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Internet dating is nothing but a growth industry. Disasters? People go online to look for love. The economy is in the pits? People go online to look for love. Bad weather? People go online to look for love. Holidays over? People go online to look for love. It seems any excuse will do. It’s cheaper than a date, saves time, and it works. Go for it!
Online dating soars as temperatures plunge
By Will Smale
Business reporter, BBC News
Singletons seem to be using their time stuck at home to join dating agencies
As the UK’s big chill shows no sign of ending, people appear to be seeking to raise the temperature with a bit of online romance.
With millions of Britons unable to make it into work because of the snow and ice, one of the unforeseen effects has been a reported surge in the number of people exploring website dating agencies.
Stuck at home and bored with daytime television, singletons are seemingly turning their attention to finding a new partner via their laptop, with two of the UK’s largest online dating sites both reporting a big increase in traffic over the past two days.
Mysinglefriend.com says visitors to its website soared by 55% on Tuesday alone, with its busiest time coming at 1500 rather than the traditional 2200.
Meanwhile rival site Singles365.com says its visitor numbers grew 27% across Tuesday and Wednesday compared with a year ago.
‘Icebreaker’
“January is our busiest month anyway, as many single people make it their new year’s resolution to find a partner,” says Singles365.com spokeswoman Katie Mowe.
“However, the increase in traffic over the past two days has been very unusual, as typically they are quiet days for us - we are usually busiest at weekends.
“We can only put this down to the bad weather meaning more people are staying at home. We saw a similar picture when we had snow last year, but obviously the weather is a lot worse at present so the increase has been much more marked.”
Sarah Beeny, founder of Mysinglefriend.com, says the snow was “proving to be an icebreaker for singles out there”.
“January has always been our busiest month, but this surge in traffic is unprecedented.”
The big increase in people using dating websites comes at a time when the industry is already booming.
Online websites have helped remove the stigma attached to dating agencies
According to a study by market research group Forrester Research, the number of Britons paying to use online dating agencies is set to grow from 2.6 million people in 2006 to six million by 2012, creating revenues of around £368m.
This vast increase has come as more adults are computer literate, the old stigma attached to joining dating agencies has dissipated, and the ability to join an agency via a laptop makes people more comfortable and confident to take the plunge.
However, it is not just traditional dating websites that have reported a big increase in business over the past few days.
IllicitEncounters.com - a website which provides a platform for married people to conduct affairs - says it gained a record number of new members on Wednesday, with the majority coming from areas of the country worst hit by the extreme weather, including Hampshire, Berkshire, and the wider West Country.
The firm says that over the past six days as a whole, it gained 2,567 new members, 37% more than usual, and as a result has needed to take on additional staff to cope with the rush.
“In light of these figures, I’d be interested to see how much work those working from home have actually done,” said spokeswoman Sara Hartley.
But with the bad weather set to continue into next week, many people who have found a prospective new partner via a dating website may have to wait sometime before they can actually meet up for their first date.
Yea, Spark.com! Fatties of the world, unite!
Spark.com Thinks BeautifulPeople.com Acted Ugly
New Online Dating Site Offers Free Subscription to ‘Booted Beauties’
BEVERLY HILLS, CA--(Marketwire - January 6, 2010) - Spark®.com, created by the same people behind such successful online dating sites as JDate®.com, BlackSingles.com® and ChristianMingle®.com, announced today that they will offer a free subscription to all 5,000 members ousted from BeautifulPeople.com yesterday for allegedly putting on a few holiday pounds and being “newly chubby.”
“As a company based on inclusion and creating communities where people feel comfortable and safe, we’re outraged over the widely publicized actions taken by BeautifulPeople.com,” said Adam Berger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Spark Networks®, the parent company of Spark.com. “We created Spark.com to be a place where all are welcome and we adhere to the philosophy that any two people willing to take the time to first know themselves, and then learn about others, can improve existing relationships as well as form new and rewarding ones. We are so disappointed in how that ‘other site’ behaved, and feel the right thing to do is to offer a free one-month subscription to anyone who was kicked off that other site for putting on a few extra holiday pounds.”
To take advantage of this special offer, all people have to do is log on to Spark.com, complete a free profile and email their Spark.com username and rejection notice from the other site to , and they’ll receive a free one-month subscription within 24 hours.
Nothing to say here but eeeyick.
Cindy Margolis tests sperms on her new dating reality show!
Washington, Jan 7 (ANI): Former Playboy model Cindy Margolis is set to unveil a new dating reality show where participants are made to give sperm samples.
The show titled ‘Seducing Cindy’ will be aired on Fox Reality Channel from January 30.
Margolis has some knowledge about infertility as she gave birth to her three children through IVF and later penned a book “Having a Baby… When the Old-Fashioned Way Isn’t Working.”
“I am the spokesperson for Resolve, the National Infertility Association, so we could get away with it. We had one competition where the guys had to go through what I went through and give a sperm sample,” Fox News quoted her, as saying.
She said: “It was interesting to have 25 guys go off into a room and bring you back a sperm sample. Clinically, I know how to test sperm, and I tested each of the guy’s sperm on my show. It was the craziest thing.”
Men aged 18-49 are participating in the show and will go through a string of interesting tests to win Margolis’ love.
And according to the 44-year-old beauty the guys were quite delighted to play the “sperm” game.
Margolis said: “The looks on the guys faces [were] priceless, I don’t think that any man would ever think in their lifetime they would be asked to give their sperm sample on national television! They were in pure shock! But I will say that I do give the guys a lot of credit. Each one of them was ‘up’ for the challenge.
“The intention of my asking the men to give me their sample was for them have some insight into my real life. They came to the show to vie for the love of their ‘fantasy woman,’ Cindy Margolis. I wanted the men to see that my real life has not been a fantasy.”
And Margolis also revealed that she has had her own share of loneliness.
She said: “[For a while] I couldn’t even get a date. So then to have 25 men vying for my love, then to say goodbye to each of them one at a time was the toughest part for me. I didn’t know it would be that emotional, my heart was on the line.” (ANI)
Easily one of the LEAST attractive attributes I see in both men and women is fat phobia, followed quickly by looks snobs—those folks who look for perfection, even thought they are far from it themselves. Here’s a dating site that is a wonderful refuge for them both—fat phobics and looksists. And see what BeautifulPeople.com, a dating site that has a “strict ban on ugly people” did after the holidays. Charming, huh? At least they have a place of their own to hang out, away from the rest of us who are a bit more tolerant.
Dating site for beautiful people expels ‘fatties’ after holiday weight gain
By Mallory Simon, CNN
(CNN)—A dating site that markets itself as an elite community for beautiful people with a “strict ban on ugly people” has axed about 5,000 members for packing on the pounds during the holiday season.
The international site BeautifulPeople.com threw out members after they posted photos “revealing that they have let themselves go,” according to a company statement.
“As a business, we mourn the loss of any member, but the fact remains that our members demand the high standard of beauty be upheld,” said Robert Hintze, founder of BeautifulPeople.com. “Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded.”
The site describes itself as an “elite online club, where every member works the door”—that is, users can join only after enough members vote them “beautiful” during the 48 hours after their profile is uploaded.
And apparently, enough beautiful people were angry that some members had enjoyed a bit too many treats during the holiday season.
So BeautifulPeople.com sent those flagged members e-mails, according to the company statement, telling them they could register again for the site when the extra pudge was gone.
“We responded to complaints by moving the newly chubby members back to the rating stage. This is the same as having them re-apply,” Greg Hodge, managing director of BeautifulPeople.com, said in a statement.
The company said it “expelled” 1,520 users from the U.S., 832 from the U.K., 533 from Canada, 510 from Poland, 425 from Germany, 402 from Italy, 323 from France, 220 from Denmark, 176 from Turkey and 88 people from Russia. In the e-mail, it gave users suggestions for boot camps and workout facilities to get themselves back in shape.
Some gave the site a shot again, hoping fellow users might not see them as the “fatties” others had.
“Their re-applications were reviewed by existing members, and only a few hundred were voted back in. Over 5,000 were rejected,” Hodge added.
Hodge admits, and has admitted from the time his company started, that his site may not be fair, but people want to date someone they are attracted to.
“Is it elitist? Yes, it is, because our members want it to be,” Hodge said when the company started out in 2005. “Is it lookist? Yes, it is, because our members want it to be. Is it PC? No, it’s not, but it’s honest.”
And on this site, beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder; only one in five applicants is normally accepted, a company statement said.
Maintaining those standards is what the site is about, Hodge said, and that’s why people were expelled.
“Every year we see that some of our members from Western cultures eat and drink to excess over the holidays, and clearly their looks suffer,” he said in a statement. “The U.S.A. has been grossly over-indulging since Thanksgiving. It’s no wonder that so many members have been expelled from the network. We hope they will be back after shedding the festive pounds.”
There’s nothing like New Year’s for starting fresh, and if you have an old relationship that needs some housecleaning, here’s an article below that will tell you just how to do it.
The Post-Breakup Technology Cleanse
by Melissa Noble
If you’re one of the three people out there who endures a completely mutual, pain-free and friendly as a bouquet of roses break-up, then read no further. The below is not intended for you. Now, if you fall into the category of “everyone else” and your recent split caused a rush of heated double-clicks and jealous scrolls through a flurry of screens large and small, then you really ought to fumigate your technology like you would a roach-infested kitchen.
Here’s how:
1.) Delete every single e-mail ever given or received
As cathartic as it might sound to keep an archive of sweet messages, witty one-liners and even the cruel and brutal (as a remembrance as to why you should never reconcile) just don’t. Instead, search and delete every received and sent message. It might sound time-consuming and dramatic, but you’ll come to realize how much you’ll enjoy having an ex-free inbox.
2.) Cleanse your smart phone
Deleting someone’s number isn’t good enough. Nay. Go in and scrub away every trace like you would shower grime. In one broad stroke, eliminate every missed, outgoing and dialed call, plus every sent and received text and picture. You want no excuse to cave, crumble and call.
3.) Un-friend from Facebook and possibly block
Facebook is the Mecca of peeping Toms and an all-access pass to an ex’s status updates, wall posts from attractive members of the opposite sex, and pictures with said attractive members of the opposite sex. Unless you’re a masochist, it’s just bad, bad, bad news. Absolutely un-friend, and if you want to take it one step further (and why wouldn’t you?) use that nifty “block button.” Blocking eliminates you from coming up on a search and showing up on a mutual friend’s list of friends, so your ex likewise won’t be reminded of you and reach out in a fit of nostalgia.
4.) If you met on a dating site, remove from favorites and block
If you met on an online dating site, definitely remove your ex from your favorites and block him/her from contacting you. This one is a no-brainer.
5.) Un-follow and block on Twitter
The same rational for Facebook goes for Twitter. If you and significant other were tweeters and hung on each others posts, it’s time to unfollow and block. Life is just too short for 140 characters to unleash the millions of angry memories. Just trust us on this.
6.) Remove from IM
In Gmail, it’s possible to suppress a contact from appearing in your Gchat list. You can also remove or block a buddy in AIM, Skype and other such instant messaging systems. When you’re trying to write an e-mail to your mom or cruise a dating site for new love interests, what benefit is there in seeing your ex’s name in your chat list?
Yes, this technology cleanse is extreme. Think about it this way: seeing your ex online/in your phone will only make you think about what he/she is doing, realize you’re no longer privy to that info (at least not right now, maybe friendship lies ahead), and—as any human would—suffer as a result. Why not make technology work for you and remove the catalysts for this negative reminder?
If your ex wants to reconcile, he/she will find you. Or, given your freedom to exist without constant reminders, maybe you’ll see him/her in a new light and decide to reach out. Either way, keeping an ex’s fingerprints all over your technology will only help keep you jailed in breakup pain. We say, cleanse and be free. You’re too fabulous to wallow.
Love those facts and figures. See my underlines for particularly interesting numbers about good old AshleyMadison.com I actually had someone call me up the other day, thinking that I somehow had something to do with Ashley. Only to say bad things. The only good thing I can say about AshleyMadison is that perhaps it gives married people who want to fool around a place to go. I haven’t heard so much lately about married folks trolling the dating sites and pretending to be single, so maybe Ashley is doing her job.
Marriage and divorce ... with a modern twist: PDQuotient
By John Campanelli, The Plain Dealer
(edited)
8—Percent decline in the divorce rate from 2003 to 2008 in states without constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.
20.7—Percent decline in the divorce rate from 2003 to 2008 in Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage (2004).
0.9—Percent increase in the divorce rate from 2003 to 2008 in the states with constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.
About 20—Percent of new divorce cases that contain the word “Facebook” in their petitions.
30—Percent of “singles” on online dating sites who aren’t single.
More than 4.5 million—Members of AshleyMadison.com, the dating site for married people that carries the tagline “Life is short. Have an affair.”
70—Percent of AshleyMadison.com members who are male.
I love it when I see science catching up and studying what is actually going on in the dating world. Here’s proof of what I have been saying and seeing about the use of dating sites by older singles: Underlines are mine.
Online dating more popular
NEW YORK - ANY lingering stigma about finding true love online seems to be fading, particularly among older adults, researchers found.
In a study of 175 newlywed couples scientists at Iowa State University said those who met through online dating agencies, or social networking sites, tended to be older than other couples who met through traditional ways offline.
They were also less likely to be marrying for the first time and had shorter courtships before tying the knot - 18.5 months instead of 42 months.
‘In many cases, there are real structural forces that encourage the support and use of these technologies,’ said Alicia Cast, an associate professor of sociology at the university. ‘And one of them is just structural constraints on people’s time - such as people who have kids, or have full-time jobs, or work long or extensive hours,’ she added in a statement.
But the online spouses were as attractive, intelligent and had the same self-esteem levels of the offline couples.
Prof Cast and her graduate assistant Jamie McCartney studied data on the couples over a three-year period. Twenty five couples in the study had met online. ‘My understanding is that there are very few studies that have been able to simultaneously get access to a source of couples who met through more conventional means, along with those who choose to meet people online,’ said Prof Cast.—REUTERS
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