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

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291–300 of 508 posts

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

#291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get why Match.com, OkCupid should converge to a Tinder-like working model if they share ownership. I guess that there are different niches of people for those different websites/apps, no?

Perhaps so that later on they can transition all OKC users onto Tinder and maintain only one product?

Use profiles from one site as basis for fake profiles on another site, and when someone responds to those profiles, mail the user to pressure them to also join the other site.

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

#292
post #203

I've tried a number of dating websites in the past year, and all of them are like this. First and foremost: No matter how hard they try to hide it, the male/female balance on all straight dating sites is completely off. I'd say it's about 80% male. So most of them fill with fake accounts to get the balance backs. The matching algorithms don't really exist, they are extremely primitive and usually optimised for engage…

> First and foremost: No matter how hard they try to hide it, the male/female balance on all straight dating sites is completely off. I'd say it's about 80% male. So most of them fill with fake accounts to get the balance backs. In my empirical observation it is not correct. Dating is local. The proportion of men and women on the sites in a locality will roughly match the proportion of men to women in the dating pool…

I agree that dating is basically marketing for yourself.

But dating sites are there for those who are generally bad at that. The requirement of marketing 101 to be successful on a dating site kind of defeats the purpose.

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

#293
post #287

There is only one universal law that applies to online dating, and that is: women don't need it as much as men. For women, online dating just doesn't make sense. Even on Tinder, where the ratio is kinda okay, women are bombarded with messages and likes. To the point that they can't even respond to everyone even if they wanted to. This means men are left with unresponsive women and just start to send cheaper pick up l…

'Conclusion: it really doesn't work for 90% of men.' Thanks for that. I recently tried Match.com for a couple of weeks and came to the conclusion that I am some kind of misfit. As it turns out, I may be normal after all?

You may be a misfit for different reasons though. Do not lose hope.

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

#294
post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the idea behind bumble. AFAIK men and women rate each other similarly to Tinder (yes/no). However, when a match occurs, women have to send the first message. This doesn't solve the gender inbalance though. This problem is much more difficult to solve, and requires further homogenization (?) of the male and female gender role. This should be one of the more important challenges of our time. Lonelyness and sexua…

Bumble's rule is that Men are not even allowed to initiate contact. This is gender-based. Given everything else happening in the world around gender discrimination, I find it interesting that a discussion around Bumble's practises has not come up. Maybe it's because as humans we are not always internally consistent with how we apply our logic to the world.

Bumble was founded because online dating is broken to a degree. Of course they're going to go to extreme measures to attempt to solve it.

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

#295
Dating threads on HN honestly could be confused for incel message boards on Reddit.

Some real quotes from this thread:

1. "As a male, it becomes very difficult to stand out if you are actually interested in someone."

2. "I know a few women that use Tinder: they are alone, late thirties and never got anything serious out of Tinder, but they use it to reassure their attractiveness"

3. "Bumble's rule is that Men are not even allowed to initiate contact...Given everything else happening in the world around gender discrimination, I find it interesting that a discussion around Bumble's practises has not come up."

4. "It's more like most women will go for 20% of the men. If you're part of the 80% you'll feel alone."

5. "All dating apps are filled with fakes and scams mostly perpetrated by those who own the app to milk you of your money."

6. "They're playing with people's emotions and not just giving them nothing - they're abusing people's most basic need of feeling loved."

Burner account because this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but guys: grow up. Stop whining. Stop blaming women -- they pursue the most attractive males just like you pursue the most attractive women, it's normal.

If you want to improve your dating prospects, get in shape. Anyone can get in shape, doesn't matter how rich or successful or handsome your face is.

Second, improve your social skills / join something. Volunteer somewhere. Join a run or hiking club. Don't just sit behind your computer and foam at the mouth how all the "Chads" are taking all the "Staceys".

HN has, IMHO, the best commentary about tech on the internet. And the absolute worst commentary on dating.

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

#296

There is only one universal law that applies to online dating, and that is: women don't need it as much as men. For women, online dating just doesn't make sense. Even on Tinder, where the ratio is kinda okay, women are bombarded with messages and likes. To the point that they can't even respond to everyone even if they wanted to. This means men are left with unresponsive women and just start to send cheaper pick up l…

I wonder why they don't limit the number of messages allowed per day. Say you only get 2.

Because that would hurt engagement, and free dating apps rely on that. Remember, if something is free, then you are the product.

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

#297
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bit presumptuous to assume the OP is a gay male, no?

how does giving an anecdote about a dating app experience presume anything about the OP?

Scruff is a gay dating app, and those are very different from their straight counterparts. Any anecdote about them is basically irrelevant to straight folks.

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

#298
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okcuipd (and Sparknotes!) co-founder Christian Rudder wrote an article entitled "Why You Should Never Pay For Online Dating" saying exactly that. When Match Group acquired them, they took it down. I found a mirror, though. https://web.archive.org/web/20190429100515/https://static.iz...

That's an amazing article. (Like, good enough that I'm not just upvoting you, but also telling everyone else to read it. It's worth it.) I had no idea the numbers were that bad. And I can see why it got taken down after the acquisition.

It's really too bad. Before they were acquired, they had all kinds of data-driven articles/discussions like this. Some really pissed people off too (mainly because they didn't like the data revealed). This was back in the day when OkCupid still had old-school forums. It seems like you can't even find any data-related articles before 2016. How things have changed. Really sad.

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

#299
post #20

I think it's a fatal flaw in the dating site business model, to be honest. Their incentive is for you to stay on the site for as long as possible. If you could find a relationship quickly and then they would leave the site quickly. This would reduce the amount of ad and subscription revenue, in addition to reducing the size of the pool of "potential matches", discouraging those who have more trouble finding someone.

Well I met my wife with OKCupid so can't complain! It really worked for me.

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

#300

Dating threads on HN honestly could be confused for incel message boards on Reddit. Some real quotes from this thread: 1. "As a male, it becomes very difficult to stand out if you are actually interested in someone." 2. "I know a few women that use Tinder: they are alone, late thirties and never got anything serious out of Tinder, but they use it to reassure their attractiveness" 3. "Bumble's rule is that Men are not…

>If you want to improve your dating prospects, get in shape. Anyone can get in shape, doesn't matter how rich or successful or handsome your face is.

>Second, improve your social skills / join something.

Yes to both of these. Dating or not these are vital in life.

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