For those of you who don't know, OkCupid is the newest project from the people who brought us thespark.com, sparknotes.com, and sparkmatch.com. Those familiar with their previous projects (which have since been, tragically, bought-out and ruined by Barnes and Noble) will recognize the characteristic quirky look of theirs. Those who used sparkmatch will also recognize the format, as it is virtually identical to the short-lived project of five years ago. But whereas sparkmatch consisted only of one match criteria (your score on their archetype test; which, though it has been expanded vastly for OkCupid, is still quite familiar both in form and function ), OkCupid features a half a dozen new staff-created tests (including the only purity test that I've ever enjoyed taking). In addition to these tests, OkCupid features more user-created tests than one could or would ever want to take. Indeed, some of these tests are thinly-veiled excuses for bringing up the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but some are also rather well put together, and most are entertaining.
But what makes OkCupid great (because it certainly isn't the calibre of mate selection available) is the question function. At the time of writing, there are 1,792 questions active in the database, and let me tell you, as someone who just finished every last question, it's a hell of a way to waste some time. All of this input is thoroughly pored over by the OkCupid math-elves, and a rather detailed personality profile (not all of which you are allowed to see, the math-elves have to have some secrets) with which to gauge your matches. The viewable portion of this profile comes in the form of various traits (greedier, kinkier, compassionate, extroverted, etc.), and both your deviation from your demographic as well as anyone you choose to "compare" yourself to (accessible via viewing other people's profiles).

Bottom line: OkCupid is a huge waste of time. Huge. And awesome. In the days of the wild success of such websites as Friendster, the facebook and MySpace, we have here something like it- but infinitely more fun.

-rps

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 21, 2005 at 11:37 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.