The fine folks at OkCupid, the dating site, have begun to analyze aggregate data from the questions their users answer to form dating profiles, revealing, among other things, that users in Nevada are more open to rape fanstasies than those from Michigan. [more inside]
posted by dammitjim on Jun 30, 2009 - 60 comments

Women may not be so picky after all. Researchers at Northwestern University have been finding some interesting things about human mating by holding and studying speed-dating events (pdf). [more inside]
posted by AceRock on Jun 15, 2009 - 33 comments

Conjugal Harmony : "Normally you wouldn't think an arsonist would be good at sex. Boy was I ever wrong!" [slightly NSFW]
posted by desjardins on Apr 10, 2009 - 44 comments

Why I'm Alone: "People ask me why I'm still alone, and why I don't seek to date much, eight years after my husband died. I thought about it the other day, and came up with a few of the reasons."
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Mar 28, 2009 - 195 comments

You say Orwell, Tolstoy and Joyce, but actually it's Rowling and Grisham... Anyway if you are a chap, just make sure you put away that Clarkson before your date arrives.
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Mar 5, 2009 - 52 comments

Online Dating Commercials. Like the girl who says, "Of course I didn't put chlamydia on the profile, I put smoker." Or this gem, "I used to have to wait for days for my friends to tell me he wasn't interested. Now I get an automated email right away." [more inside]
posted by netbros on Dec 18, 2008 - 6 comments

You should contact me if you are a skinny woman. If your words are a meaningful progression of concepts rather than a series of vocalizations induced by your spinal cord for the purpose of complementing my tone of voice.... Are you Libertarian? And Lonely? Is the Atlas in your pants "Shrugging"?
posted by orthogonality on Nov 18, 2008 - 167 comments

Kay S. Hymowitz strikes again. Previously, she wrote an article positing that "that too many single young males (SYMs) were lingering in a hormonal limbo between adolescence and adulthood, shunning marriage and children, and whiling away their leisure hours with South Park reruns, marathon sessions of World of Warcraft, and Maxim lists of the ten best movie fart scenes."
Now she has a new thesis: That angry, disenfranchised single young men use "Darwinist" philosophy to justify "resistance to settling down" and "unsentimental promiscuity". [via]
posted by shotgunbooty on Nov 17, 2008 - 164 comments

If you were asked to design the perfect weapon to exploit this vulnerability as it manifests itself in attractive, urban gay men, you’d want something that would intensify our isolation, exaggerate our propensity to objectify each other, and persuade us to objectify ourselves -- by encouraging us to believe that our purpose is to look good and have lots of sex. Manhunt would be your perfect weapon

"Has Manhunt Destroyed Gay Culture?". It's a great article, but what happened after its publication may be just as interesting. [more inside]
posted by Weebot on Aug 28, 2008 - 49 comments

Ten Reasons It Would Rule to Date a Unicorn
posted by empath on Aug 4, 2008 - 73 comments

Meet Dmitri. He's a complete catch. Women approach him 6-7 times a day.
posted by miss lynnster on Jun 26, 2008 - 178 comments

"Carl knows how to treat the ladies. And with all of his qualities in one package, he is quite the value meal. Eat up ladies. His fries are getting cold." Fun stuff from one of the members of comedy troupe The Groundlings.
posted by jbickers on Jan 10, 2008 - 29 comments

Meet Paul Janka. He has recently been featured (twice) on NBC's Today Show, as one of New York's finest lotharios. You can also read his 17-page dating manifesto (pdf). Since his television appearance, reaction has varied from highly negative to positive, with little middle ground. Could he represent a new paradigm for dating in a post-feminist world?
posted by smoothvirus on Dec 31, 2007 - 124 comments

Some dolphins are easy and some are murderous rapists, but all of them are into the nookie. Amazon River Dolphins are the casanovas of the cetacean order, practised in selecting the finest mud glops or algae for that special cow.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur on Dec 5, 2007 - 14 comments

crazyblinddate.com! From the makers of OKCupid! comes a website where you set up dates with people that you are not allowed to see or communicate with before hand. [more inside]
posted by Stynxno on Nov 7, 2007 - 42 comments

Love American Style Season One Volume One is coming to DVD on November 20th. The series ran on ABC-TV from 1969-1974, was nominated for an emmy for best comedy series (won for music) and often featured pilots that had been turned down by the networks. Some would later be picked up after airing on Love American Style; two such shows were Happy Days and Wait til Your Father Gets Home. The original theme song was performed by the Cowsills, here is their live version years later. As a kid, I actually hoped my dating life might be fun and humorous like the show, no such luck.
posted by CameraObscura on Oct 26, 2007 - 49 comments

On average, college students are having a medium amount of sex.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Sep 23, 2007 - 59 comments

10 Steps to a More Dateable Facebook Profile 6. Un-tag photos at will. Bad angle? Bad outfit? Bad situation? Un-tag that picture! It's not worth adding a few numbers to that photo count to be seen in a photo that doesn't cast you in an entirely positive light. Did you see what happened to Miss New Jersey?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on Aug 24, 2007 - 67 comments

WeNeither. This is a cute idea for a dating site. [via mefi projects]
posted by chunking express on Jul 18, 2007 - 39 comments

Reviews of Dating Tips...? Comic book review blog Hoopla! takes a break from the funny books and instead reviews internet dating tips. Much hilarity ensues.
posted by Outlawyr on Jun 19, 2007 - 27 comments

do we click? any questions? ask mary. [possibly NSFW]
posted by gman on Jun 6, 2007 - 84 comments

adultsheepfinder.com
posted by thirteenkiller on Apr 12, 2007 - 49 comments

It's not you, it's your apartment. Is your awful decor interfering with your love life? Maybe this lighting tutorial can help.
posted by hydrophonic on Apr 10, 2007 - 37 comments

Shut Up And Date. Are you lonely this Valentine's Day? "Dating Expert Jean Singer" wants you to Shut Up And Date. Watch clips of her seminar, Internet Dating: Oh, The Mistakes Men Make! Check out her Ten Commandments Of A First Date. But, before you start, make sure you're worthy by taking the self-assessment quiz. Shut Up And Date offers helpful advice and affirmations for all the relationship-challenged men out there.
posted by amyms on Feb 13, 2007 - 127 comments

Eric Schaeffer wants to marry you
posted by skjønn on Feb 8, 2007 - 53 comments

According to a recent Zogby poll, parents would rather their daughter meet a date at a bar or a Star Trek convention than through online dating.
posted by Afroblanco on Jan 31, 2007 - 44 comments

What's the best way to pick up girls in Damascus?
posted by three blind mice on Jan 31, 2007 - 34 comments

Kizmeet. Craigslist's "Missed Connections" can be an entertaining read, but it ain't exactly efficient if you're actually trying to locate that tempting hottie you lost in the crowd. At this new site, you can post and search for him or her according to the specific location (bar, gym, coffee shop, market, etc.) where your eyes first met. No word yet on whether this actually works either. [via Curbed, oddly enough]
posted by GrammarMoses on Oct 20, 2006 - 7 comments

Our characters met in North Freeport in EverQuest. His dark elf cleric was on top of the roofs, an area which I didn't know characters could access. I sent him a /tell, asking how he got up there, and he kindly showed me how. [EQ, F, 22] Massive Multiplayer Online games make for "impossible" romances.
posted by bigmusic on Sep 1, 2006 - 12 comments

Farmers across the US are increasingly isolated and work brutally long hours. It can be pretty hard to get a date when you work sixteen hour days and live in the middle of nowhere. Happily, now there is farmersonly.com, a dating site for "farmers, ranchers, country folks" and the people who want to love them. As one patron explains, "I don't want to baby-sit some city boy who is afraid of stepping in poop."
posted by onlyconnect on Jul 20, 2006 - 26 comments

The Impersonals – Our own the jam couldn't find a personals site that he wasn't embarrassed to join, so he made his own. No popularity contests, no horoscopes, no buddy lists. Just profiles made from wide-open text fields and anti-creepiness features baked in at every turn.
[Lifetime membership will be $5, but until it hits 10,000 profiles, it's free.] via mefi projects
posted by blasdelf on Jun 12, 2006 - 39 comments

Dating is a search problem. Solve it with Google Romance. When you think about it, love is just another search problem. And we’ve thought about it. A lot. Google Romance™ is our solution. You might want to start by browsing a few popular profiles, here, here, or here. Enjoy.
posted by nearo on Apr 1, 2006 - 28 comments

Yellow Fever On why white girls won't date Asian guys.
posted by BuddhaInABucket on Mar 12, 2006 - 100 comments

We think we know what we want, but sometimes we're totally wrong. A woman spends a year dating anyone who asks her out, and finds The One. On the way, she dates a homeless man, 10 taxi drivers, two lesbians and a mime. How much do we really know about what we want until we find it?
posted by onlyconnect on Feb 6, 2006 - 98 comments

Monogamists have bigger brains. More precisely, female monogamy in bats makes their male partner's brains bigger and their balls smaller, while female promiscuity in another bat species caused males to have huge balls and teeny brains. Can trusting your partner not to cheat lead to greater intellectual greatness? Via.
posted by onlyconnect on Jan 25, 2006 - 57 comments

You can be a better boyfriend. Helpful though sometimes unfriendly tips like "put on pants sometimes," "make sure you don't smell," and "don't touch girls who aren't your girlfriend." Via cior.
posted by Go, now. Go! on Dec 8, 2005 - 167 comments

"Imagine finding friendship and love on your iPod ... with ... the world's first dating/social networking site that brings together the growing popularity of the online dating space and the enormous success of the iPod."
via
posted by airguitar on Nov 17, 2005 - 11 comments

"Yo Butt Aint Made For That!" Unintentionally hilarious sermon given by sassy black preacher who blames lesbianism for his sons inability to get a date for the prom. Rev. Willie F. Wilson of Union Temple Baptist Church is well known for being a polarizing figure. However, it appears that rampant lesbianism has not impaired Hamani Wilson’s dating life.
posted by skjønn on Oct 19, 2005 - 70 comments

Are your dating patterns unconsciously helping to maintain the American Imperialo-Capitalist status quo? Fight back with Random Date Liberation!
posted by larva on Sep 28, 2005 - 15 comments

ScoreHer.com - Dating advice for men from women. With a name like that how can you not prick up your ears? With promises like: "I'll post an article in the next few weeks on how to convert a friendship on fourth down and make it to her end zone," how can you not bookmark it? And with features like Women Only Want Tall Men vs. Men Only Want Big Boobs, a "what she says/what she means" Chicktionary, and 5 Cardinal Rules for Internet Dating, how can the men and women of MeFi not immediately turn this thread into 101 separate flamewars about romance, love, dating & genitalia? Here's a momentary distraction to divert the guys' attention long enough for the women to take the high ground: on the off-chance that it's not just link spam, squadmember Jennifer P., 29, is tall, blonde, smart, turned on by guys in briefs, and looking.
posted by scarabic on Sep 25, 2005 - 51 comments

Mathematical proof Mathematical proof that it is impossible to find a girlfriend. "Without going into the specifics of precisely which traits I admire, I will say that for a girl to be considered really beautiful to me, she should fall at least two standard deviations above the norm." -pdf here- via
posted by bigmusic on Jul 29, 2005 - 27 comments

Researchers from the University of Chicago and MIT (PDF file) have analyzed data obtained from an unnamed major online dating service to try to uncover how the online dating market works. Shockingly, they have discovered both sexes care strongly about physical appearance and a woman's choice depends on the income and education of the men. Recent NY Times article about same. Paper authors other papers here.
posted by Fozzie on Jul 4, 2005 - 44 comments

Where Christians Meet. (Minimum $25,000 salary required.)
posted by The Jesse Helms on Jun 14, 2005 - 16 comments

Tall, Dork, and Handsome The online dating website where guys who love Star Trek can meet women who will reformat their hard drives. Do these profiles speak your language? This guy "prefers to make love under black lights." This nerdette has "realized that the book 'the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' has all of the qualities I'm really looking for [in a guy]." Only thing verboten on the site: No pictures. via
posted by onlyconnect on Jun 7, 2005 - 40 comments

What's wrong with dating? everything. And those two hellbound teens look so happy, too.
posted by longsleeves on May 12, 2005 - 114 comments

No Longer Lonely -- Online Dating For the Mentally Ill Membership is reserved solely for those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, personality disorder, post-traumatic disorder, or disassociative disorder, or eating disorder. If you ARE unsure if you qualify please contact the webmaster.

Some groovy benefits they tout:
* Never have to worry again about disclosure of your condition
* No need to hide those pill bottles
* Never again have to explain your erratic work experience
* No more stigma-induced disappointments
* Finding someone who can really understand your struggles and accomplishments

Since JDate is not just for Jews any more, perhaps (despite the requests not to) there will be a run on this site for those aren't part of the mental illness community.
I'm sure all of us have an ex that we might politely term "mentally ill"- we could find more like 'em on a site like this, or avoid 'em in future if we knew they were dating amongst themselves? Maybe there should be an enabler category?
My 2nd FPP and my 2nd about unusual online dating. I don't know why that is.
posted by stevil on May 5, 2005 - 22 comments

Going on a "Man Date" (NYT link, reg. required). Two (presumably) heterosexual guys who knew each other from college go to the museum and dinner without partners -- and apparently this qualifies as a "man date," although (again presumably) there's no kiss at the end of the night or promises to call the next day. Maybe I'm cranky, but back in my day, we simply called this "spending time with a friend" and didn't plaster a thin veneer of gay panic/defensive het rationalization on it. Is the social behavior of straight males now so circumscribed that a guy having one-on-one time with a male friend outside a bar or sporting merits an article in the NYT?
posted by jscalzi on Apr 9, 2005 - 178 comments

In California, a registered sex offender uses the Megan's Law database as a source for potential dates. He searched for men in the database, and then sent several men a letter looking for sex or friendship, explaining how they could look up his profile in the same system. Turns out that it is illegal for a registered sex offender to access the database of registered sex offenders. (first FPP for me)
posted by stevil on Feb 4, 2005 - 64 comments

We will flirt for you for free! Virtual Wingman will write a funny email to the hot girl or guy you just met and will try to sweep them off their feet for you. Or apologize to your date for being a boor. Just fill out a form. Also, totally free.
posted by onlyconnect on Dec 9, 2004 - 11 comments

Husband Wanted. Girl looking for husband in Nashville, TN, puts picture on billboard. "I just want one man driving by this billboard who wants to marry me." Is this a Red state thing?
posted by metaforth on Nov 25, 2004 - 59 comments