Good news, someone wants to pay you for doing something you probably already do in your free time: judge people online. Don't play coy with me, we all do it. We all have given a digital side eye at least once, whether it's for someone's unflattering pictures, their endless "what character are you" quiz answers, or their incessant vaguebooking. Why not cash in on being highly opinionated?
IgniteYourMatch.com is a website where people pay to have their online dating profile judged ... er "critiqued" to optimize their potential for meeting someone. For $29 any schlub with a Tinder account can have their profile reviewed "anonymously and confidently" by "ten men or women in your desired age group." These reviewers answer specific questions you have ( ex. "does this fedora make me look fat?") and suggest changes to your profile information or pictures. It's basically the virtual equivalent of the scene in every "nerdy girl" '90s movie where they cut her hair, take off her glasses, tell her to shut up about politics, and VOILA! Instant hottie!
These professional judgers are chosen from an Amazon-powered "crowdsourcing marketplace" called Mechanical Turk. Basically companies or individuals place ads for "Human Intelligence Tasks" or HITs. HITs usually involve testing the usability of a website or translating text into other languages. Founder of Ignite Your Match Stuart Brent says that he wants to keep the exact rate of pay for judgers confidential but says that "the pay is very fair." But then, who can put a price on the joys of appraising others for levels of douche-baggery?
Brent has put his own profile through the judging process. "Seeing how tiny things that I didn't even think about being called out as red flags by reviewers was pretty amazing," he says. (He is now dating a woman he met online).
What exactly constitutes a red flag? According to Brent, being "religious, too cocky," and having shirtless pictures, or saying "casual sex" is an interest, are grounds for total profile revision. It gets really confusing when Brent talks about feedback he received on his own profile. "The reviewers of my OkCupid profile said to write more about my businesses because I barely wrote anything and they thought it sounded interesting," he begins,"but then I wrote a ton about it and they told me to trim it down because it made me sound like all work and no play, and too serious." So to wrap up: don't be all churchy, like your job but not too much, be sexy but not too sexy, and definitely don't be sexy in a casual way. At this point I'm kind of judging them for judging things like that.
So use Ignite Your Match if you feel like your profile needs to be spruced up by a really cool virtual wingman to ensure maximum banging potential. Or put your judging skills to the test and sign up to work for them. Or just scrap the whole idea and, for the price of a super burrito, I will volunteer to follow you around all day and say "ew" under my breath anytime you do something weird.
Image via Thinkstock.