[edit] People are taking this far too personally. You didn't get rejected as unattractive, your profile got rejected as unattractive. There are more ways than one to rectify this. Remember, these people don't know you, they can only view a tiny slice of you via your profile - one that you are in 100% control of. Perhaps your failure is not that you're irredeemably ugly, but rather that your profile inspires no attraction. Conversely, if you "won" the profile attractiveness game, it may not mean you're nearly as attractive in real life as your profile suggests.
This reminds of the PUA mantra as it has been related to me: "she didn't reject you, she rejected your approach"
The "YourBestFace" feature would help you with that.
Most interesting thing I found out? Pictures with my grandma: awesome. Pictures with my grandfather: horrible.
It makes me wonder why these people are running something as small-time as a dating website. I haven't seen so much useful creativity and cool new ideas and openness since Google got bigger.
I'm not insulting their business. It is pretty perfect for collecting some of the data they have found.
Besides, ugly users are probably a lot more profitable than good-looking ones.
We know they run statistics all the time from their blog, so they probably saw something like 90% of active users are in the top 50% and saw it as a way to flatter them and keep them engaged with the site.
To elaborate a little further on this point from a guy's perspective (this might sound controversial)..
1. You risk scaring off attractive girls if they are bombarded by mail from a wider range of less attractive guys
2. The less attractive girls will get less attention as the guys will try their chances with the hotter girls
3. And all the girls would have a worse experience, ugly or hot, which might result in them leaving.
Although the article is not completely accurate ("Those in the dreaded bottom 50% presumably do not have access to potential matches in the top 50%" -- not true from what was in the email), it does bring up valid points. How much should physical attractiveness play a role in relationships? Is it smart to isolate a part of your user base with such an email?
And who is Okcupid to make judgement calls on who I may find attractive?
It matters as much as nature intended it to. Regardless of what the womyn at Bitchmagazine think about it.
It could very well be that every active account falls within the top 50% of all accounts.
People are also much more likely to date someone of their own race. Should OkCupid segregate by race as well? Oh wait, that's a social taboo, whereas discriminating against the ugly is considered perfectly acceptable.