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Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

nytimes.com

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Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#101

Post by scottmcf »

_jal wrote: post #83
ravenstine wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see you're getting downvoted, which is funny because I've proposed the same idea on HN a few times and a lot of people thought it was a good idea. Maybe the weight thing isn't necessary with everything else in play, but otherwise I think this is something that should be tried. Yet nobody has bitten. Perhaps that means it's either not viable or of interest to investors.

Perhaps the concept of outsourcing the vetting of potential mates' physical characteristics strikes folks as disturbing.

Dating apps are creepy enough as they are.

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#102

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

jimmaswell wrote: post #64
lone_haxx0r wrote: post #47

Do you think that an open source dating app or a decentralized dating protocol would be a good idea?

Dating apps are a failed idea. If you're a man and have any imperfections appearance-wise you'll go on these sites and get no responses. In college I did hundreds of swipes and sent a bunch of messages on OKC and got nothing because I wasn't a human Ken doll. I could've spent all day in the gym and gotten plastic surgery and spent hundreds on whatever wardrobe was in style but why do all that for people who can't app…

I'm sympathetic but I disagree they're a failed idea. Far from perfect, but I know plenty of folks with appearance imperfections that have had great success on dating sites -- some now married to their matches, with kids!

Anecdotally, the most successful (in terms of turn around, partners, matches, dates, etc.) male I know is overweight, has poor hygiene, and is somewhat misogynistic.

Conversely, I know perfectly handsome men who could be models who strike out all the time.

Sure, good looking people might get more matches, but do they universally convert at a higher rate? No. If anything, they spend more time interacting with these apps in a less productive manner.

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#103

Post by batiudrami »

fragmede wrote: post #60
dvt wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of thoughts on this, so excuse the long post (maybe I'll write a blog post on it at some point): First, there's a clear (and artificial) skewing of supply-demand curves. There are probably like 30 (active) guys for every 1 (active) girl on these apps (looking at you, Tinder). This creates an imbalance where women are incredibly selective while men end up being incredibly non-selective (e.g. swipe right o…

I believe incentivizing meeting IRL is the lynch pin to disrupting the existing market. My idea is that at some point after the initial match, both users put in $5. Doing so gets them a coupon/something worth $15 at an app-chosen local restaurant or bar. If one person does not show up, the other person gets $7. (The important part is those prices relative to each other rather than those specific values.) The way this…

There used to be a "dating" site like this for groups of 3 caleld Grouper[1]. Your group and their group each put in enough for the first round of drinks at the bar and it was up to everyone to see how the night went. Not as a group sex or swingers pitch, just you-and-two-mates meet someone-and-their-two-mates for a drink and see what happens. I always really liked the idea.

Amusingly, venues took issue with people shagging in the loos and one wondered if it was actually a front for prostitution.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grouper_social_club

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#104

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

ddenisen wrote: post #100
jimmaswell wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dating apps are a failed idea. If you're a man and have any imperfections appearance-wise you'll go on these sites and get no responses. In college I did hundreds of swipes and sent a bunch of messages on OKC and got nothing because I wasn't a human Ken doll. I could've spent all day in the gym and gotten plastic surgery and spent hundreds on whatever wardrobe was in style but why do all that for people who can't app…

So I've had an interesting experience recently. Like you, I've used Tinder and other dating apps fairly unsuccessfully in the past (close to zero matches, those who match don't respond, yadda yadda). I live in the US (West Coast), but I'm originally from Russia, and I finally got to go back home (a major Russian city) this summer for a few weeks' vacation. On a suggestion of a longtime friend I've met with there, I'v…

AIUI, foreigners are generally promoted by the matching algorithms.

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#106

Post by jimmaswell »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #102
jimmaswell wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dating apps are a failed idea. If you're a man and have any imperfections appearance-wise you'll go on these sites and get no responses. In college I did hundreds of swipes and sent a bunch of messages on OKC and got nothing because I wasn't a human Ken doll. I could've spent all day in the gym and gotten plastic surgery and spent hundreds on whatever wardrobe was in style but why do all that for people who can't app…

I'm sympathetic but I disagree they're a failed idea. Far from perfect, but I know plenty of folks with appearance imperfections that have had great success on dating sites -- some now married to their matches, with kids! Anecdotally, the most successful (in terms of turn around, partners, matches, dates, etc.) male I know is overweight, has poor hygiene, and is somewhat misogynistic. Conversely, I know perfectly han…

Did the successful one flaunt some status symbol in his pictures or bio?

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#107

Post by newnewpdro »

jdm2212 wrote: post #81
1024core wrote: post #67

Back when I was single, I was on a dozen dating sites. It was frustrating as heck to keep getting led on by fake profiles. eHarmony is the worst: they actually sold my email address to spammers. How do I know this? I have my own domain, and use a unique (hard to guess) email address for each site I have to give an email address to. So it was trivial to nail eHarmony as the culprit. Someone has already linked to the O…

I do the same thing with a gmail address -- just do myemail+uniqueid@gmail.com, because gmail drops everything after the + for routing the email but still tells you which address it was sent to.

Unfortunately, being part of the standard, it's become fairly common to strip this from email addresses.

It's more effective to have an entire domain at your disposal and just invent $vendor-specific-thing@mydomain.com whenever an email address is needed. On the server end all you need is a catchall to handle it, and you can blackhole whatever addresses become spam magnets (while also knowing which vendor's responsible).

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#108

Post by wmp56 »

jimmaswell wrote: post #64
lone_haxx0r wrote: post #47

Do you think that an open source dating app or a decentralized dating protocol would be a good idea?

Dating apps are a failed idea. If you're a man and have any imperfections appearance-wise you'll go on these sites and get no responses. In college I did hundreds of swipes and sent a bunch of messages on OKC and got nothing because I wasn't a human Ken doll. I could've spent all day in the gym and gotten plastic surgery and spent hundreds on whatever wardrobe was in style but why do all that for people who can't app…

I think women mostly look at social status of men. Appearance is only a plus. An ideal candidate is a wealthy gentleman with manners.

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#110

Post by Impossible »

This happened to me when I tried subscribing to match years ago. Near the end of my 6 month period I got the first introduction from a woman after months of rarely getting responses. This email never resulted in anything. Paid dating sites all ended up being worthless to me and the only dates and reasonable correspondence I got on was from OKCupid (where I met my wife).
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