Christian Rudder (2014)

Just wanted to say that I met my husband on OkCupid in 2011, and what initially attracted me to the site was OkTrends (I'm a stats major!).

What would you say is the most interesting thing you've learned about human dating from OkCupid?

I don't do online dating now that I'm married, but I used OK Cupid for a couple of years. I had a nice, weekly routine of bad dates going for a while, a.k.a. the "Afflo Buys Single Ladies' Dinners "Fund. One of my takeaways in speaking to women is that they are constantly pelted by messages, many obscene at worst, and low effort at best.

Has there been any consideration given to limiting the shot-gun blasts of messages that men send on the site? Perhaps a down-voting type of system that would limit the ability to send out new messages? Women have told me that they considered dropping it simply because their inboxes would fill with garbage and they would miss messages that they genuinely would have liked to see.

(Alas, I met my wife through Meetup.com, which is ostensibly NOT a dating site, but worked out well enough for me.)

What do you think of the /r/okcupid subreddit and what goes on there?

I'M SO EXCITED FOR MORE OKTRENDS

Can you add an A-List search feature that only shows the girls that are definitely willing to go out with me?

What have you have discovered from looking at Reddit's Big Data?

Can you give me 1 day of a-list so I can see these alleged 15 people who like me? I'm too poor to pay for a month

Have you seen better okcupid pictures than my profile?

Are there any systematic differences in OkCupid's user's behaviour in other countries outside the US and Canada?

To what extent are you mapping human behaviour, vs US cultural ones?

HOLY SHIT! I loved everyone of the "projects" on thespark before it became the study guide type site it is now. I loved listening to you talk your sister down from completely losing her shit on you after the Date My Sister Project. I've read and reread that site so many times, and laughed my ass off every time. I also enjoyed the band you were in (sorry, I can't remember the name). So what other creative projects do you have going on these days, aside from the book?

Have you ever used online dating yourself?

Also, how do you feel that users of your website are responsible for a majority of r/creepypms?

Can you cofound GOODcupid? I’m sad that I’ve been at it for a few years and don’t seem to be able find a life partner.

Will you keep on updating oktrends like before, or was it just a one off post for Dataclysm promo ?

What academic degree do you think is most useful for analyzing big data-- computer science, mathematics, statistics, physics...etc? I've seen alot of people in the field who have varied quantitative backgrounds.

A recent 60 minutes episode highlighted the growing number of "data brokers" selling our information on the internet. As this is a grey area for most of us, could you explain OKCupid's relationship with data brokerages? Do you sell our "answers to questions" directly to data brokerages?

> Except when it comes to race

Ergo in racially different countries, usage could be different (albeit I suspect your user base in, say, Japan, is not huge). But across similar racial-backgrounds in major Western countries you see no major difference? Is that the correct interpretation of your statement? Racial lines supercede national ones? (which is in itself an interesting conclusion).

how many OKC success stories do you meet?

do you feel your percentage grades correlate with compatability?i.e. 93% is an A, 84% is a B...

As a long-time user, it feels as though the emphasis of the site has become less oriented towards the creation of an OkCupid community, with the removal of things like chat rooms, journal posts and the forums, and more around straight-up matchmaking between individuals.

Was that a conscious shift of direction for the site's development, and if so, what was the thinking/reasoning behind it?

Two part question from your sparknotes days. 1)Having a large range of literature to cover, how did you pick and choose which ones to cover first?

Second, how did you make the transition from book printing sparknotes to the inclusion of a website. Did you guys contract a specialist firm to upload the content for you or did you manually type it yourself? Thanks!!!

Do you think if you went to Harvard a few years later that you and Zuckerberg would have been writing algorithms on the windows?

Is Nate Silver a friend, a rival, or neither?

Given the experiments conducted altering match percentages for OkCupid users, would you say that compatibility is more a matter of perception than shared attitudes and preferences?

If you had to choose one thing for everyone to remember from reading your book, what would it be?

I think I get my fair share. It's fun. Thanks for making okcupid for us.

You ever been to Madiba's in Brooklyn? Best South African Food around. Heading there now.

Got any stats at how many people get guilted into throwing a donation when they see that ad that pops up when the site knows you have Ad Blocker on?

Two things, as a fellow mathematician:

• What mathematical techniques/algorithms do you find using again and again when analyzing large data sets? What do these techniques tell you about your data sets?

• What is a mathematical field that you'd like to learn more about?

I met my current boyfriend on okc and he's the first man I've ever considered marrying. Thanks!

Now an answer to this question would be appreciated: If you turn a left-handed glove inside out, does it fit your left or right hand?

Why should users pay for a-list when it was you yourself who argued against paying for dating a few years ago on OKTrends (if I'm not mistaken)?

If anything there isn't such a huge improvement using A-list. One of the features - being able to see if your message was read - may bring closure for some who don't get a response. For others it just heightens their antagonism and sense of entitlement. It's not your job to police people's behavior, but still thought I'd ask if you're going to bolster A-list's "benefits", or if this is it.

Anyway, OKC is still the best. I will probably buy your book :P, if for the only to see what data shows how fucked up humans are online.

I actually met my fiance on OkCupid. We are getting married next October!

Have you ever took a stab at dating via OkCupid? If so, how did it go?

Do you have your own OkC account?

My husband and I also met on OKC, been together for almost 4 years (married for 2). Thank You! Guess I have to ask a question though, hmmmm, is match.com stat about like 1 in 4 marriages happen because of online dating true?

If you had to choose a new animal to domesticate what would it be?

I was an avid follower of the spark and loved the articles of losing fights so the other goes to jail and all your fun stuff, I was wondering if you ever were going to return to that kind of comedy mischief? I understand that your a big boi now but we would all love to see more sister dating experiments and such!

Thanks for the response. One final question. What technological trends are you most looking forward to? Driverless cars, superintelligent machines, nanotechnology, etc, etc? How would you like to see these technologies change the world?