Match Group

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to your new favorite thing on the Internet.

It's called "Thats Not OkCupid" and it's the brainchild of Christopher Cantwell, an OkCupid moderator who has been exposed to all the best and worst the site has to offer.

Cantwell did not set out to become an OkCupid moderator but, like many others in his position, he was tapped from the site's userbase just 6 months after joining. He joined the ranks of those who are tasked with reviewing posts flagged by OkCupid users and marking the profiles "deleted," "left alone" or "can't tell."

Guidelines include "No nudity," "No spamming," "No hate speech," and "No commercial solicitations." A moderator can see comments and rulings from other moderators, but can't see the moderators' names or the ultimate decisions made on issues. Though Cantwell never had ambitions to join the lofty ranks of the OkCupid moderators, he was notified that he had randomly been selected for the position and suddenly found himself with access to a side of the site that most never see.

"Most of it is kind of frivolous," he told the Huffington Post. "Out of a few dozen [complaints], I'd say I've only flagged two or three for deletion." His new gig has, however, provided interesting insight into the minds of online daters and the inner workings of the industry.

When asked what he's learned about people since becoming a moderator, Cantwell says "I've learned that people are nitpicking and if they see something they don't like, they'll flag it for no good reason." He also says he's seen plenty of nude photos and scammers, but isn't phased by most anything he encounters.

The one exception was an experience with child pornography. The FBI demanded that the illegal images be kept intact, because they were in the midst of an active investigation and wanted to see who was accessing it. Cantwell called the experience "pretty disturbing."

He doesn't appear to be taking much away from his experience as a moderator. "People are nosey busybodies," he says, and when asked why he thinks people act the way they do online, his answer is simply "because they're *ssh*les."

"I really have no faith in the human race," he emphasizes. "I look at this stuff, I look at politics and I think people are idiots and there's just no hope for them."

What a cheery and uplifting outlook on humanity. At least it produced a hilarious blog.

To find out more about the dating site you can read our OkCupid review.

You may not have heard of IAC, but you've definitely heard about what IAC is doing.

Back in 2005, the Internet-focused conglomerate owned a diverse range of businesses that included Expedia, the Home Shopping Network, and Ticketmaster. All were fast-growing businesses, but they failed to work together as a coherent whole.

Over the next three years IAC streamlined, whittling down its assets to 23 businesses and more than 150 Web and media-related brands. Now, in 2012, IAC's ventures total 5.91 billion pages views per month.

IAC will continue to transform, but one thing is certain: the company isn't going away any time soon. Its two main businesses - online dating and Internet search - are thriving and show no signs of doing anything but that for a long time to come. IAC dominates the online dating industry as owner of Match.com and 30 other dating sites, and offers search services through Ask.com and a collection of apps.

From Friday October 19 2012, to Sunday October 21, 2012 members of Chemistry will be able to communicate for free.

Along with communication, this free weekend allows members to create a profile, take the personality test and to receive matches. Once you have decided which matches you wish to contact by viewing their profiles and photos, you can then use Chemistry Starters to initiate communication with that member. Chemistry Starters are fun online activities designed to help you break the ice and get to know your matches better. If you wish to skip the Chemistry Starters, no problem as you can also send emails right away. This 72 hour promotion is completely free and no credit card is required.

It looks like Chemistry had their last free communication weekend in July. To find out more about this dating site which matches members for long-term relationships you can read our Chemistry review.

Our review for the dating site Plenty of Fish has just received a major update and is now available online. Our last significant update to this review was completed under a year and a half ago. Beyond shortening there name from Plenty of Fish to POF this dating site has gone through a number of changes since May 2011.

So what has POF updated with their service since the last time we did a review? Here is a quick list of some of the more important changes:

• Profile questions modified and added
• Photo rating removed
• Relationship chemistry predictor went from 28 to 73 questions
• Profile themes now requires a paid membership
• The ability to see who viewed your profile find out the date and time it was viewed now requires a paid membership
• The amount of credits you get has changed for the 3 price points
• Additional relationship statuses have been added
• Some limits to what users can contact you via private messaging has been removed. You can no longer specify that the sender’s profile must have an image and that the message must be a certain size
• New "Hottest Girls" feature that lists women who consistently reply to messages
• New "Most Attracted" feature that lists men who have a high likelihood of being attracted to you
• There are now 5 different Personality Tests

To find out more about this popular free dating site and the changes please read our updated POF.com review now.

On August 31, 2012 Plenty of Fish released a new update for their Android dating app. The new version number is 1.4.1.9627 and it includes a number of new features and bug fixes. The new features include:

• Username search
• Additional search filters on profile attributes
• You can now register on POF through the App (done through web before)
• Auto-refresh for conversations
• Local event notifications
• User interface modifications

I haven't had any problems logging in with the new version but more than a few members have complained about not being able to use the app due to time out issues or notifications that the service is down for scheduled maintenance. A reviewer also mention that the Apps MeetMe feature could use additional search filters so you can have tighter control on which members are displayed.

Check out the Google Play Store on your Android phone and search for POF to download the app. To find out more about this popular free dating site you can read our POF.com review.

In a not too surprising move IAC announced last Friday that it has acquired the free dating site DateHookup.com. No financial terms of the agreement have been disclosed. IAC already owns such popular dating sites as Match.com, Chemistry.com and OkCupid. Datehookup.com was founded by Dustin Weirich in 2002 and has grown over the years to become the 6th most visited dating site on the internet. Every month DateHookup.com receives over 1 million unique visitors.

Over the past few years IAC has acquired a number of dating sites. Here are their most recent purchases:

• 2011 – OkCupid for $50 million (see Story)
• 2010 – Singlesnet (see Story)
• 2009 – People Media for $80 million (see Story)

Every year since 2009 IAC has bought a dating site. If the pattern holds true I wonder who they plan to purchase in 2013? I heard rumors a while ago that they may be interested in Cupid PLC since they are performing well in the European market. I have my doubts it will happen though, since Cupid PLC does operate some adult oriented dating services.

For more on the story you can read the IAC press release. To find out more about the dating sites involved you can read our Match.com review and DateHookup.com review.