True love will sneak up on you. Let it.
Alex Payne, who’s getting married next week to a lady it turns out he met on OkCupid.
I don’t know Alex—though we did meet once at RailsConf, back in my “fat dorkwad” phase—but he’s a quality gentleman, and his OkCupid experience sounds pretty consistent with mine.
Once again, the math geniuses at OkCupid mined their users’ data and struck gold, drawing some interesting connections between message/response rates and profile pics:
Now, you’re always told to look happy and make eye contact in social situations, but at least for your online dating photo, that’s just not optimal advice. For women, a smile isn’t strictly better: she actually gets the most messages by flirting directly into the camera, like the center and right-hand subjects above.
Notice that, however, that flirting away from the camera is the single worst attitude a woman can take. Certain social etiquettes apply even online: if you’re going to be making eyes at someone, it should be with the person looking at your picture.
