Online Personals Watch Awards Methodology?

OPW -- Oct 27 -- I'll be announcing the Online Personals Watch Awards shortly. You'll be able to vote on your favorite online personals sites. The awards will be determined by:

1. User Votes
2. A Competitive Analysis of Features
3. A Panel of Executives

Users will be able to enter their favorite sites in a number of categories, TBD. I'll do an analysis of the top sites submitted and will make the full analysis and methodology available for public dissemination.  A panel of executives will be formed and will also vote on their favorite sites, except their own, of course.  My question to you is...what proportion should each of 1,2,3 contribute to the final awards?  - Mark Brooks

Comments

[David Evans]

Is this an industry thing or for consumers?

Why would you ask dating site executives to rate the competition? Shouldn't you be asking a panel of single online daters?

Interested to hear how you plan on analyzing features. All dating sites are pretty much the same, it's the members that generally act as the core differentiator. You should have a large % of the vote reflect demographics, Keynote research and other third party analysis.

Use a good poll system that frustrates ballot stuffing.

[Fernando Ardenghi]

Perhaps you can not compare apples with oranges and tomatoes with potatoes, I think first of all sites need to be externally audited, like ISO 9001:2000 certification.

See Shaadi, the Indian Online Dating Site certified by Det Norske Veritas until 2007-10-07
http://www.shaadi.com/customer_relations/faq/iso-certification.php

It is a standardized seal of trust for prospective clients.
A group of quality systems and processes, which will help meeting customer requirements and achieving customer satisfaction!

"If you want to have a quality attitude you must have a quality system. This is what ISO recognizes, and this is why ISO 9001:2000 is important. "

Some ISO 9001:2000 main processes for Online Dating, clauses (in brackets):
Communicate with customers (7.2.3).
Identify customer requirements (5.2, 7.2.1).
Meet customer requirements (5.2).
Monitor and measure customer satisfaction (8.2.1).
Meet regulatory requirements (5.1).

A U.S. & Canada Industry (OffLine and OnLine) as big as USD 1,200 million??? CAN NOT stay without:
- Legislation.
- ISO 9001:2000 Quality Norms.

More on ISO 9001:2000 Quality Norms could be seen at:
http://www.iso.org/iso/en/ISOOnline.frontpage
http://praxiom.com/iso-9001.htm
http://praxiom.com/iso-definition.htm

Kindest Regards,

Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
[email protected]

[Mark Brooks]

Companies that have ISO 9000 have proven that they are tracking their quality processes. They can still have terrible quality. The standard just ensures that they at least know and are tracking their quality levels.

The true meaning of quality is 'fitness for purpose.' So, in some way I hope to identify the best sites that are fit for their purpose in each of several categories. What should those categories be?

Mark Brooks
editor, onlinepersonalswatch.com

[Mark Brooks]

Is this an industry thing or for consumers?

...Both

Why would you ask dating site executives to rate the competition?

...Why not? They should have a voice and say in the matter as well. How much say? What %?

Shouldn't you be asking a panel of single online daters?

...I am. See point #1.

Interested to hear how you plan on analyzing features. All dating sites are pretty much the same, it's the members that generally act as the core differentiator. You should have a large % of the vote reflect demographics, Keynote research and other third party analysis.

...KISS...keeping it simple. One vote per single. Anyone can vote. One vote per exec. Plus, a layer of analysis.

Use a good poll system that frustrates ballot stuffing.

...I'll be using vizu.com.

[James Houran]

Mark,

I am happy to provide free statistical analysis using advanced Item Response Theory/ Rasch Scaling. This is the statistical gold-standard approach that offers some of the advantages of random sampling without having a random sample. It will also identify the major sources of bias as well as what those trends are.

Thanks and good luck,

James Houran, Ph.D.
Online Dating Magazine

[Mark Brooks]

I was planning on just letting people vote. Whoever comes through the site gets a vote. My main concern is getting to some level of statistical significance. Unlike other awards, I'll post the methodology so people can come to their own conclusions as to the overall accuracy. Over the years it will grow, and get more accurate as more people vote, I hope.