OKCupid

I am taking on this blog like a boss... in case you haven't noticed.

But anyway...

I have nothing but wonderful, wonderful things to say about OKCupid, for the most part. I mean, obviously I met Andrew on there and he is, as you might say, the yin to my yang. So obviously I'm going to have some biased views on the website. It's been quite some time since I've been to OKCupid (I deleted it as soon as Andrew and I "officially" started going out), but here's an overview of what initially drew me to it:

• Price: You can't argue with free. You really, really can't. Honestly, I'm a pretty cheap person and I was no way willing to dish out $20 a month to be a part of some website that may find me the love of my life, but also may not. Also, I was on there more looking for friends than a relationship. Who's gonna pay $240 a year to a website to help you find friends? Not me.
• Ease of Use: They've got a really good setup. It's easy to create an account, set the parameters of exactly who you're looking for (and who you're not looking for), message fellow users, browse profiles, all that. Plus, it's aesthetically pleasing. Not that that matters much in the scheme of things, but still, it's an added bonus. (Not to talk smack but it's cooler than POF)
• Members: I'm not saying everyone who uses this site is a good person, an awesome catch, anything like that. But the sheer number of users (an estimated 3.5 million as of September 2010) is a bonus. With that many people looking for love/friendship/whatever, your chances of meeting someone increase. Not that you'll find the love of your life on the site, because many don't... but don't forget that many also do.

I joined OKCupid in December 2009. I set up an email folder in my main email account for all messages sent to me from the site so it wouldn't overwhelm my regular inbox... the total number of messages that I received between that December and the following July added up to a little over 850 messages. Now, that's not 850 different guys (you receive a message every time the user you're talking with responds to your message thread), but still... 850 messages is a whole lot. Out of the 150 to 200 guys that contacted me through the site, I only "talked" to a small number of them. And I met up with an even smaller number than that.

In my personal experience, a lot of the men who contacted me were total jerks. Complete douchebags. Sorry for my language, but it's true. Many were disgusting and vile and just looking for sex. Luckily I found out that you can set up your account to block messages from people like that. With a few simple clicks of the mouse you get way fewer "hey there, sexy girl..." messages. That's promptly what I did when I learned of its existence. I also really liked the chat option - you could chat with people you wanted to online and not have to go through the whole ordeal of giving them your AIM screenname or whatnot (not that I had one at the time anyway, but you get the picture). It was all right there for you in one simple, easy-to-use package.

In the end, I couldn't recommend OKCupid more highly if I tried. None of my friends are currently seeking out boyfriends or girlfriends at the moment but if ever the time comes when one of them is stuck in a rut, looking for a cheap, easy, convenient place to meet people and isn't opposed to "using an internet dating website" then I will immediately send them on their way straight into the arms of the people at OKCupid.

True story.