• On CHOW: Groundbreaking hangover cure
April 24, 2008 8:35 AM PDT

New dating site caters to smarties only

by Daniel Terdiman

I'm sitting here, reading my morning e-mail and what pops up but a press release for a new dating site that purports to be "exclusively for intelligent people."

Called, wonder of wonders, IntelligentPeople.com, the site says that to sign up you must first "pass the IQ test required for admission."

IntelligentPeople.com purports to be a dating site only for people smart enough to pass an IQ test.

(Credit: IntelligentPeople.com)

Now, my first instinct was to look at the calendar. It's not April Fools' Day, right? No, I think that happened already. Maybe the people behind this site weren't smart enough to notice that it's way past April 1.

Well, snark aside, this is an interesting notion, this dating site for smarties.

I suppose it's no surprise. After all, there are plenty of affinity networks out there already, social networks for people who went to this college, or who play that game or who like to dress up as giraffes. So why not throw dating and high IQs into the exclusivity mix?

Of course, as anyone who's ever dated a smart person knows, intelligence isn't any kind of guarantee of a good date. Sure, smart people generally prefer to date other smart people because it probably makes for better conversation, and the potential earning power is greater.

On the other hand, would you really want to date someone who would be inclined to limit their partner trolling to a site that restricts anyone who doesn't pass an IQ test? Perhaps this was actually someone's clever notion of how to wall off a really annoying demographic from the rest of the dating pool.

Fortunately, IntelligentPeople.com says it has made its IQ test "culture fair," one of the most bland, awkward terms I've come across in some time.

That means the test "will test intelligence while minimizing cultural or educational biases."

Well, that's good, at least. This ensures the site will welcome a multicultural party of IQ test snobs.

The site also says you can only take the test twice. What this doesn't address is that people can study for IQ tests, and I daresay, could probably cheat on them, as well. I wanted to check out this IQ test to see if you could, in fact, cheat, but I realized I didn't even want my name going in their database.

Besides, maybe figuring out how to cheat on their IQ test is a sign of intelligence.

So, to those that do join this service, have fun. But make sure, when you go on dates with your fellow smart people, that you don't say anything too dumb.

Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel.
Recent posts from Geek Gestalt
Music industry bows to point-and-shoot cameras
Q&A: Bringing back Mickey Mouse's dark side
Bad PDF formatting reveals Google Voice numbers
How the venerable PS2 made it to 9 years old
The tech behind U2's record-smashing tour
Piloting a lunar rover
NASA iPhone app full of surprises for space geeks
PS3: No longer the next-gen console punching bag
Add a Comment (Log in or register) (5 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next
by eikepost May 26, 2008 2:09 PM PDT
Dear Daniel:

I was a bit shocked to see your article on intelligentpeople.com. While I think it is interesting if you would have done a little research you would have known that thez are just a clone of out site, www.UberMens.com and now claim to be the first highIQ network.

To give you some evidence that intelligentpeople.com is in fact just a terrible clone of our site, UberMens.com:

1.we launched first and details in the concept are the same
2.many IQ test question are almost same
3.even the office address they copied from us (the domain is registered at 29 Harley street, London, which I use since three years for my various companies)


Though we are quite upset, we cannot blame you for writing about them. But it would be kind if you visit our site, try to take our IQ test and find that our site it is much better and write something nice about www.UberMens.com.

Just some data about us:

Started in China 2 month ago, 50,000 registrants now (www.GaoZhiShang.com)
International team of Mensa members as founders (German, Italian, Chinese, Lebanese)
400,000 people have take our IQ test on facebook (6,000 new registrants daily)
sites: www.UberMens.com, www.GaoZhiShang.com

Kind Regards,

Eike

skype: eikeberend
MSN: eikepost
www.eikepost.com
Reply to this comment
by eikepost May 26, 2008 2:09 PM PDT
Dear Daniel:

I was a bit shocked to see your article on intelligentpeople.com. While I think it is interesting if you would have done a little research you would have known that thez are just a clone of out site, www.UberMens.com and now claim to be the first highIQ network.

To give you some evidence that intelligentpeople.com is in fact just a terrible clone of our site, UberMens.com:

1.we launched first and details in the concept are the same
2.many IQ test question are almost same
3.even the office address they copied from us (the domain is registered at 29 Harley street, London, which I use since three years for my various companies)


Though we are quite upset, we cannot blame you for writing about them. But it would be kind if you visit our site, try to take our IQ test and find that our site it is much better and write something nice about www.UberMens.com.

Just some data about us:

Started in China 2 month ago, 50,000 registrants now (www.GaoZhiShang.com)
International team of Mensa members as founders (German, Italian, Chinese, Lebanese)
400,000 people have take our IQ test on facebook (6,000 new registrants daily)
sites: www.UberMens.com, www.GaoZhiShang.com

Kind Regards,

Eike
Reply to this comment
by cgoodlover June 16, 2008 8:24 AM PDT
i need a good lover ;and this site is a good site will give me my good lover
Reply to this comment
by loveflow June 25, 2008 10:59 AM PDT
am here to meet my life partner and i believe i will meet him here.
Reply to this comment
by margret.tina July 3, 2008 12:46 AM PDT
am here to meet a responsible partner, and am sure i will meet him here
Reply to this comment
(5 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next
advertisement

After 5 years, Firefox faces new challenges

Mozilla helped reshape the Web since releasing Firefox 1.0 five years ago. Now it's got a reawakened Microsoft and Google Chrome to reckon with.

There's a map for that: GPS or smartphone?

Almost every handset comes with mapping software these days, but standalone GPS devices are becoming more affordable than ever.

About Geek Gestalt

Daniel Terdiman, uniquely positioned to take you into the middle of another side of technology, chronicles his explorations of the "fun beat," from cultural phenomena such as Burning Man to cutting-edge aircraft to game conventions.

Add this feed to your online news reader

Geek Gestalt topics

advertisement
advertisement

Inside CNET News

Scroll Left Scroll Right