This is interesting to read as someone who is not on OkCupid. Simply reading this thread makes me more inclined to sign up under the basis that input from LW is much more likely to make such a profile useful and less likely to make my profile simply be further damage to everyone’s signal to noise ratio. Must think about this.
Ok. Replying to self to keep things organized. Have made a profile.
Some of the match questions are really poorly phrased. For example, consider the question “Have you ever had a sexual encounter with someone of the same sex?” which has four possible answers:
* 1 Yes, and I enjoyed myself.
* 2 Yes, and I did not enjoy myself.
* 3 No, and I would never.
* 4 No, but I would like to.
This neglects some fairly obvious other options such as “no, and indifferent.” Many other questions had similar problems. The question about contraception was confusing since it wasn’t clear whether abortion was considered contraception for this purpose. I assumed that it was not but I could see someone interpreting it as referring to any form of birth control.
I’d change “religion” in the sidebar to agnosticism or atheism. If people are sorting for religion (which is most of what that affects—anyone who scrolls enough to look it on your actual profile page can also see the essays about your Jewish cultural background), this will screen off anyone who’s looking for agnostics/atheists and let through anyone who’s looking for religious Jews. Basically a solid profile; if you were in my age range and lived nearby, I might have pinged you.
This is interesting to read as someone who is not on OkCupid. Simply reading this thread makes me more inclined to sign up under the basis that input from LW is much more likely to make such a profile useful and less likely to make my profile simply be further damage to everyone’s signal to noise ratio. Must think about this.
Ok. Replying to self to keep things organized. Have made a profile.
Some of the match questions are really poorly phrased. For example, consider the question “Have you ever had a sexual encounter with someone of the same sex?” which has four possible answers:
This neglects some fairly obvious other options such as “no, and indifferent.” Many other questions had similar problems. The question about contraception was confusing since it wasn’t clear whether abortion was considered contraception for this purpose. I assumed that it was not but I could see someone interpreting it as referring to any form of birth control.
This is because they are largely user submitted and not actively filtered by OkCupid staff.
It doesn’t help that they’re limited to four answers of relatively short length, either.
I’d change “religion” in the sidebar to agnosticism or atheism. If people are sorting for religion (which is most of what that affects—anyone who scrolls enough to look it on your actual profile page can also see the essays about your Jewish cultural background), this will screen off anyone who’s looking for agnostics/atheists and let through anyone who’s looking for religious Jews. Basically a solid profile; if you were in my age range and lived nearby, I might have pinged you.
Thanks. Updating per your advice.
Hmm, so any chance I could get feedback on this profile?