Dating in New York City – Holding Hans with Brian Hansbury: OKCupid
OKCupid.com
Boners Rejoice! Internet Dating is fun again!
There’s a new ad for eHarmony with a fat guy in goalie pads at a hockey rink. You’ve probably seen it and thought, man, that guy is like 47. He even says that his sisters suggested eHarmony for its more “serious” approach. But what if you don’t want dates that are so “serious” or imminently geriatric? Maybe you’re looking for the love of your life, but maybe you’re also looking for a hassle free hand job on the UWS.
If your romantic needs fall somewhere between settling down with a family on the grange or heading out on a Friday night in search of some strange, then Man-O-Manischewitz, have I got the online dating site for you.
Established in 2001, you may have already heard of okcupid.com. Four guys from Harvard started the site during a fit of synergy between their insane geekiness (Internet) and accompanying loneliness (dating). The result is minor brilliance. I’ve been using it for three days and already have been instant messaged by a transsexual and someone whose screen name is breakfastplease.
The sites matching algorithm is driven by over 3,000 personality questions, most of which are user-generated. New users set-up an account and start answering questions to build up information okcupid can use to match them with others. Most of the questions revolve around religion, sex, marijuana use, corporal punishment and infidelity. Answering them feels sort of like playing a highly evolved game of MASH without having to draw the spiral. You can adjust how important a particular question is to you and even specify that it is mandatory for your match to answer “insatiable” in response to the question, “How would you describe your sexual appetite?” If a particular question is nettlesome you can choose to discuss it in a forum with other users. It’s a cool way to get a conversation going. My favorite discussion was for the question, “Do you know what semen tastes like?”
The site also offers personality tests whose aim is to categorize you, sort of like one of those “How Jersey Are You?” tests. Just on the first page of tests alone I’m seeing titles like “The Theatre Geek Test,” the “Name That Tune – 90s Edition Test,” and “The Should I Fuck You Test.” Fun!
Okcupid has all kinds of cool features that borderline force you to interact with other people on the site. There’s a stalking feature that lets a user know when someone has looked at his or her profile. Another cool one is QuickMatch which is essentially an “Am I Hot Or Not” type of application. Whenever you rate someone highly, they get a message sending him or her to a virtual line-up with your profile included. If they pick you out, it’s a match!
While okcupid has members all over the world, I do have to warn my fellow New Yorkers that if it’s swanky, Manhattan style dating you’re looking for you are out of luck. Nearly every girl on this site is from Brooklyn. And by the looks of them they are all hipsters. Perhaps its popularity with the Bushwick set is owing to the site being absolutely free. If the demographic doesn’t faze you, i.e., if you can handle a neck tattoo of a lathe and ironic flannel, okcupid might just be your new homepage.
And no, okcupid did not pay me for what, upon just re-reading, seems like a propaganda speech for their company.
Good luck,
Hanserino!
Tags:Dating, holding hans, OKCupid
Leave a comment