 16y ago
Yup, I think this is the main reason why they implemented it. To elaborate a little further on this point from a guy's perspective (this might sound controversial).. 1. You risk scaring off attractive girls if they are bombarded by mail from a wider range of less attractive guys 2. The less attractive girls will get less attention as the guys will try their chances with the hotter girls 3. And all the girls would have a worse experience, ugly or hot, which might result in them leaving. Although the article is not completely accurate ("Those in the dreaded bottom 50% presumably do not have access to potential matches in the top 50%" -- not true from what was in the email), it does bring up valid points. How much should physical attractiveness play a role in relationships? Is it smart to isolate a part of your user base with such an email? And who is Okcupid to make judgement calls on who I may find attractive?
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  Just as a note, OkCupid has a strong hookup culture going on as well. In terms of their userbase. So that plays into this, too.
- fgf 16y ago
  "How much should physical attractiveness play a role in relationships?" It matters as much as nature intended it to. Regardless of what the womyn at Bitchmagazine think about it.
w1ntermute 16y ago
People rarely date someone who's very significantly more or less attractive than they are. People are also much more likely to date someone of their own race. Should OkCupid segregate by race as well? Oh wait, that's a social taboo, whereas discriminating against the ugly is considered perfectly acceptable.
- ambulatorybird 16y ago
  If the methods by which they measure attractiveness overlap with the methods by which they measure racial bias (covered in one of their blog posts), then they could very well be implying (whether they mean to or not) that attractiveness is correlated with race.
- kilian 16y ago
  Yeah, so they already tackled that subject: http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2009/10/05/your-race-affects-whether-people-write-you-back/ http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2009/10/05/your-race-affec... ;)
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
potatolicious 16y ago
Hell, I would like if OKCupid let me know my percentile. If I thought I had a hot shit profile that actually rather sucks (by real user analytics feedback), it would benefit me to know. [edit] People are taking this far too personally. You didn't get rejected as unattractive, your profile got rejected as unattractive. There are more ways than one to rectify this. Remember, these people don't know you, they can only view a tiny slice of you via your profile - one that you are in 100% control of. Perhaps your failure is not that you're irredeemably ugly, but rather that your profile inspires no attraction. Conversely, if you "won" the profile attractiveness game, it may not mean you're nearly as attractive in real life as your profile suggests. This reminds of the PUA mantra as it has been related to me: "she didn't reject you, she rejected your approach"
- JeffL 16y ago
  Just post your pictures to Hot or Not to find where you are in the scheme of things.
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  > If I thought I had a hot shit profile that actually rather sucks (by real user analytics feedback), it would benefit me to know. The "YourBestFace" feature would help you with that. Most interesting thing I found out? Pictures with my grandma: awesome. Pictures with my grandfather: horrible.
  - sliverstorm 16y ago
    Wow, I hadn't heard of that feature! It makes me wonder why these people are running something as small-time as a dating website. I haven't seen so much useful creativity and cool new ideas and openness since Google got bigger.
    - modeless 16y ago
      Why is dating "small-time"? What other category of website can actually charge subscription fees and still attract a large mainstream user base?

by karzeem 16y ago

jim_dot 16y ago

I know what the problem is... After seeing some of the pictures of the people who got that letter, I'm pretty convinced they gave it to the bottom half.

callahad 16y ago
I do wonder if they're bisecting their pool of active accounts, or all accounts. It could very well be that every active account falls within the top 50% of all accounts.
jules 16y ago
That would be...interesting. Are these pictures public?
- jim_dot 16y ago
  There were a bunch of people posting about it in the forums when this first happened.

hugh3 16y ago

It might make sense behind the scenes, but was it a mistake for them to actually tell their users about it? They must have known the uglies would find out about it, so you've gotta balance out the fact that you've just flattered some of your users with the fact that you've insulted the rest. Besides, ugly users are probably a lot more profitable than good-looking ones.

patio11 16y ago
As you might have noticed from OKCupid's copious release of cross-racial dating data, and similar "Skipping through a minefield" marketing activities, I think they've decided "You know, dating is crowded. Better to be loved by many and hated passionately by a few than to be unknown by all and crushed by Match.com's nine figure AdWords spend."
karzeem 16y ago
Cutting the userbase sharply in half, with ugly on one side and attractive on the other, is probably a bad way for them to explain it to people. They'd be better off saying something like "we show you other users based on how much you have in common, including age, interests, attractiveness, personality, etc."
- jrockway 16y ago
  Who cares? I didn't get any mail saying I'm beautiful. But I still see plenty of pretty girls that are a good match. So whatever.
- SapphireSun 16y ago
  True, but they already say that. I don't think that they stop showing you 'ugly' people, they just shift the distribution. In any case, the bottom 50% of users are probably cluttered with abandoned profiles, joke profiles, people with serious personality defects that can't get a date, et cetera. If you're an active serious user, you probably only have to be in the to 70-90% of active serious users to meet the criteria. We know they run statistics all the time from their blog, so they probably saw something like 90% of active users are in the top 50% and saw it as a way to flatter them and keep them engaged with the site.

alexyim 16y ago

Yup, I think this is the main reason why they implemented it. To elaborate a little further on this point from a guy's perspective (this might sound controversial).. 1. You risk scaring off attractive girls if they are bombarded by mail from a wider range of less attractive guys 2. The less attractive girls will get less attention as the guys will try their chances with the hotter girls 3. And all the girls would have a worse experience, ugly or hot, which might result in them leaving. Although the article is not completely accurate ("Those in the dreaded bottom 50% presumably do not have access to potential matches in the top 50%" -- not true from what was in the email), it does bring up valid points. How much should physical attractiveness play a role in relationships? Is it smart to isolate a part of your user base with such an email? And who is Okcupid to make judgement calls on who I may find attractive?

steveklabnik 16y ago
Just as a note, OkCupid has a strong hookup culture going on as well. In terms of their userbase. So that plays into this, too.
fgf 16y ago
"How much should physical attractiveness play a role in relationships?" It matters as much as nature intended it to. Regardless of what the womyn at Bitchmagazine think about it.

w1ntermute 16y ago

People rarely date someone who's very significantly more or less attractive than they are. People are also much more likely to date someone of their own race. Should OkCupid segregate by race as well? Oh wait, that's a social taboo, whereas discriminating against the ugly is considered perfectly acceptable.

ambulatorybird 16y ago
If the methods by which they measure attractiveness overlap with the methods by which they measure racial bias (covered in one of their blog posts), then they could very well be implying (whether they mean to or not) that attractiveness is correlated with race.
kilian 16y ago
Yeah, so they already tackled that subject: http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2009/10/05/your-race-affects-whether-people-write-you-back/ http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2009/10/05/your-race-affec... ;)

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

potatolicious 16y ago

Hell, I would like if OKCupid let me know my percentile. If I thought I had a hot shit profile that actually rather sucks (by real user analytics feedback), it would benefit me to know. [edit] People are taking this far too personally. You didn't get rejected as unattractive, your profile got rejected as unattractive. There are more ways than one to rectify this. Remember, these people don't know you, they can only view a tiny slice of you via your profile - one that you are in 100% control of. Perhaps your failure is not that you're irredeemably ugly, but rather that your profile inspires no attraction. Conversely, if you "won" the profile attractiveness game, it may not mean you're nearly as attractive in real life as your profile suggests. This reminds of the PUA mantra as it has been related to me: "she didn't reject you, she rejected your approach"

JeffL 16y ago
Just post your pictures to Hot or Not to find where you are in the scheme of things.
steveklabnik 16y ago
> If I thought I had a hot shit profile that actually rather sucks (by real user analytics feedback), it would benefit me to know. The "YourBestFace" feature would help you with that. Most interesting thing I found out? Pictures with my grandma: awesome. Pictures with my grandfather: horrible.
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  Wow, I hadn't heard of that feature! It makes me wonder why these people are running something as small-time as a dating website. I haven't seen so much useful creativity and cool new ideas and openness since Google got bigger.
  - modeless 16y ago
    Why is dating "small-time"? What other category of website can actually charge subscription fees and still attract a large mainstream user base?