Nice stat: since the new year, we've been breaking 20 million pageviews every day on OkCupid.

This number doesn't include a lot of activity, such as sending a new message to someone, which is done on their profile without leaving the page.

Hey all! We've got this new research toy and I'm looking for beta testers. The site's goal is to further figure out what makes a good photo; it's an extension of some of the posts we've already done, and I hope that it'll give us tons of good data to write about.

MyBestFace isn't public yet and the site's still got some bugs. Still, the link is at the end of this post. Read everything first if you want to beta test.

How MyBestFace works:

1. You upload a few pictures of yourself.
2. To get a report on your pictures, you're asked to analyze others'. Meanwhile, those people analyzing yours.
3. Analyzing photos isn't supposed to be a matter of pure hotness. Rather, you just choose whom you'd rather take on a date. So no one is insulted.
4. After you've rated some pictures, we send you your own report of people's ratings of you.

The report will break down which of your photos is best and it will do a semi-deep analysis on which kinds of people like which pics. That's the basic idea.

Now, here's the bullsh:

• We are constantly working on the beta site, so it may just break randomly while you're playing.
• When you generate your report, we may not have enough people to show you. If this happens, the site will apologize, and you'll hit a wall. Please come back in a couple minutes/hours/whatever to continue your voting.  This is part of the bootstrapping process - and if you come back to test more later, we'd greatly appreciate it.
• We may keep the beta data when we take it live, so only upload real pics of you, and no fake/porn/jokes/whatever. Pretend you're using the real site; don't make us be dicky admins

Please send me your bug reports at mybestface@okcupid.com .  

Thanks! Here's the link don't spread it around, because, like I said, there are still tons of bugs.

Do not digg, tweet, or post on another site: http://www.okcupid.com/mybestface

Thanks. By the way, we're open to suggestions for the final name...fire away right here on my journal if you have one!

-Chris

hey all: we're working on a blog research toy and need some volunteers to play with it.  It's for a a sequel post to our blog entry on what makes for a great photo.

Playing with the beta has an added bonus: it will tell you which of your pictures is most effective.

If you want to try the toy, do 2 things:

1. reply to this journal, saying "oh man, count me in"
2. email mybestface@okcupid.com saying your username

Thanks!

Chris

A female friend of mine recently said to me, "I signed up for Match.com and I was flooded with hundreds of messages from old men who didn't even read my profile."

My friend wishes to remain anonymous.  Which stinks, because Rudder and I are working on an OkTrends blog post all about why paying for online dating creates an imbalance, and we'd love to quote someone reporting this kind of experience.

So, if (1) you're female, (2) you've used a pay dating site and had an experience like that, (3) you have nice, clear pictures on OkC, and (4) you wouldn't mind us quoting you and showing your photo on the blog, you can post a comment like my friend's below.

My friend's quote is kind of the ideal for the story, so the closer your quote is to it - while remaining true of course - the more likely we'll select it.

Thanks!

p.s. Comment on the journal. Don't message me on the site...and thanks!

All right, I made some changes to the picture classifier for the next blog post. I'd be very grateful if you guys could help me out with this. If everyone rates 100 pics, we'll be done today.

http://blog.okcupid.com/blogphototool/intro.php

Just click 'OK' and log in with your normal OkC info.

Thanks!!!

Chris / OkC

As some of you may know, I've been writing about dating statistics for OkCupid's blog. The new post I'm working on seeks to answer the question: What Makes A Good Profile Picture?

To figure that out, I need to *classify thousands of user pictures*. I need to know, was this picture taken outdoors? Is it sexually suggestive? Is the person smiling? And so on. I would really appreciate YOUR help.

The way it works is: we built a little utility for to classify pictures, and anyone OkCupid member can use it. I you have the time or inclination, I'd really appreciate it. It's kinda fun to do. Here's the link to the utility: http://blog.okcupid.com/blogphototool/intro.php


Thanks,

Chris / OkC

Big news!

It's not yet showing up in the app store, but here's a link that works from any computer with iTunes installed. Or directly from an iPhone.

itms://itunes.apple.com/us/app/okcupid/id338701294?mt=8

With the OkCupid app, you can answer match questions, check and write mail, upload photos, do match searches, etc.

Anyone want to be the first to try it and let me know if it works?

(Funny. You'll need to write the comment from your browser, though - the first version of the app doesn't support journals or forums.)

Hey all,

Rudder and I are about to post a new oktrends blog entry about attractiveness, and I need some volunteers to let me scrutinize their photos. Saying yes means I might:

1. include your photo and link to your profile in the post

2. comment about aggregate votes on your profile, based on historical quickmatch voting (recall quickmatch once had looks voting separate from general). In other words, I might say that other users consider you "average" or "hot" or something. We won't use you if you got below average votes, so we won't insult you.

If you're cool with it, just say "yes" in the comments to this journal.  Uhh, keep in mind about 50,000 people read each of our blog posts, so you'll get a lot of free attention for a couple days. It should trail off pretty fast after that, though.

-cc

In our free time, Rudder and I programmed a video game. The game is called They Came from the Ground.

If you want to try it, I'd love to hear your feedback. You need access to an XBox 360, though.  If you have one, just go to:

Game Marketplace -> Indie Games -> Recently Added

Or you can look it up by name:

Game Marketplace -> Indie Games -> All Games -> T

If you try it, let me know what you think in the comments here. Thanks! I'm especially interested if you can beat the Black and White opponents. They're the two hardest.

We're nearly done with this toy. Anyone want to try it?

http://www.okcupid.com/flowchart-to-my-heart

Comments appreciated.