USG crush website brings love online

When Meera Krishnan '07 checked her e-mail yesterday, she found herself reading an unusual message: an anonymous fellow Princetonian had a crush on her.

Rather than being the victim of a stalker, however, Krishnan was merely a beneficiary of one of the USG's newest projects. In celebration of Valentine's Day, the USG launched "Crush Finder" yesterday, a matchmaking website that notifies students if other students have crushes on them.

"I definitely thought it was fun," said Krishnan, who made the site's "most crushed on" list but added that all the people who sent her crush notifications were her friends. "The USG should do it every year."

The website allows students to list the netids of five students on whom they have crushes. Those students then receive e-mails telling them that an anonymous student has a crush on them.

If two people have entered each other's names, the website sends another e-mail revealing the students' identities to each other. Students can only log onto the website once.

The site, established by USG vice president Josh Weinstein '09, was among the 61 ideas for campus events and improvements presented at Sunday night's USG meeting. According to Weinstein, the website is an example of the type of small-scale projects that the USG is planning to provide students with additional opportunities for fun and conversation.

In this regard, "Crush Finder" must be seen as a success: The campus has been abuzz with discussion about the website. As of 11:45 p.m. last night, more than 1,100 people had submitted their crushes, and there had been about 730 matches. The numbers of participants rose throughout Wednesday evening.

When students log onto "Crush Finder," they are greeted by a Valentine-appropriate pink and red page, with fields prompting students to enter their own netids and the netids of their crushes.

The page also sports links to an explanation of the mechanics of the site, as well as a list of the netids of the 10 crushfinder participants who have been "crushed" by the most people.

For most of Wednesday evening, the reigning "most crushed on" student was Jonathan Hwang '09, who said that his roommates "engineered the whole thing." Hwang's roommates contacted friends, telling them to include him on their crush lists.

"I find it humorous," Hwang said. "It wouldn't normally be something I'd participate in, but it was fun." He added that trying to guess who had listed him as a crush contributed to the excitement.

Weinstein said the website was inspired by a similar project he remembered from his high school. He said that for Valentine's Day, he wanted to provide students with an outlet to "express their crushes in a no-lose situation."

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Because the website only allows students to enter their crushes once, Weinstein said he expects that the site's popularity will only hold up for a few more days. But, he said, the "strong demand for continuation" may lead to a monthly version of "Crush Finder," which would allow students to fill out a different list of five crushes every month.

Weinstein, who coded the website himself, added that producing a monthly version will take more technical work but that "it's very possible" that the website will continue in some form after the Valentine's Day buzz dies down.

Weinstein added that he's been receiving plenty of e-mail feedback. "A lot of it is people begging me to tell them who their crush is," he said. Unfortunately for them, he had to decline their requests.

Amelia Runyan '07 is one of the many curious students who can't find out who some of her admirers are. "I'm dying of curiosity," she said. "Whoever they're from, as a Valentine-less senior, those e-mails were definitely the highlight of my day!"