In an effort to re-rail this thread:
I originally signed up for OKCupid when things with a girl I was pretty heavily emotionally invested in fell apart. Prior to our tryst I adamantly resisted anything resembling a relationship for a few years, having come off a disastrous long-term one and the subsequent rebound which turned out equally disastrous. At some point during that period I got involved in an open relationship with a girl from Boston who was five years my senior. The traveling was fun and the sex was great but what started out of an allegedly mutual desire for a continued fling with no strings attached ended with me acting as an emotional crutch for someone who was too insecure to be upfront about their needs. Coincidentally, soon after I broke that off, the girl in question came back into my life, fresh off a semester abroad in Spain. The previous summer I had turned her down for a relationship, citing my cataclysmic experiences and self-presumed inability to be a challenging and passionate partner, and she left bearing a grudge. Upon her return, she briefly dated my best friend, whom she complete ignored as the level of our intimacy steadily grew and we began spending a lot of time together.
After a few months of this, my buddy came to understand the situation and broke up with her, giving me his blessing. This time with all the cards in her hand, she led me on for six months before finally letting me know that she just wasn't interested in dating me. She'd hinted at it before, somewhere in between passionate kisses and falling asleep in my arms, but I was so madly infatuated that I deceived myself until I could no longer rationalize it.
I came out of this episode reeling, having set myself up to fall in love and been sorely disappointed. I had several short flings in a row, unsuccessfully trying to find in each of them the kind of things I felt and had lost. I understood that I couldn't go out looking for passion but that didn't stop me from trying.
As an extension of this pursuit, I registered for an OKCupid account. I spent hours meticulously editing what I thought was the most genuine description of myself I could muster. I figured that, at the very least, I stood to gain insight into what kinds of people are attracted to me when I'm not busy posturing, but I held out hope that I might meet someone charming who would take my mind off of my absolute dissatisfaction.
In order to facilitate the experiment, I didn't bother sending out any messages, instead waiting for people to contact me.
To this day, I've received approximately five messages, three from real life friends who stumbled onto my profile and felt the need to express their amusement while simultaneously justifying the existence of their own accounts, one from our very own Liz which said "liek omg ur so hawt" (thank you Liz) and one which read:
"haha soo this thing said they have a mystry match who likes "tool"....I'm starting to belivee this thing isn't understanding me lol i hope you don't like tools?"