Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

One of the biggest problems is fake profiles. You can go through a batch, especially on Bumble or Tinder, and just swipe left and mutter “fake” non-stop.

This makes me believe the membership numbers are inflated with fake or marketing profiles to entice you to spend money.

OKCupid was one of the better ideas because if someone didn’t answer at least 100 questions, you could just skip them as probably fake.

I think meetups are the answer. Join activity groups that you’re interested in and just be yourself. Love will find you.




> This makes me believe the membership numbers are inflated with fake or marketing profiles to entice you to spend money.

About twenty years ago a friend of mine had a part time job that she was paid to respond to DMs on fake profiles on a dating site, basically "string them along and then slow ghost".

They even had a specific interface for her and other girls (hell, doesn't even need to be) to do this fake DM farming.


If this were the case, I feel such practices and admin interfaces would have leaked by now.


For what it's worth, this was sugardaddy4me.com, nearly 20 years ago. Facebook was embryonic. Twitter? What's a twitter?

Who wants to go around accusing websites like that of "Hey, I signed up, but all the girls seemed fake"? Some, maybe, but very much the minority.


I'm not talking about users accusing the company of faking them from the outside. I'm saying if that string them along system was real at these modern companies someone inside would have exposed one by now. It would be more than just a leak, it would be illegal, deceptive business practices, false advertising, bait and switch. That's probably why they don't exist. No way all these apps with all these employees over all these years managed to keep everyone who worked on the shady illegal systems from spilling the beans. Uber god view was a huge deal. Tinder having systems and paying people to deceive people so they spend money would land C level execs on the bread line. Maybe it does exist, wouldn't surprise me, but I have doubts since we've never seen any evidence




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: