Riddle me this.. (Okcupid related question)

[ScreamingTrees]

Just a short rant. Does it really matter what answers you give for the profile questions? I answered about one hundred or so, took me fifteen minutes.

 

How'd some of the highest matching profiles have absolutely nothing in common with me.. The site claims there's a 95% match, but none of the answers match at all, so what is the percentage even based off of? meh

 

Most of the questions I'd bothered with were important stuff rather than "coke or pepsi?" type questions.

 

Like.. Profile A enjoys casual sex, drinking, smoking, laying around all day. Profile B does not. Profile A is emotionally unavailable, refuses to communicate, dislikes logical people and the outdoors, Profile B is the total opposite. Profile A and B are both atheists.

 

Is this a glitch or something? Had *much* better matches the last time I'd bothered with the site.

[ScreamingTrees]

Yeah, I'm on a mission to make my beard the biggest patchiest sloppiest dirtiest yet still sexiest looking beard ever. And then pay women to run their fingers through it. I'm going to hide things in it first before I proposition them, though, to both scare and test them at the same time. If they pass my test, I'll make them into my wife.

 

But seriously, that site is screwed up or something.. It would at least say that there's no matches whatsoever rather than give me total opposites. Meh.

[Anela]

Yeah, I'm on a mission to make my beard the biggest patchiest sloppiest dirtiest yet still sexiest looking beard ever. And then pay women to run their fingers through it. I'm going to hide things in it first before I proposition them, though, to both scare and test them at the same time. If they pass my test, I'll make them into my wife.

 

But seriously, that site is screwed up or something.. It would at least say that there's no matches whatsoever rather than give me total opposites. Meh.

 

Is it bringing up women who are similar in looks to those you've checked out? I noticed that it was bringing up some men who were well matched by numbers, but other men who were similar in looks or attitude, and not so much in the numbers.

[SugarLips72]

I have absolutely no idea how OKcupid determines if a person is a 60% "match" or 30% "enemy". Makes no sense at all. I purely go off of pics, and the About Me and Details. When I am bored I will read their Q and A to see if they gave any really douchey responses (like the nuclear war) questions or something where only a sane person would give the obvious answer.

[ScreamingTrees]

Is it bringing up women who are similar in looks to those you've checked out? I noticed that it was bringing up some men who were well matched by numbers, but other men who were similar in looks or attitude, and not so much in the numbers.

 

Well, the girls don't seem too similar to me, but I'm attracted to a fair share of them nonetheless.. Just until I read their profile, then I'm just shrugging my shoulders with an expression not quite unlike this http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gZTxwA2GAE8/Tgs5OPhO7cI/AAAAAAAABKA/OUWADqHierg/s400/larry-david.jpg

[string of letters]

It's cute that OKC has 'user generated questions', but I can't imagine it would hurt for someone at OKC to get a desk copy of 'The Complete Idiot's Guide to Social Science Questionaires'. I've probably overanalyzed these &*$% questions but it's mainly just a parlor game.

 

Let's look, for instance, at one of the early questions (if I remember correctly), which is 'Would you be willing to date someone is messy?'. To keep things simple, let's divide people into four rough categories:

1) People who are neat and want partners who are neat.

2) People who are neat but who are basically willing to put up with partners who are messy.

3) People who are messy and are cool with a partner who's the same.

4) People who are messy but insist on a partner who is neat. (I wanted to asterisk this one, but such is the depth of human hypocrisy that I'm sure there could be plenty of people in group 4!).

 

I would say that people who are in group 1) and 2) are compatible with each other, wouldn't most of us? Since they're both neat, problems in this sphere are unlikely to arise (you might say that, in a very general way, one being more tolerant than the other could cause problems down the line, but I think it's best to just focus on the subject of the question: neatness at home!).

 

However, type 1) will answer 'no' to the question and type 2) will answer 'yes'. To OKCupid's eyes, this is just as much incompatibility as the incompatibility that would exist between type 1) and type 3) or 4).

 

So on ad nauseum.

 

By the way, I have to confess bafflement at the women who will answer hundreds and hundreds of questions about themselves, but will seemingly not reply to short but carefully tailored expressions of possible interest from males who have a high percentage of 'compatibility'. (Disclaimer: I don't have any comparable complaints about males 'cos I don't look at male profiles:) ).

 

I'm not a fan of parlor games, so I only answered OKCupid's first 50 questions. They seem to get increasingly ludicrous, by the way.

[ScreamingTrees]

I'm not a fan of parlor games, so I only answered OKCupid's first 50 questions. They seem to get increasingly ludicrous, by the way.

 

Huh, didn't even consider that.. And I should've. Perhaps these women just want to be with their complete opposite somehow? Lord have mercy on the poor saps who may fall in lust with any of them. Well, actually, they probably deserve it.

[Miss_raptor]

When I was on there, I ran out of matches. OKC just doesn't work as well in a small town. I did seem to get matched up with a lot of "opposites" from what I remember, though.

 

I really enjoyed the questions, but it's pretty easy to jump to conclusions about a person based on a few questions. It's fun to see how people answer, but it definitely doesn't give the full picture of a person.

[Knoxpwns]

it's pretty easy to jump to conclusions about a person based on a few questions.

 

Ugh, that was a huge thing that annoyed me with it, was I felt like some of the questions were backing me into a corner, where it was like "[Answer] -- BUT -- [explaining why I had to answer that way].

 

Feels like I'm on trial lol

 

 

I mean, yes a nuclear holocaust would be exciting. excitement is caused by chemicals like adrenaline. fear and awe. Excitement isn't necessarily caused by positive stimuli.

 

But just "yes." makes me sound like I'm a mad scientist rubbing my fingers together and laughing hysterically at the nuclear missile in the corner of my room.

[string of letters]

Perhaps these women just want to be with their complete opposite somehow?

 

I once sent a short, friendly note to someone who OKC designated as my "95% enemy" or something like that. Within seconds, I received a borderline abusive reply. I'm interested in human differences, but I guess it would make sense that my "95% enemy" is not! The abusive reply made me realize what should have been blindingly obvious: people who are curious about what their "95% enemy" is like in person will tend to be very open-minded, but they are almost certainly contacting someone who is really close minded. Still, if there are any LoveShack members who ever exchanged several messages with, or even met, someone who is a high percentage 'enemy' that would be interesting to hear about.

[SmileFace]

.... Pick up truck

[Phoe]

I remember the last time I tried signing up for a dating site, after spending lord knows how long filling out all those questions, after submitting I got a message that basically said something along the lines of "sorry, there are a small percentage of people out there who just are not compatible/easy to match with the majority of users, and according toyour responses you fall into that small category" and pretty much told me I could not join

 

 

 

Well screw you too OLD!!!

[string of letters]

I remember the last time I tried signing up for a dating site, after spending lord knows how long filling out all those questions, after submitting I got a message that basically said something along the lines of "sorry, there are a small percentage of people out there who just are not compatible/easy to match with the majority of users, and according toyour responses you fall into that small category" and pretty much told me I could not join

 

 

 

Well screw you too OLD!!!

 

Umm... why be coy about naming the site?

[StanMusial]

I remember the last time I tried signing up for a dating site, after spending lord knows how long filling out all those questions, after submitting I got a message that basically said something along the lines of "sorry, there are a small percentage of people out there who just are not compatible/easy to match with the majority of users, and according toyour responses you fall into that small category" and pretty much told me I could not join

 

 

 

Well screw you too OLD!!!

 

 

LOL.

 

You should've emailed the admin and said, "Let me post a 'boobies photo' and let's just see how many guys email me. B!tches."

[PlumPrincess]

That site calls people who are as leftist as they come "more capitalistic" in personality. The site is very screwed up and you shouldn't exactly go by the matches they pick out. Just put in your age range and go after the hot girls and girls with no pictures that you're going to ask for pictures and if they are hot.

 

Also don't waste your time with OKC.

That's not true. It is more accurate than not.

[PlumPrincess]

It's cute that OKC has 'user generated questions', but I can't imagine it would hurt for someone at OKC to get a desk copy of 'The Complete Idiot's Guide to Social Science Questionaires'. I've probably overanalyzed these &*$% questions but it's mainly just a parlor game.

 

Let's look, for instance, at one of the early questions (if I remember correctly), which is 'Would you be willing to date someone is messy?'. To keep things simple, let's divide people into four rough categories:

1) People who are neat and want partners who are neat.

2) People who are neat but who are basically willing to put up with partners who are messy.

3) People who are messy and are cool with a partner who's the same.

4) People who are messy but insist on a partner who is neat. (I wanted to asterisk this one, but such is the depth of human hypocrisy that I'm sure there could be plenty of people in group 4!).

 

I would say that people who are in group 1) and 2) are compatible with each other, wouldn't most of us? Since they're both neat, problems in this sphere are unlikely to arise (you might say that, in a very general way, one being more tolerant than the other could cause problems down the line, but I think it's best to just focus on the subject of the question: neatness at home!).

 

However, type 1) will answer 'no' to the question and type 2) will answer 'yes'. To OKCupid's eyes, this is just as much incompatibility as the incompatibility that would exist between type 1) and type 3) or 4).

 

So on ad nauseum.

 

By the way, I have to confess bafflement at the women who will answer hundreds and hundreds of questions about themselves, but will seemingly not reply to short but carefully tailored expressions of possible interest from males who have a high percentage of 'compatibility'. (Disclaimer: I don't have any comparable complaints about males 'cos I don't look at male profiles:) ).

 

I'm not a fan of parlor games, so I only answered OKCupid's first 50 questions. They seem to get increasingly ludicrous, by the way.

The problem is when people never bother to read about the matching system.

[ScreamingTrees]

.... Pick up truck

 

Sorry, I forgot.. <_< Seriously, I did. Forgive me! Maybe later. lol

[Emilia]

I found it best not to answer any questions. Just create a good profile with decent pics. Those questions are pretty stupid and encourage people just to look at the %

[BradJacobs]

Just create a good profile with decent pics.

Post good pics.

???

Profit.

 

It works.

[SugarLips72]

Seriously though, nuclear war does not sound exciting. Why would complete total annihilation and the likely death of most of the

planet sound exciting? It is actually a stupid question.

 

There was also a question if "if you found out your partner was sexually interested in children would you leave the relationship". Duh. Anyone stupid enough to actually answer no to that needs a 1 way ticket to the moon.

 

Most of the other questions were silly and I did not take them too seriously.

[Phoe]

Umm... why be coy about naming the site?

 

not being coy, can't remember which site it was.

[sillyanswer]

The site claims there's a 95% match, but none of the answers match at all, so what is the percentage even based off of? meh

 

You could ask OKC how it works, but here's the link:

 

OkCupid | Match Percentages

 

and this video claims to address the topic from an authoritative source (but I haven't watched it yet) :

 

Here's How OkCupid Uses Math to Find Your Match

[string of letters]

You could ask OKC how it works, but here's the link:

 

OkCupid | Match Percentages

 

and this video claims to address the topic from an authoritative source (but I haven't watched it yet) :

 

Here's How OkCupid Uses Math to Find Your Match

 

Thanks for the OKC site link. Something that struck me as odd is the very first example they give there: 'How messy are you?'. That's NOT the question that comes up early in the process, the one they use is 'Would you be willing to date someone who is messy?'. It adds an unnecessary layer of complexity (as I explained in probably too much detail early in the thread ).

 

A few other criticisms with how OKC does this:

- People who design questionnaires for a living have to think very carefully about word choice. Many of OKC's questions look like unedited versions of 'user generated questions' that were not massaged to fit a larger scheme.

- Just like some said about the 'nuclear war' question earlier in the thread, some of the questions appear to create bizarre, false dilemmas. "Would you rather have interesting experiences or good experiences?". The person writing this question was presumably thinking of the 'interesting times' Chinese curse, because very few of us think of 'interesting' and 'good' as mutually exclusive. But as soon as you answer one or the other, they DO become mutually exclusive.

 

I guess the best solution to all of this is to skip a lot of questions and/or assign 'low priority' to the answers you're willing to accept.

[ScreamingTrees]

I found it best not to answer any questions. Just create a good profile with decent pics. Those questions are pretty stupid and encourage people just to look at the %

 

I don't totally disagree, but quite a few questions were not stupid to me..

 

For me personally, I can foresee complete and utter incompatibility if there are no matching responses for the questions I've answered.. Questions that are important deal breakers to me, like if a person does drugs/smokes or drinks often..

 

Having said that, if I look at a profile with absolutely nothing on it, especially if it's an attractive female, my knee-jerk assumption is that they're probably really full of themselves and cocky to think that they can just put their face up there with nothing to reveal and think that a bunch of guys are going to throw themselves at her and play her game.. A mental connection is even more important than a physical one.

 

I'll probably have to shove that assumption to the back of my mind and see if they prove me wrong, and hopefully they're more interesting than I take them for.

[SmileFace]

Sorry, I forgot.. <_< Seriously, I did. Forgive me! Maybe later. lol

 

It's fine.

I have all the time