I think the important thing is having real responses from real people, and genuine interaction and discussion, whether or not that takes place through the internet or in your local pub. You can find a lot of people on HN, for instance, who are happy to lose points or even risk bans just to say what's on their mind in the event that it's unpopular.
Meanwhile, broader society (read: 19 year old girls) are fundamentally very susceptible to simplistic ranking strategies. HotOrNot, a grossly misogynistic, shallow, frankly evil concept piece built around ranking people's appearances, actually paved the way for everything that came after it in social media and online dating. The reason they're so susceptible is that they haven't had the experience of living in an offline world yet where they're seriously listened to and treated as something other than an object, or worse, an Object().
Meanwhile, broader society (read: 19 year old girls) are fundamentally very susceptible to simplistic ranking strategies. HotOrNot, a grossly misogynistic, shallow, frankly evil concept piece built around ranking people's appearances, actually paved the way for everything that came after it in social media and online dating. The reason they're so susceptible is that they haven't had the experience of living in an offline world yet where they're seriously listened to and treated as something other than an object, or worse, an Object().