Some "purity tests" are serious, some esoteric, some are just bizarre, but there's no denying their popularity. Sites like the Armory (http://www.armory.com/tests) host and have links to literally hundreds of different tests on every possible subject imaginable, everything from sex to computers to Gilligan's Island. They're closely related to the ever-popular personality tests[?].
Most purity tests have possible scores anywhere from 1 to 99%, but most scores in well-designed tests are designed to fall between 40-60% pure/corrupt (standard distribution curve). Purity tests ask numerous (sometimes embarrassing) questions of their users, and as they say, all technicalities count.
Extremely popular among people aged 13-40, purity tests are the subject of much discussion and quite a few parties. It is common to post purity test scores, discuss them with friends, and even plan to 'improve' them, using the purity test itself as a 'checklist' of things to do/try. They are easily obtained using any search engine (if you can find this article, you can find a purity test).
More than just a passing fad, purity tests are a good way to get anonymous information about the denizens of the internet. One purity-type test is actually an AI experiment attempting to identify sex by the answers given to questions.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump