August 15, 2007

Must Be Pon Farr

As longtime CQ readers know, my nickname came from the period in my life when I was a Star Trek fan. I don't think I qualified as a Trekkie; I never attended a convention, and the only outward sign of my Trekophilia was my personalized license plate and its "Carship Enterprise" frame. I also dated, had a life, and got married.

Now Trekkies want to do the same, and a new dating service promises to take them where few of the men have gone before:

By day, 28-year-old Scott Josephson is an educational software writer. By night, or during any of his free time for that matter, he is a Trekkie.

In fact, Josephson's obsession with "Star Trek" has evolved to such a degree that he is now attempting to watch all the TV episodes, from the original version all the way through "Enterprise" — in chronological order. But "Star Trek" is not the only thing on Josephson's mind these days.

He is also trying to find a girlfriend.

You know, it seems to me that Josephson's two pursuits might be mutually exclusive. If he wants to watch all of the TV shows from the various series in chronolohgical order, that would take up most of his free time. That may be why he has little success even with Internet dating sites:

"I am not doing the bar and club scene, so it is not that easy for me [to meet people,]" said Josephson in an interview with ABC News. "I have tried some dating sites with minimal success. I am just not finding that person unique enough to date me."

Fortunately for Josephson and the many "Star Trek"-loving seeking light saber-wielding/video game-playing among us, the answer may now be just a mouse click away. It's sweetongeeks.com, a new dating site that encourages its members to embrace the geek in all of us.

Actually, this is a brilliant marketing move for dating services. As the founders of this service argue, the same impulses that dominate the normal dating scene also dominate the on-line services -- an emphasis on looks and income, if not initially on skills. That tends to make every dating service more or less the same, unless they explicitly specialize -- and even then, the same dynamics hold true within that specialization.

It will be interesting to see whether the same holds true for self-described geeks. The early adopters will probably remain on board with the concept, but human nature being what it is, that may get diluted in direct proportion to the success of the site. Men and women will follow cultural imperatives in the long run, and beautiful geeks who earn a good living will likely still get better results than those who lack physical beauty and/or social skills.

In the end, though, it takes commitment to engaging in social activities and honing social skills enough to attract a mate. It's hard to do that when one has set a goal to watch 400 hours or so in television episodes.

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Comments (12)

Posted by Cybrludite [TypeKey Profile Page] | August 15, 2007 7:29 AM

Main problem with this is the same reason that trekkies would be going there: guys out number girls by a minimum of five to one in that social setting. You've got better chances of meeting someone with similar interests there, but the ladies are going to be able to get the pick of the litter, so to speak. Guys tend to outnumber the ladies on dating sites even without that demographic skewing. That said, this guy sounds like he'd have trouble finding a date at the Mustang Ranch. With a platnum Master Card and a thick roll of c-notes...

Posted by RickM | August 15, 2007 7:46 AM

They had Light Sabers on Star Trek?

Posted by Captain Ed | August 15, 2007 7:46 AM

Cyberludite,

Everyone has trouble finding a date at the Mustang Ranch -- it closed years ago after the feds shut it down. But maybe that's where this guy has been going ...

Posted by Cybrludite [TypeKey Profile Page] | August 15, 2007 7:56 AM

Actually, it's back in business. The feds shut it down when they were unable to run it profitably after taking it over for back taxes. It's back in private hands now, if you'll pardon the double entendre.

Posted by Ray | August 15, 2007 8:08 AM

This guy has been spending too much time looking for Orion slave girls. Or perhaps he's Vulcan and only needs a date once every seven years?

Posted by negentropy | August 15, 2007 1:32 PM

So that's what starfleet_dude does in his spare time. Haven't seen him lately, must be gearing up for the marathon.

Posted by docjim505 | August 15, 2007 4:12 PM

Cap'n Ed wrote:

In the end, though, it takes commitment to engaging in social activities and honing social skills enough to attract a mate.

So, you're saying the hours and hours and HOURS I've spent at the gym this past year have been wasted??? Dammit...

Posted by olddeadmeat | August 15, 2007 8:43 PM

Hiya Docjim: the only reason I ever went to the gym was to admire the female forms on display.

Fortunately, I found a wife who will go to horror movies with me, and I am the envy of all the guys at church.

My brother and my son both love cooking, and apparently sauteed onions is a better aphrodisiac than any cologne.

Hmmm... wonder if sweetonchefs is available?

Posted by jaeger51 | August 15, 2007 8:46 PM

Actually, seen the original series lately at all? It's hysterical! They did the best they could but....check the HUGE warning lights on the consoles..must have full size light bulbs in them...and my personal favorite...something goes wrong with the multi-light speed interstellar starship- and Spock pulls off a baseboard and fixes the problem by jumping wires together with his FINGERS. So future tech is going to be a lot like a 48 Pontiac? Cool...

Posted by docjim505 | August 16, 2007 12:33 PM

ODM,

Ooooooh, yeah! Stairmaster and spandex. They go together like peanut butter and jelly, or pizza and beer, or bikinis and jello...

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