'CrushFinder' goes global

This year, you’re in luck: CrushFinder is going global.

Goodcrush.com, a new version of the site developed in 2007 by then-USG vice president Josh Weinstein ’09, has expanded to include 19 campuses nationwide.

“We’re really excited about bringing the site to students across the country,” Joseph Perla ’09 said. He added that he and Weinstein are currently putting the finishing touches on the website, which will launch on Feb. 13 in time for Valentine’s Day.

Moving CrushFinder beyond FitzRandolph Gate required a bit of tweaking, Weinstein explained. The original site allowed University students to list the netIDs of up to five crushes. Anonymous e-mails were sent to the students listed, and, if two students listed each other as crushes, the website would reveal their identities to each other with a congratulatory e-mail.

Rather than having users find their crushes by using netIDs, the new site allows users to identify their crushes by e-mail address.

“You can crush anyone as long as you have their e-mail address,” Weinstein said, acknowledging that the new system has drawbacks and benefits. “It’s good because you can crush other people. It’s bad because it can reduce the number of matches.”

Perla said he hopes to alleviate this problem by allowing universities to customize the site to suit their own student body and “[encourage] students to crush people in [their] own schools.” He added, though, that students would also be able to crush former high school classmates or friends at other institutions.

The initial reception of the site from other colleges’ student governments was mixed, Weinstein said. Some were very excited, he explained, but others did not express interest in undertaking such a large project.

Dartmouth student assembly president Molly Bode decided to involve her school in the project, saying that the site would be fun and a “great way to spread the love on Valentine’s Day.”

At Princeton, love has already bloomed. More than 1,000 students have used CrushFinder in past years, Perla said.

One name remains unrivaled, though, among the many Princeton students who have used CrushFinder. For the past two years, Jon Hwang ’09 has been the most-crushed student on campus, earning him the nickname “Crushmaster” on the facebook.com group created for those who have “crushed” Hwang.

“I am honored by the dubious distinction that the Princeton community has conferred on me for the past two years,” Hwang said in an e-mail. “If I am found worthy, then I shall bear the title again, but should another be found to take my place, I would be glad to pass on the mantle.”

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The site may not be an effective way to find true love, Daniel Douglas ’09 said.

“I’ve never used [CrushFinder to] try to find a crush,” Douglas explained. “It’s always been a big joke to enter Jon Hwang’s name.”

“Most people I know [who] use it have inside jokes with friends,” he added.

Katie Rodriguez ’11 said she is hesitant to forego other means of matchmaking in favor of GoodCrush. “It just doesn’t seem legitimate enough for people to use for people they actually have a crush on,” she noted.

But Weinstein is optimistic.

“If [GoodCrush] can make one good match, we’ve already made the world a better place,” he said.

Weinstein said he expects playboyu.com to profile GoodCrush later this week.