THE HOT OR NOT GUYS.(Hot or Not website creators)(Brief Article)

COMMENT

DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS

CHIANTI POSTCARD

THE CREATIVE LIFE

BIG NIGHT

James Hong and his roommate, Jim Young, who live in Mountain View, California, flew into town last week to attend a promotional party for Entertainment Weekly's "It List" issue, the magazine's annual accounting of ineffability in popular culture. James and Jim, who are in their late twenties and have degrees in electrical engineering from Berkeley, are the guys behind last year's "It Web Addiction," Hot or Not, a site where you can post a photograph of yourself and have strangers rate your physical appeal on a scale of one (not) to ten (hot).

James and Jim conceived Hot or Not two years ago, during a bull session about girls, and assumed that only a few friends would ever see it. Since then, more than three million pictures have been posted and more than two billion votes have been tabulated. Initially, James's and Jim's own pictures received disappointingly low scores, but once they added a "Meet the guys that run Hot or Not" link their numbers rose dramatically. James, who is well built and keeps his hair modishly close-cropped, has yet to hook up with a woman through the site. Jim, who is wiry and has long, asymmetrical bangs, has been dating a girl from Florida whom he met after seeing a photo of her on the site dressed as the video-game character Lara Croft.