We Heart OkCupid!

My favorite dating site ever is okCupid. It's got a sophisticated matching algorithm, has one of the best personality tests (The Dating Persona Test. It's not always 100% correct, and people can swing between different archetypes, but it's good enough for me to swear by it), and the people that run the site are dating nerds. They're totally into finding out what makes people tick (in the online dating world, that is), and they go to great lengths to present their findings too, on their okTrends blog.

In this months post, they talk about profile pictures, and what types of photos gets the most results. I.e. getting a message from another member you might be interested in, and having that message followed up. The bit I found most interesting was about profile photos not showing any face. I think this would not normally work on regular dating sites, but okCupid is different. They actively match interests and send you emails about new and exciting matches, and (in my case) if someone has an interesting photo and reads the same books and likes mayonnaise, I'd send them a message.

I think I will experiment with this photo (although my SM days are over... NOT):

Most of the time I don't actually meet anyone off the site. But when I do, it's a pretty good chance that if the algorithm says they're a good match online, they will generally be quite a lot of fun when you meet them. Okay, they might not be the type of person I'd go for in terms of body hotness (which is very important to me, but apparently not as important as geek-ness) but at least you're guranteed to have a really fun time with them.

I've used it twice while traveling to meet guys that lived in the city I was going to. The one I remember with 98% positive feelings was this American guy I met in Berlin at a bar 'round the corner from my hostel. It was by Rosa Luxemberg Strasse opposite the Volksbühne (theater for homeless people) with a huge sign on it that said "AMERICA FUCK OFF" (the next day it said "DARWIN WIN!") In 20 minutes, I found myself accepting an invite to Fusion Festival. It was completely ridiculous, I had just said yes to sharing a 1 man tent for 5 fucking days with a guy I'd just met online at my very first rave in a country I'd never been to before.

We had a shared interest in electro minimal and certain types of non-fiction.

The experience of being at Fusion could have been better I felt if I had been less childish then. It was a time when I mostly saw men as sex objects and couldn't really understand myself in relation to them in a non-sexual way. Tragic. But he was very kind; took care of me, fed me etc. Yeah right. Fed was a bag of peanuts and a sack of pretzels in 5 fucking days. Pretty sweet for an online match, don't you think?

Funnily enough, this summer after I'd just got back from Finland, this Finn contacted me on the site and invited me to this year's Fusion. If I could make it, which I sure as hell plan to. Apparently this year the tickets can only be gotten though pre-sale, and it was all sold out before New Years!