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Personality Testing Smackdown: The Beginning
The more I think about it, the more I’m excited about the idea of a personality matching shootout. It’s about time we had some true scientifically proven, apples-to-apples comparisons between the various systems in use on today’s dating sites.
Any shootout of this magnitude runs the risk of failure at any time. If we’re going to do this, we need vendors and participating dating sites to be “all in.” I say “we” because its going to take several people to help set it up, run the tests and verify the results. I’m more than happy to participate and help make it happen in whatever role makes sense. Obviously there are privacy concerns, non-disclosure agreements and other hurdles to overcome, but if people are really serious about getting involved, I think we can find common ground for the sake of moving forward.
It’s important to make the shootout meaningful, not just for dating sites, but more importantly, the singles that use them.
Open it up to as many vendors as possible. Here’s who I would like to see participate in the shootout: PerfectMatch, Chemistry, eHarmony, sites running ThomasKnowsPeople’s test and Yahoo! Personals (powered by WeAttract). Let us not forget Fernando Ardenghi, our esteemed colleague in Argentina. I hope he brings his best matching system to the party, as we’re all tired of hearing about him go on about it for years 
This is not a complete list by any means. Who else should be invited, who wants to participate?
All companies involved are going to have to set aside some resources to make this happen. We’re not evaluating word processors, but a highly complex systems with lots of moving parts that no-one has ever reliably compared out in the wild successfully, at least to my knowledge. Databases need to be connected to, audit trails tracked and software needs to be written. We need to be able to define and ultimately track progress, bot successful and unsuccessful matches. Then there is the issue of identifying participating websites and a small group of overseers to keep things fair, balanced and on track.
I can see the potential for problems such as creating a list of evaluation criteria and how the results are measured. I’m not a Dr. But I hope to facilitate the discussion between participants about what gets measured and how. Then there is the issue of ranking the results. These are complicated issues that will require all involved to give a little bit in order to make the evaluation as fair as possible.
Perfection is not the goal, but I think we can all get along enough to have a solid set of results that can be used for business deals, marketing materials and a baseline for improvement. And more happy people that can change their Facebook status to “In a relationship”, because thats the end goal, right?
Dating sites will want a list of integration criteria. What resources are required to integrate with each matching platform? What are the expected overall integration costs? How many man-hours from start to finish? Are we talking complicated database queries or “Userplane simple” plug-and play? Where does the matching platform reside? On the dating site’s servers or offsite? How much work is it to pull data from the dating site into the matching system? What does it take to get the results back into member’s profiles? Can you search based on the test questions or are the results baked into search only? I’m just listing a few things off the top of my head here. Any CTO or IT department at a dating site is going to have a lot more questions that what I’ve rattled off here.
Are systems based on monthly licenses or per-query fees? How will a dating site’s costs be affected as they grow? What happens if something blows up in the middle of the night? Who’s responsible for fixing problems?
If your matching platform is wildly accurate, but costs $100k a year and takes 6 months to set up, how does that compare to a $1,000/month service thats less accurate but takes a week to get working? I’m speaking in generalities here, but you get the idea.
Better matches for singles are based on completely different criteria than two business dancing around the table trying to figure out how to enter into a lucrative long-term partnership and all of the associated business rules.
Are the matching platforms a drop-in replacement for a site that already has a system in place, or better suited for sites that don’t have personality testing?
Part of me thinks the tests should go on brand new sites, in part to see how tests work with small numbers of members and scales as the sites grow.
Maybe I’m thinking too much, maybe we make the shootout as simple as possible. For every 1,000 singles, how many meet someone and go on more than 10 dates within three months? Rank the results and we’re done.
As a consultant, hand-waving about tests performed in a controlled environment are not realistic compared to the reality of being part of a live Internet service. That’s why I want to know about the details. And this is a dating industry blog after all. But still, it’s all about more effective matching. That is the end game here.
Added bonus: these general criteria will also be useful to background check, profile and content management/compliance companies.
There will always be a certain amount of inexactitude, but we have to start with some core concepts and ideas and build from there. There is always the chance that the major dating sites won’t want to participate, but I see that as their loss.
There are several top-ten dating sites that have no matching system in place. they spend 10’s of millions of dollars on advertising and couldn’t care less about what people do on their sites, only that they click ads and their credit cards re-bill every month. Perhaps the results of the shootout will put them in a position to consider integrating a matching platform.
What do you think?
Most Bizarre First Date
by Ye Xiaoyu.
Charles was one of those friends like dried meat; he will last forever if you keep it right. It was no wonder that when I told him I was back in the city he excitedly invited me to his birthday party. I had really wanted to finally meet his fiancé. The day he asked me I was sitting in my room, naked as usual, and made a decision right there. The path to recovery meant getting out and continuing my life where it left off.
The meal was uneventful except for Charles who ate a 32 oz steak single handedly after demolishing the appetizers. Charles was always this excited guy and the fact that he had not slept more than 3 hours in 3 days meant he was manic. His constant aerobic demonstrations made the rest of us who were out of shape and well rested feel jealous. Afterwards we ended up in his place, with me ignoring many phone calls wondering when I would get home.
We broke into two splinter groups, one that enjoyed World of Warcraft far too much and the rest of the people trying to be social by talking over Resistance: The Fall of Man as we passed the controller amongst ourselves. Charles and me started talking and eventually the topic returned to my current ‘funk’ as I describe it that way at most three times a month. “Man, you aren’t doing well” he said. I did not respond, I was tired of hearing myself say it. “How about I find you a girl?” he suggested. I laughed, probably a second too long judging by his reaction. “Maybe you should, all I know is that I’m oscillating between horny as hell and depressed.” I said. I picked up the beer bottle and took a long drink from it. Charles had that concerned look on his face. “You’re taking this pretty hard aren’t you?” he said in that slow tone that was unusual for him. I did not want to say anything, and I did not have to.
How to nose around without being too nosy – A dating guide
by Rose Johnson.
Wow! Not only is your online date good looking, suave, well-dressed, but a rock star/investment banker/rocket scientist? Sounds too good to be true — and, chances are — it might not be true at all. From my year or so of online dating, I’ve learned how to sort the good apples from the bad and I’d like to share some of the tricks I’ve picked up to background-checking potential dates.
It’s human nature to inflate our accomplishments, pat ourselves on the back, and brag a little, especially when you’re speaking to an attractive member of the opposite sex. In the context of online dating, it’s even easier to create a false persona, to portray ourselves in just the right light. It’s so easy to change a B.A. in English to a M.A. in Physics with just the switch of a single letter. It’s even easier to add an extra zero added to your yearly income. And when the time comes, it’s still easy to carry out this persona. A rented car to impress a date? Just make sure the Budget sticker is inconspicuous. A borrowed apartment? Not to worry, just insure that your date doesn’t notice the Metamucil in the medicine cabinet or the six bottles of vodka in the recycling – “it’s not mine! I swear!” might not cut it.
White lies are fine, we all want to impress our dates, but I want to give you the advice that I’ve learned for some good back-ground checking to make sure your date is really who they say are. On my first online date, after an hour of good conversation flirtatious eyelash-batting with “David,” the “stable Physics graduate student,” it leaked that he had been a “graduate” of college for ten years without a job, without a relationship, and was currently couch-surfing between friend’s pads. I’m not here to pass judgment on those couch-surfing unemployed guys – for all we know, they could be the one! – but I am here to pass judgment on liars. An unemployed creep with a thing for feet could be disguised as an upright investment banker and I’m here to tell you just how to distinguish the two.
