Comments on: Online Dating: Still Pathetic? http://melissagira.com/sexerati/2007/11/09/online-dating-still-pathetic/ Sex & the internet, by Melissa Gira Grant Fri, 30 Jul 2010 05:15:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Craig Ambrose http://melissagira.com/sexerati/2007/11/09/online-dating-still-pathetic/#comment-885 Craig Ambrose Sun, 02 Dec 2007 06:14:34 +0000 http://www.sexerati.com/2007/11/09/online-dating-still-pathetic/#comment-885 This is one of my pet peeves as well, but I'm net to find a truly good solution. For playfulbent.com, I went with "Male/Female/Other" for gender, where other brought up a text input field for people to define their own gender. Instead of an orientation dropdown, I've just put checkboxes for "plays well with girls" and "plays well with boys". I'm not 100% happy with this. The more semantic information collected about users, the more they can search for the sort of thing they are after, but also the more they tend to get shoehorned into little boxes. I've deliberately steered very clear of things like "ethnicity" dropdowns, they make me quite mad, but a lot of people seem to like them. This is one of my pet peeves as well, but I’m net to find a truly good solution. For playfulbent.com, I went with “Male/Female/Other” for gender, where other brought up a text input field for people to define their own gender. Instead of an orientation dropdown, I’ve just put checkboxes for “plays well with girls” and “plays well with boys”.

I’m not 100% happy with this. The more semantic information collected about users, the more they can search for the sort of thing they are after, but also the more they tend to get shoehorned into little boxes. I’ve deliberately steered very clear of things like “ethnicity” dropdowns, they make me quite mad, but a lot of people seem to like them.

]]> By: barnschop http://melissagira.com/sexerati/2007/11/09/online-dating-still-pathetic/#comment-886 barnschop Fri, 23 Nov 2007 03:51:22 +0000 http://www.sexerati.com/2007/11/09/online-dating-still-pathetic/#comment-886 I think you are missing the point of online dating. Online dating is not and I cannot forsee it ever being a replacement for dating in real life. What online dating is however is a way to produce a short list of potential partners in who to contemplate dating with. Second it allows you in one evening to sort out losers from the list. Within in a week to a month you have sufficient information available to determine which of those you initially choose you are actually going to date. I think you are missing the point of online dating. Online dating is not and I cannot forsee it ever being a replacement for dating in real life.

What online dating is however is a way to produce a short list of potential partners in who to contemplate dating with. Second it allows you in one evening to sort out losers from the list.

Within in a week to a month you have sufficient information available to determine which of those you initially choose you are actually going to date.

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