Facebook friends are a non-think button press or in other words, pretty much nothing (unless you keep in contact, and in that case they're just friends)
My idea for the next incidentgate is (and seems kinda silly when typing it) "Hi I remember you from HS and always thought you were kinda cute but I was too shy to talk, would you like to meet up sometime?"
PEDANT EDIT: There's also a few girls from middle school before I moved, (Same city, different school)
I would replace "thought you were kinda cute" with "thought you were really cool/interesting", OkCupid's data shows that women respond negatively to physical compliments.
I've never really tried using Facebook even though I have an active account with a good variety of people. I guess I don't think that "we went to the same middle school together" is a better criterion for a match than "your profile shows we have a ton of things in common". Also, if someone's on a dating site you know that they're actively looking, an...
There's a lot of data and research on what makes people successful at online dating, but I don't know anyone who actually tried to wholeheartedly apply this to themselves. I decided to be that person: I implemented lessons from data, economics, game theory and of course rationality in my profile and strategy and OkCupid. Shockingly, it worked! I got a lot of great dates, learned a ton and found the love of my life. I didn't expect dating to be my "rationalist win", but it happened.
Here's the first part of the story, I hope you'll find some useful tips and maybe a dollop of inspiration among all the silly jokes.
P.S.
Does anyone know who curates the "Latest on rationality blogs" toolbar? What are the requirements to be included?