Menu-Driven Identities Workshop

I'm going to attempt a discussion of questions 2 and 3 since they are pretty much similarly connected. Hope i don't get lost in my thoughts :)

2. What sort of 'identities' are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles and those users who made them?
3. How much of the "identity" that we can see online for the users on Lavalife is restricted by the overall design of the website? What changes would you suggest in order to "improve" the sorts of identity Lavalife users can construct?

The basic identity markers of a person are easily visible, by that i mean the usual things that someone would want to know when meeting someone new for whatever purpose they choose : dating, relationships or intimate encounters. Everything is laid out nicely in a fixed format. It makes it easier to compare members (like shopping for products) {i know i'm so gonna get it for saying that} but on the other hand it disallows us to gain an insight of the organisation or thought processes of the member if they were to describe themselves in full without a preset 'template' to follow - It seems that the identities of the members follow a resonably comprehensive fixed template. They all start the same way and follow the same order; age, sex, location (ASL), ethnicity, star sign, religion. Then comes the height, weight and social habits, 'excess baggages' in terms of children (when one is looking for someone to have a relationship with), education level and financial status. Lavalife assumes that that is all a user would be interested in and the member is willing to tell. When i click on the nickname for more info, the standard get-to-know-him/her categories like interests and hobbies come up in addition to a little blurb that the member has written. Because of the overall design of the website, there's no room for other unique identity markers (eg. colour blindedness, piercings, disabilities, a psychotic ex...) unless the member decides to put it in his blurb. Which i doubt he/she would, which leads the user to assume that the member is akin to the majority of the population, whatever that is ;).

Anyway, these blurbs mostly contain information that we would have found out already, but in one of these blurbs, i saw something interesting :

" They say my this 'personal message of "tell us about yourself
in your own words" is too short, because i wrote this only: Nothing
to say accept VERY VERY SMART and CUTE! haha.."

For those not accustomed to Singlish (Singaporean english) , the member basically means that lavalife has told him that what he has written in the "tell us about yourself in your own words" box is too short, because he wrote like 10 words only.

So, it seems that lavalife is standardising the game and presumes that browsers like me are all interested in the same things. If i wanted to use one word to describe myself i should be able to. It's who i am - quiet? Lavalife presumes that the majority is interested in the same things. I guess it's the same theory for all other websites. They tend to cater to the majority of the web surfers who belong to the 'default' race.

I feel that lavalife is one of the better online dating and relationship webbies around. It has an instant messaging thingy AND video greetings (though u have to pay to use them). There should possibly also be a freeform box where the member can come up with some random thought, picture or drawing/s that he/she thinks may reflect his person. Given a fair chance that any member can masquarade his face and identity off in the wired world it's the risk that we all take, and i see no way that lavalife can reduce that risk. As quoted in their Privacy and Use of Information statement : "We cannot guarantee, and assume no responsibility for verifying, the accuracy of the information provided by other users of the Service."