{"377681":{"#nid":"377681","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Looking for love? Use Reddit to give Cupid tech support","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhen looking for love on the Internet, people who use dating websites have experiences unlike most in the online social world. Interactions are one-on-one, private, directed primarily between\u0026nbsp;strangers\u2014and not always smooth or easy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u2019s why, according to new Georgia Institute of Technology research, many men and women head to Reddit after signing up for two popular dating web services. The study found that users on OKCupid and mobile-based Tinder aren\u2019t able to determine social norms or effective match-making\u0026nbsp;techniques on the services, so they use Reddit to learn tips about online dating. Once there, they also find ways that allow them to \u201ccheat the system\u201d to interact with more potential dates.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe found that participants used these Reddit forums to share experience and to offer advice, and the forums played a major role in shaping how participants used the dating sites,\u201d says researcher and Professor Keith Edwards of Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Interactive Computing. \u201cThere are \u0026nbsp;two thriving subreddit groups for OkCupid and Tinder that are vital to helping users understand dating techniques, both on the sites and in general.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearchers interviewed participants on the subreddits and observed the public forums, which collectively have more than 95,000 members and 1,400 new posts a day at any given point.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany subreddit discussions centered on what \u003Cem\u003Enot\u003C\/em\u003E to do, with users providing cautionary examples of harassing or unwanted messages and other anti-social behavior. Others warned users against risking their own privacy by sharing their own photos from other social networks on the dating sites, which might allow others to determine the user\u2019s real identity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDiscussions also focused on strategies to take advantage of how the dating sites are set up in order to improve the chances of finding a match. Researchers say some of the techniques might actually enable anti-social behavior, a common problem on dating sites in general, with upwards of a quarter of users reporting unwanted behavior. Some people even bend the rules a little to tip the odds more into their favor for meeting Mr. and Ms. Right.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESome examples on OKCupid:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E-\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; Indiscriminately give all profiles 4 or 5 stars to get noticed by potential partners;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E-\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; Create a fake profile to browse anonymously and ignore future requests;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E-\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; Scan profiles (without clicking) to glean basic information;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E-\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; Share \u201cresponse rate,\u201d a subjective score of how often a private message worked;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E-\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; Ballpark \u201cdating value,\u201d where men used the color scale (for showing how often a user replies to private messages) to instead seek hard-to-catch women (red) or disregard women who message too frequently (green).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETinder, which pairs users only after both people swipe \u201clike\u201d on the mobile app, was also manipulated by users.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E-\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; Men swiped \u201clike\u201d on all profiles to increase likelihood of a match.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E-\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; Users spoofed location to find more matches in a wider radius.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E-\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; Structured experiments to see which profile pictures worked best.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFindings from the study also showed persistent frustrations with the online dating experience. Users complained of trolling and catfishing (the use of false photos to deceptively engage users). Men, primarily, were frustrated with non-responses to their messages. Users also talked about \u201cthe fade,\u201d when a potential romantic partner slowly stops responding to messages.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA more benign problem on the dating sites: boring or generic profiles.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cAs one user commented \u2018everyone is always fun-loving, loves to laugh, loves to travel and hangout with friends,\u2019\u201d says Edwards. \u201cLack of novelty and lack of spontaneity in conversation came up quite often. We saw discussions about first dates being stilted, and connections were difficult to make.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EForum\u0026nbsp;users shared tips on how to shape profiles for maximum appeal, something not possible on the dating sites because of the one-on-one nature of the platforms. Some users said the discovery of a forum for sharing tips about particular dating sites made the difference in whether they used the site or not, according to the researchers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe authors suggest design changes that could bring dating sites more in line with modern user expectations of socializing on the web. One possibility is developing online dating sites to be more community-centric, as shown by the value of outsourced communities on Reddit. This could possibly mitigate anti-social behaviors or rule-bending on the websites as well.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research study, \u201c\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/GT-computing-research-online-dating-2015.pdf\u0022\u003EUnderstanding the Role of Community in Online Dating\u003C\/a\u003E,\u201d co-authored by graduate student Christina Masden, will be presented at the Association of Computing Machinery\u2019s conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems\u0026nbsp;(CHI 2015), April 18-23, in Seoul, Korea.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Research shows dating site members gather independently for help finding love"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe study found that users on OKCupid and mobile-based Tinder aren\u2019t able to determine social norms or effective match-making\u0026nbsp;techniques on the services, so they use Reddit to learn tips about online dating. Once there, they also find ways that allow them to \u201ccheat the system\u201d to interact with more potential dates.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Reddit serves as a valuable tool for people signing up for onilne dating websites."}],"uid":"27560","created_gmt":"2015-02-12 09:33:28","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:01:50","author":"Jason Maderer","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-02-12T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2015-02-12T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"377661":{"id":"377661","type":"image","title":"Keith Edwards","body":null,"created":"1449246205","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:23:25","changed":"1475894342","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:39:02","alt":"Keith Edwards","file":{"fid":"75189","name":"keith_edwards_prof_interactive_computing_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/keith_edwards_prof_interactive_computing_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/keith_edwards_prof_interactive_computing_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":104188,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/keith_edwards_prof_interactive_computing_0.jpg?itok=JzkOSNXf"}},"377671":{"id":"377671","type":"image","title":"Christina Masden","body":null,"created":"1449246205","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:23:25","changed":"1475894342","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:39:02","alt":"Christina Masden","file":{"fid":"75190","name":"christina_masden_hcc_phd_student.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/christina_masden_hcc_phd_student.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/christina_masden_hcc_phd_student.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":141368,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/christina_masden_hcc_phd_student.jpg?itok=pR7Do4JK"}}},"media_ids":["377661","377671"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/GT-computing-research-online-dating-2015.pdf","title":"Read the study"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/features\/romance-age-social-sharing","title":"Romance and social sharing"}],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"143","name":"Digital Media and Entertainment"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"118611","name":"OKCupid"},{"id":"118591","name":"Online dating"},{"id":"75211","name":"reddit"},{"id":"118601","name":"Tinder"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71901","name":"Society and Culture"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJoshua Preston\u003Cbr \/\u003ECollege of Computing\u003Cbr \/\u003E678-231-0787\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jpreston@cc.gatech.edu\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ejpreston@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jpreston@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}