How to rate a date

As many Backbytes readers are hopeless romantics, we pass on the news of research from Drexel University in Philadelphia to show that, depending on the site you visit, you have a wildly different conception of what “success” is in an online dating experience.

We thought that guys had exactly one definition, but we’re meant to leave the smutty jokes until the end. So 84 per cent of users who reported successful experiences on eHarmony were referring to marriage, slightly under half of successful experiences on match.com were marriage, and less than one in four of OkCupid’s successful visitors were referring to marriage.

We’d point out that the clue is in the name, perhaps. You could try surveying whether successful online experiences on xxxhotcheerleaders.com led to marriage and get an even smaller figure – though it would be tricky to do the survey, because visitors tend to stay for no more than five minutes at a time. And they’re a bit distracted.