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OkCupid's “Removed” Visitor API

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Re: OkCupid's “Removed” Visitor API

#71

Post by 616c »

Implicated wrote: post #13

How does this even happen? How can the developers behind an endpoint like this not confirm/test that it requires permissions/authentication to consume? (I mean, look at all that data...) Amateurs I can understand - but OKCupid has been around long enough they shouldn't be employing people of that nature. Is there no code review process? This is just nuts.

I do appsec for a living now and it is amusing how few people question stuff. I have made a name in a small firm by finding something easy, but usually severe, and coaching coworkers who had no idea. Of them I one of the most junior, and we replaced security people from before and the most senior has been here 2-3 years. Some of the stuff I'm busy writing up has 5-10 precedence in the company and upsets lazy culture and repeat copy pasta.

And I will tell you on sprints where anyone is busy that team introduces something sloppy or nutty when one of us does not watch closely and ask, sometimes both. But when I point things out people are eager to roll it back.

Never attribute to evil that which comes from ... you get the idea!

Re: OkCupid's “Removed” Visitor API

#72

Post by odammit »

Thriptic wrote: post #56
swang wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah it was easy to modify it in the query string.

mind elaborating?

It wasn’t a parameter but a trick.

This is a little fucked up:

You go through their rating game where you can rate people 1 to 5 stars.

(Optional): You rate everyone you find attractive five stars no matter how attractive because you’re going to need a way to differentiate later...

Go through and rate a bunch of ugly people four stars. A shit load.

When you get rated four stars or higher you get a notification. Those people usually come back and rate you. Hopefully four stars or higher.

So now you’ve crowd sourced ugly people to say you’re good looking but that ugly person is never going to get the feature turned on for them because nobody else is saying they’re good looking.

Now you show up to the hottest people and the hottest people show up to you.

I’ve done this a few times over the years with burner accounts to test it and new accounts just because I canceled an old one.

It takes a few hours of rating unattractive people. I usually just did it flipping through on the toilet for about a week.

If you don’t care about keeping track of the five star people you can just write a script to four or five star people at random And let it run overnight.

Re: OkCupid's “Removed” Visitor API

#73

Post by abledon »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #11
jakobegger wrote: post #10

Where does the „body type“ data come from? Do they ask you for your weight when you sign up?

You specify it as part of your profile. If you pay for A-List (paid plan), you can filter potential matches by body type. Disclosure: Paying OKCupid customer. I don't mind paying to support the service, it's provided ongoing value to us.

"""it's provided ongoing value to us"""

Is that a multi-user account? Or are you guys swingers or something?

Re: OkCupid's “Removed” Visitor API

#74

Post by toomuchtodo »

abledon wrote: post #73
toomuchtodo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You specify it as part of your profile. If you pay for A-List (paid plan), you can filter potential matches by body type. Disclosure: Paying OKCupid customer. I don't mind paying to support the service, it's provided ongoing value to us.

"""it's provided ongoing value to us""" Is that a multi-user account? Or are you guys swingers or something?

Polyamorous couple. Swingers usually stick to lifestyle sites specific to that endeavor.

Re: OkCupid's “Removed” Visitor API

#75

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #11
jakobegger wrote: post #10

Where does the „body type“ data come from? Do they ask you for your weight when you sign up?

You specify it as part of your profile. If you pay for A-List (paid plan), you can filter potential matches by body type. Disclosure: Paying OKCupid customer. I don't mind paying to support the service, it's provided ongoing value to us.

How well does that filter work when so many people lie to themselves about their body type?

I've seen too many 300+ lb women describe themselves as "average".

Re: OkCupid's “Removed” Visitor API

#76

Post by toomuchtodo »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #75
toomuchtodo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You specify it as part of your profile. If you pay for A-List (paid plan), you can filter potential matches by body type. Disclosure: Paying OKCupid customer. I don't mind paying to support the service, it's provided ongoing value to us.

How well does that filter work when so many people lie to themselves about their body type? I've seen too many 300+ lb women describe themselves as "average".

Works well. Folks are mostly honest, you’re going to meet in person eventually.

Re: OkCupid's “Removed” Visitor API

#77

Post by [deleted] »

corobo wrote: post #16
toomuchtodo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You specify it as part of your profile. If you pay for A-List (paid plan), you can filter potential matches by body type. Disclosure: Paying OKCupid customer. I don't mind paying to support the service, it's provided ongoing value to us.

I have to wonder how effective paying for a dating site really is. Presumably if you find a partner through the site you stop paying? Aside from a token few they can blog about, what's their incentive to be successful?

[deleted]

Re: OkCupid's “Removed” Visitor API

#78

Post by esrauch »

odammit wrote: post #72
Thriptic wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

mind elaborating?

It wasn’t a parameter but a trick. This is a little fucked up: You go through their rating game where you can rate people 1 to 5 stars. (Optional): You rate everyone you find attractive five stars no matter how attractive because you’re going to need a way to differentiate later... Go through and rate a bunch of ugly people four stars. A shit load. When you get rated four stars or higher you get a notification. Those…

This sounds like it shouldn't work:

- If it starts showing you to unusually attractive people wont those people rate you unusually low until you reach some equilibrium?

- I would expect any feature determining the top most attractive should use a weighting of the raters (like PageRank)

- I would expect OKC to try to be optimizing for total matches: that means they should have some system for "you rate a certain cluster of people unusually high, we should direct you to that set of people since the other people you rate high are already saturated"

Re: OkCupid's “Removed” Visitor API

#79

Post by user5994461 »

ricksebak wrote: post #39
corobo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to wonder how effective paying for a dating site really is. Presumably if you find a partner through the site you stop paying? Aside from a token few they can blog about, what's their incentive to be successful?

OKCupid actually did a blog post about this, which they have since deleted. Here's a copy of it. http://static.izs.me/why-you-should-never-pay-for-online-dat...

It has nothing to do with paying vs free.

The issue is websites like match keeping profiles that are inactive or can't reply back.

Re: OkCupid's “Removed” Visitor API

#80

Post by user5994461 »

corobo wrote: post #16
toomuchtodo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You specify it as part of your profile. If you pay for A-List (paid plan), you can filter potential matches by body type. Disclosure: Paying OKCupid customer. I don't mind paying to support the service, it's provided ongoing value to us.

I have to wonder how effective paying for a dating site really is. Presumably if you find a partner through the site you stop paying? Aside from a token few they can blog about, what's their incentive to be successful?

If you're any successful, the subscription is negligible. Wait to see how much you spend for a pair of drinks on a first date.
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