23 February 2005
Are you getting too many matches or too few?
If you've looked at your match scores with other members you will have noticed that it's a two way calculation that generates the match score. As we'd rather not get bogged down in the clever algorithms used by our designers to make this all work, let's instead focus on making it work for you.
The key thing is to make sure that you provide as much detail as possible in both the 'About Me' and the 'My Ideal Match' sections of your profile.
The information you supply **and** the 'How important is this criterion in your matches?' weighting you select will have a significant impact on your results. If your ideal match is a blonde Sagittarian female aged 22 residing in Kathmandu and all of this is 'non-negotiable' then chances are you'll come up empty handed. Conversely, if you choose your ideal match as a male aged between 18 and 100 living anywhere in the world, you may be swamped for choice.
So, like everything in life, a good balance is the key. The best approach is only to make things 'non-negotiable' if they really are. If smoke gets up your nose, then by all means make 'non smoker' non-negotiable. If you're not too fussy about your match's hair colour, make sure you choose an appropriate importance level.
Play with your ideal match settings, and have a look at the number of matches you find in 'My Matches'. If you have too many to choose from, tighten things up a bit, or loosen up your criteria a bit if you have too few.
1. Keep a record of what you said. Use the 'CC Me' feature on the contact form to send copies of your messages to yourself. This way you'll avoid repeating yourself or getting confused. This could be embarrassing!
2. Make it personal. Try to avoid cutting and pasting the same message to lots of people. A personal message is far more likely to get a response than one that sounds like a telesales script. A good approach is to let people know what it was about their profile that prompted you to contact them. 'I found your profile interesting' just doesn't cut in the originality stakes, so you'll need to be more specific.
3. Don't be a pest... If you mail someone and they don't respond, wait a while before you consider a follow-up message. If you haven't got a response in a week or so, move on.
If someone is bugging you repeatedly, don't forget that you can use the 'Block Him or Her' feature on their profile to prevent them from contacting you again.
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