Still a few bugs in OkCupid's system

The Web's most normal pool of singles, OkCupid, is so easy. I thought it a testament to their smart matching software that my ex-boy and I bumped into one another there regularly. That is, until I heard of a match made by an OkCupid bug that tried to hook up a well-behaved lady with a married guy she knows from work. Here's my bug report.

Married Guy was looking for a little adventure with or without his wife, who had approved the whole thing. He signed up at OkCupid, and got a teaser email with photos and opening profile quotes of a few available women in his area. He recognized one as Single Girl, a professional colleague of his wife. Out of curiosity, he clicked Single Girl's profile.

What he didn't realize was OkCupid notifies its members as to which other members have checked out their profiles. Single Girl, unbeknownst to Married Guy, found his profile in her inbox and realized omigod he's cheating on his wife what do I say to her? She had specified "no married men" in her preferences, so she presumed he had listed himself as single. He, on the other hand, presumed she was into married guys, since OkCupid sent him her profile. Cue mutual embarrassment.

12:00 PM on Fri Apr 4 2008
By Melissa Gira Grant
3,136 views
8 comments

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pinafore at 12:19 PM on 04/04/08
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"Sorry! pinafore is unavailable! May I suggest: pinaforexxx, pinaforeilicous, pinafore_taco, pinafore_pal, eu_sou_pinafore"

PINAFORE TACO????????? hmm...well....if I ever start a post-riot grrrl Wall of Voodoo coverband ...
googoobaby at 01:05 PM on 04/04/08
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"The Web's Most Normal Pool of Singles"...and the metrics for this are what? Judging from past content it's The 250(tm) and a fifty gallon drum of industrial lubricant.
hackmancoltaire at 02:04 PM on 04/04/08
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Normal is relative. So consider the source. ;) But I've had a profile there so what does that say? Says that for the most part the people on there are my kind of normal. Now the abby-normal pool, that's the one to look out for! ;)
Dame_Bramaged at 02:20 PM on 04/04/08
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OKCupid is a funny site. From reading through profiles for quite some time now, I have discovered that nearly all of the men participate in extreme sports, are wealthy, polyamorous and wish to date independent-minded childless supermodels. By the handsful, naturally.

Sadly, many of those same men possess a beer belly, a wife, or both. Desiring neither, I have found it wise to ignore most of the more amorous gentlemen available there. It sounds like instead of Cupid's arrow, Mr. Married Guy was grazed by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. At least one hopes that Mrs. Married Guy kindly gave him a nice helping of just deserts.
qsiesue at 03:40 PM on 04/04/08
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Considering the relatively small population of daters on OkCupid, a search for "poly" should not yield this many results.

Of course, the beauty of the site is never searching for anything, so you only see the people you might consider "most normal"...
raincoaster at 08:53 PM on 04/04/08
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Connectedness Index: 337
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Who goes to OKCupid to find dates? I only go for the quizzes. The quizzes would never try to set me up with a married man.
[www.okcupid.com]
random_play at 12:29 AM on 04/05/08
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Connectedness Index: 16
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@raincoaster: I go for The Quizzes too! I hear this weekend they're opening for PINAFORE TACO at the Fillmore!

+ Watch video
rhiannonstone at 11:09 AM on 04/05/08
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"The Web's most normal pool of singles"? Much like Orkut got eaten by the Brazilians, OKC seems to have been taken over by polyamorists and married men looking for hot bi babes with their wives' permission. I didn't know you could still find singles there!