I picked Jdate.com to do my minority website practicum research on. I chose Jdate.com so I could compare it to eharmony.com to see how the minority sight was similar or different to a very large and diverse dating website. Jdate is a Jewish dating website and eharmony is a very common dating website that you've seen commercials for or probably know someone who uses eharmony. The reason I picked Jdate was because I could make an account to look for a friendship; on Jdate you have the option to look for relationships (long term or short term), friendships, or other interests. I wanted to be ethical, I could not pretend to look for a relationship when I'm not; however, I used my name with my friend's, who lives in Birmingham, AL, information. The reason I did this was because I already knew there was a large Jewish population in Madison and I also didn't want to accidentally bump into anyone, so I thought looking for a friendship in Birmingham might be interesting because I don't know of any Jewish people living in the South.
The way the Jdate website works is that you sign up and answer questions about yourself, such as where you live, what you like to do, your birthday/age, information about yourself as a student or your career, etc... What I found interesting after I signed up is that to read any message someone sends you on the website you have to pay! It never said it wasn't free and it never asked me for any payment information until I wanted to read a message. It is about $20/month for a 6 month membership and cheaper and as the membership commitment gets longer. I did not and am not paying to read a message someone sends me. You can look at people's profiles and answer questions on their profile page, like "who pays on a first date?" and other dating/relationship questions that if you answer you can see their answer. The website aims to set you up with what type of relationship you are looking for in your area. Within two days the website matched me up with two people also looking for friendship, whom I will not talk about to compromise their privacy. On both Jdate and eharmony the website encourages you to read success stories about all the couples who have met on the dating website and had a "happy ending."
-Kristin Schmidt
