There are many reasons to pay for a dating service beyond the number of users, such as a preference in any of these categories:
1) communication process / privacy controls
2) interface features (filtering options, etc.)
3) advertised or implied goal of the service (marriage, hook-ups, etc.)
4) strong concentration of users in your demographic<p>Also, some of the things that the article discussed, like the "desperation feedback loop", apply equally to paid and free dating services.<p>I normally love to read OK Cupid's blog posts, but this one struck me as a little vicious and disingenuous.
Interesting article, it does a lot of analysis then boldy states that you should sign up to okcupid.com instead without a shred of reasoning to back that up?<p>Marketing fail.