AmIHotOrNot.com's got competition! I've stumbled upon a similar site, which I think is worth comparing. It's called RateMyFace.com. At first I was quite wary of what the site was trying to accomplish, but I am quite fascinated so far.
Unlike AIHON, you must register to vote! Hmmm...so I registered. Couldn't hurt right? I was asked for my name(which they don't display), a username, password, some other important info, and the all important picture. I must mention that you are also asked to fill out a short profile(anyone up for some matchmaker?). From what I know, though, AIHON has changed to include a profile and messaging system too(the "click to meet" link).
The first thing that catches my eye is the name of the site. Note that it's rate my FACE.com so I assume that they are trying to control for the factor that many people rate the body, and not the face, although you are allowed to submit pictures that include your body as long as the picture is under 50k.
Since I've registered I've decided to subject myself to some scrutiny in the name of more "science". My stats professor would probably be far from proud(I am anything but scientific in my analysis). Anyway, expect more subjectivity than objectivity.
The site is simple, but probably not as simple as I would like. AIHON is much simpler. All one sees at AIHON is one picture at a time. You vote on a scale of 1 to 10 in order to move on to the next picture. No registering required. One can actually sit there for hours just clicking away. I've clicked so many times I've seen the same picture twice, and even three times in one sitting.
RateMyFace does not require you to vote in order to see other people's pictures although it follows the similar 1-10 scale, where higher rating you get, the better looking you are. In fact, after being a member for one day, I've received one "vote for me and I'll vote for you" message, and another "you deserve to be told you are beautiful" message, and only 2 votes. It appears that you might not be voted for if you don't ask for it, which kind of sucks if you are there for the votes. The messaging system is great for meeting people though. The compliment I got was from a 33 year old man, married(yes, this also appears in your profile). I sighed with relief to not have received anything so far that has made me feel uncomfortable. I tell myself I am going to brave another day with my picture posted up at this site(in the name of science); my self-esteem is still intact.
You can view "Top 100" lists at RateMyFace. There is a top 100 Girls, and a top 100 Guys. There's also Most Rated, and Most Recent. Surprisingly, an 8.5 was the highest score for the top 100 Girls. Hmm, nobody is a perfect 10 right? Perhaps RateMyFace is a bit more realistic than AIHON with its voting results, especially since the focus is on the face, and not just whether you are "hot or not"; one can be good looking without being "hot" right?. Ok, here goes the simple stats. Please see the accompanying simple graph for a pictorial version of the following analysis. Assuming that the group of people registered at RateMyFace is a random sample of the population, we can assume that the results are likely to be representative of the population it came from(North America?). Because this is a random and large sample, we can also apply the laws of probability. It is most likely that the majority of the population would receive votes between 4-6(avg good looks). If this was a perfect normal distribution, the mean, median, and the mode would all be equal to 5.5(Thanks to David Medals for pointing out my previous error). Only a small percentage(around 10%) of the sample would fall in the extremes of 1-3 or 8-10, which would correspond to extremely ugly or extremely beautiful.
Of course there may be confounding factors. It could be that only the devastatingly beautiful register at this site, always hungry for compliments, or it could be the beauty challenged in search of that one vote or message that would make him/her feel good about him/herself. Also remember that the picture people submit are to their own discretion. Beautiful people can have ugly pictures, and ugly people may be quite photogenic.
Once again, I believe you have to discover for yourself whether the site deserves greater or lesser merit. Thanks for reading my unscientific, scientific analysis of RateMyFace.com. And for those who are disappointed by AIHON's refusal to post pictures of pets, RateMyPet.com is for you. Take a walk on the wild side!
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