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On December 21, the U.S.-based online dating site OkCupid announced that it would begin to phase out usernames in place of real names, or more accurately, "what [users] want their dates to call them". The "flippant" announcement post made fun of several (slightly edited) usernames that had been in use. Users have not reacted positively to the change:
Days after deleting an OKCupid profile that included personal information, Reddit user Drinkscocoaandreads logged onto Facebook to find an unpleasant surprise. "I had like three guys find me on Facebook within two days, screaming at me for leaving mid-conversation/not ever acknowledging their initial message," the Redditor wrote in a thread about OKCupid. "One of them also added a few of my friends before I figured out what was happening and got him blocked."
Drinkscocoaandreads is one of many Reddit users reacting to OKCupid's recent announcement that it will ditch usernames in favor of a real-name policy. "It's because, like the recent goodbye we said to AIM screen names, it's time to keep up with the times," OKCupid explained. "We've also heard from many members of our community that they want to maintain the privacy they enjoy with usernames—with this change, we won't be collecting full names; instead, we encourage our users to go by the name they'd like their dates to call them on OkCupid."
Via email, a company spokesperson told The Verge that OKCupid won't require legal names, but the shift is already unpopular with users. Online, the reaction to the news has been overwhelmingly negative, with users either flocking to Reddit to discuss the change, or leaving angry comments on the post itself.
The change isn't just, as OKCupid's flippant post suggests, about users no longer going by aliases like "BigDaddyFlash916." The allure of a place like OKCupid as opposed to, say, Tinder, is that it was a secure place to share more intimate personal details, including sexual preferences. Dating apps made for phones are generally looking for users to find matches based on proximity, age, and gut-instinct attraction to other people's photos. OKCupid invites users to answer questionnaires, build elaborate profiles, and describe themselves thoughtfully. For users, this is a double-edged sword: you get to know people better, but you also make yourself vulnerable to strangers who can potentially learn a lot about you.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Spamalope on Monday December 25 2017, @03:59PM (3 children)
Shouldn't that be Richard Little?
My GF's housemate listss her age as 10 or more years younger than she actually is, and complains about dates being upset about the catfishing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 26 2017, @02:30AM (1 child)
10 years, 10 lbs, 10 inches.... meh, close enough for you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 26 2017, @11:55AM
10 pounds is a rounding error against the hambeasts you pick up on dating sites.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday December 26 2017, @02:48PM
Corporate advertorial dying legacy media
The truth you'll only hear on non-real name internet media
As for the multi-profile people, thats just primate dominance in action, corporations are the superior lifeform and when they do A/B website testing on addictive clickbait content its some holy act of goodness and motherhood and apple pie, but when mere humans do it, A/B testing is unmasked as scummy.
The site has quite an uphill battle ahead. Its perfectly analogous to an erotic sci fi fanfic site suddenly deciding to change all content to wikipedia style purely factual non-fiction about the physics of thermodynamics. Its not gonna be smooth.
Another rather interesting dynamic is in the long run most people repeat the party line to each other that long term relationships require honesty but as per the catfishing the reality is most of the internet sites and internet site users are just trying to get a good cheap fuck tonight and honesty is not necessarily advantageous for adventurous one night stands. A good analogy here is you can't purchase a successful gay bar from the previous owners, unilaterally declare it to be a straight bar, and expect the same packed crowds of straights the next night; or possibly ever, because if every patron is gay because every other patron is gay then one bartender saying "nah not so much" isn't going to work.