Sunday, March 6, 2011

laughing is unacceptable

I like to look at the "Unacceptable Answers" when viewing a man's profile. This is how I find out, for example, that a guy "isn't sure" if kissing someone other than their partner is cheating. Or, that a guy relies more on faith than on science. He may have written extraordinarily enticing things in his profile, and he may have a sexy face, but the wrong answer to a few select questions and I'll move on. (But not before writing myself a note to remember why I don't like the dude.)

The way this works is by choosing a level of importance (from a little to mandatory), and when the person responds in a way you don't like (and vice versa), the "bad" answer is red and shows up in the "Unacceptable Answers" category. I'm picky about which questions are important to me, so that I can make sure our match and enemy percentages are accurate.

There's a wonderful option when answering questions. It's the "irrelevant" button. I love it. In lieu of choosing just one possible answer, you accept them all! For example, when faced with the question, "Do you like peanut butter?" it probably isn't a dealbreaker if the person has a different preference than you have about this particular food product. I can't picture anyone saying, "You like peanut butter!? Well, this is definitely not going to work out between us..." This would a perfect opportunity to use the irrelevant button (except that this is a fake question to make a point).

Or, for example, when answering this totally real question, "When you are alone, how often do your own actions make you laugh?" it would be absurd to choose anything other than "irrelevant." I would never rule out dating someone because they make themselves laugh - or because they don't make themselves laugh!

Unfortunately, in my opinion, the irrelevant button is not used with enough frequency. I have come across men whose answers to most questions are very similar to mine, but with whom I share a high enemy %. When I compare our "Unacceptable Answers" I usually find that they have never once used the irrelevant button.

One fellow who rated me very highly and who I think is pretty darn awesome finds it unacceptable that I am an adventurous eater (like him), that I went to grad school, and that I'm always open with my feelings. I'm surprised by this. But perhaps more surprising is the fact that his political beliefs are "very important" to him, but he finds it unacceptable that my political beliefs are "very important" to me. What!?