The Dating Dope

Quick Summary:

Value for money: 4/5 Features: 3/5 Design: 4/5 Member quality: 4/5

• The design and layout are clean and simple. The colors complement the site’s logo.
• There are two main kinds of search. You can use the one that reflects your priorities.
• You really have to sign up to get the full experience. Without paying a fee your contact with other members is heavily restricted.
• The site lacks some standard features (e.g. live chat, forums) that could help users get to know more about their prospective dates.

The Full Story

If you want to get up and running on the online dating scene in no time at all, Match.com is a good choice. Unlike many of its competitors, this dating site has a very short registration form. Of course, once you are a member of Match.com, you may spend a lot of time building your profile, but it’s nice to be able to begin without devoting a whole afternoon to typing and mouse-clicking.

In the profile questionnaire, you specify your physical attributes and your personal preferences. This will allow you to be better matched up with the site’s other members. Every day, you will receive your personal “daily 5.” These members are the top 5 “matches” generated according to the information you have shared with the site. Of course, you don’t have to rely on these mechanical results. You can simply use the search function to try to locate the girl or guy of your dreams.

Searching can be done in two ways. First, you can search by standard criteria. This means that you specify things like if you are looking for a girl or a guy, what age range interests you, location, and whether or not matches must have a photo uploaded. The second type of search makes use of a matching word. You type in a word or phrase that reflects the kinds of things you’re after–for example, if you are athletic, you can search for the words “exercise” or “gym” to find likeminded souls. I found the matching word search is more helpful, as it makes it easy to quickly get right at the prime requirements of your ideal match, without having to sift through a lot of people you’re never going to be interested in.

Other features

A great feature of Match.com is that you can look for someone who has been looking for “you”. How does it work? Basically there are pre-established searches you can select which aim to look for people who have been looking for persons matching your description. So you don’t have to wait for that other person to find you–you can easily him or her. In many cases, this kind of functionality will allow you to cut the search process short. And I’m sure the other person will be surprised to find his or her dream match also interested in him or her.

Basic membership to Match.com is free. Full membership comes at a cost. What that cost is can vary considerably based on how many months you want to pay for at once. It could be as much as $40 for a single month’s membership, whereas if you pay for six months at once you will effectively reduce that monthly cost to $21. One problem with Match.com is that you don’t really get much for your free membership. You only get to flirt through “winks”. If you want any greater ability to communicate with members, you need to subscribe. Subscription allows you to send and receive messages. Isn’t that what you’re really on the site for, anyway? If you were just looking for photos of people to stare at, you could buy a celebrity gossip magazine. Subscription to the site also allows you to see who has been checking you out. I think it would be better if you could see who has become interested in you without having to subscribe—I think it’d be in the site’s interest as well as the user’s.

Site layout

The layout and design are clean, and the site colors reflect those of the logo. The focus here is placed squarely on the members and not on the web design. However, there are some fairly standard features that are obviously lacking. Aside from “winks” and email, there are no other ways of interacting with other members from within the site. There are no forums and no live chat function that will allow you to make the experience more “real” before you physically meet that special someone.

Match.com is like a speed-dating site without the chitchat and face-to-face interaction. In a short period of time, you can get to see thousands of photos and read the personality profiles of dozens of possible matches. It is up to you if you want to pursue any of them further. In real life, you can invite someone on a second date to delve more deeply into their personality; on Match.com, you have to pay for the privilege.

Love–it has inspired millions of people throughout history. If you go back to famous art and literature of the past, most of it is inspired by love, whether by its tragedy or its joys. Love sparks a great rush of emotion in any human being’s life. It gives people a reason to live; it inspires and motivates. They say all things grow with love, whether it’s watering your plants or spending quality time with your loved one.

What’s so great about falling in love, anyway?

The best thing about being in love for me is that it brings color and excitement to life. Most of us have had that feeling before, and it’s something that can give you a million reasons to live. Being in love makes you live outside of yourself, living and pleasing another individual to find your own happiness. Love also teaches us how to be more giving and make sacrifices. More than often we will go out of our way just to make our special someone happy. In their happiness, we accomplish our own happiness as well.

Love is also known to have the power to change the most unchangeable of people. We hear many stories about so and so being like this in the past and suddenly changing for the better. I used to know a guy who was the real scrubby type; he had no concern of how he looked or acted in front of others, whatsoever. This changed when he fell in love. We would usually see him all cleaned up, a lot more courteous to people, and other things.

I also know a guy who never had a romantic bone in his body. He was typically one of the boys; someone you would never think of falling in love. He did change, and this change came from someone he just met a few months back.

Love can’t be measured, but it can definitely be seen or felt. It is also so powerful that it not only affects the people directly involved, but the people around them as well.

Have you ever lost your best friend to another person because they were in love? It does hurt, but if you think more about it, you couldn’t really complain about it since you can see for yourself that your friend is having the time of his life.

When in love, you find more of yourself through another person. You find satisfaction in being with them, pleasing them, doing things together. The challenge of love is trying to have two totally different people live in unison with each other. If this is accomplished, then you have sacrificed yourself, your whole being, your whole humanity, all for someone else. This starts to evolve as you start to learn how to live for others, as it becomes a lifetime commitment for you.

When you start to have a family, you learn how to live for your children, and as they grow older, your responsibilities grow even more. It gets difficult, but it’s very satisfying when accomplished. This is what love teaches us, self sacrifice.

As you go back to history, you will notice that millions of men and women have died in the name of love. Some people have died for the love of their country; others have died for their love in their beliefs. Some people have given up their lives for the people they love. This is the greatest thing we can learn from love.

The best thing about it is that, it is not something you think about before you do, but something more of an impulse, a feeling, an emotion. This is much more powerful than all the teaching taught in the history of mankind.

I can say that the best thing about being in love is that it expands our humanity. It makes us complete, and that is what being human is really about. Not living for your own existence, but being a part of something much bigger. “I” becomes “you,” your erroneous zones of selfishness and greed start to deteriorate as you learn how to live for others. This is the best thing that love has to offer. And the wonderful thing about it is that loves comes back to you, inspiring you to love and give more. It’s a process that leads to the perfection of the human spirit.

Quick Summary:

Value for money: 5/5 Features: 4/5 Design: 5/5 Member quality: 4/5

• Fun way of looking for love.
• The site has interesting and unique names for its features.
• You can’t contact people who are too different from you.

The Full Story

OkCupid.com has a tongue-in-cheek approach to romance. You can enjoy not only the probable fulfilment of your quest for that special someone but also a wide variety of other features. It seems that even before cupid’s arrow hits the bullseye, the dating site’s users can spend time enjoying browsing through the pages. Not only are members able to flirt with other members, they can also take some fun personality tests while waiting for a response. Browsing profiles is no chore, either. When you visit a profile, you get to know how “matched” you are to a person–as a friend/romantic partner or even as an enemy. There are also little cutesy icons that represent the profile owner’s personality.

Other site features

OkCupid works not only with a mythological bow but with a search engine that filters the persons you want to match up with. You can choose gender, age, height, location, ethnicity, and more. This is so that you can find your ideal girl or guy within your preferences and within a sane subset of profiles. Even the people you “woo” are limited to just three a day. In other sites, you wink at your prospect instead of wooing them. THe curious names that features have is indicative of how creative OkCupid is. But what makes the site creative may also make it a little less than user-friendly. A help section for “site” terms could help. I mean, how would newbies know that “stalkers” actually refer to those people who have viewed their profiles? What if they think that these are real stalkers to beware of? The site could be discouraging people from contacting potential matches. It is like rejecting that nice guy who you keep seeing around your area thinking that he is some perv trying to attack you when you are alone.

The humorous way in which dating is handled in OkCupid makes it one of the most popular free dating sites onlnie. It gets millions of hits. So, your choice of possible matches is definitely not limited. You may expect to encounter more people with a sense of humor than on some other sites, though.

Site layout

The layout is content-appropriate. The site is definitely portrayed as a fun way of looking for love or friendship during a time when people are more pessimistic or skeptical about finding something wonderful. You can email friends or potential lovers while amusing yourself with the overall look that makes up OkCupid. However, those who are looking for live chat and forums will be very disappointed. You will have to make do with the profiles themselves and email when getting to know a person. Of course, the risk here is that they can carefully compose something that they do not really believe in. Live chats are more spontaneous and therefore, more revealing. Still, you can still find your soulmate by taking a look at the match/friend/enemy percentages provided. The service is also one hundred percent free so you can keep looking for as long as you like. There is no monthly fee that can limit your time for looking at that one special person. I sure didn’t mind browsing and taking personality tests. OkCupid can double as an entertainment venue, after all. You can also get to know more about people based on the tests, as they have them posted in their profiles.

Oh yeah, another great feature of OkCupid is that you can make sure people you don’t like don’t get to contact you at all. Of course this is not a hundred percent accurate but will depend on what people put in their profiles. A person must match you at least fifty percent to be able to contact you. This is a relief because you wouldn’t want to be stuck with people who would just delay your chances of finding “the one.”

All in all, OkCupid offers a lot for a free site. This dating site may not help you get married but it sure aims to find you someone close to what you are looking for.