eHarmony Matching Service - 20% of People "Unmatchable"

What a honking joke. Have you seen this ad? The good "Doktor" on TV saying he's matched more marriages than any other on-line dating service? Then they show the disgusting couch potatos huggin' on each other like they just got out of prison?

Take the free personality profile - "A $40 dollar value..."

Not only did it say I was a moral traditionalist seeking stable family values but I'm unmatchable and their service would be of no use to me.

My money's no good at eHarmony! Thank God.

Unable to Match You At This Time!

eHarmony is based upon a complex matching system developed through extensive testing of married individuals. One of the requirements for it to work successfully is for participants to fall into our rigorously defined profiles. If we aren't able to match a user well using these profiles, the most considerate approach is to inform them early in the process...

Unfortunately, we are not able to make our profiles work for you. Our matching system is not suitable for about 20% of potential users, so 1 in 5 people simply would not benefit from our service. We hope that you understand that we regret our inability to provide service for you at this time.

Take the test! I wonder if we're all clinically iNsAnE and doomed to walk the earth alone.

Or just me.

Originally posted by RANT

Unable to Match You At This Time!

eHarmony is based upon a complex matching system developed through extensive testing of married individuals. One of the requirements for it to work successfully is for participants to fall into our rigorously defined profiles. If we aren't able to match a user well using these profiles, the most considerate approach is to inform them early in the process...

Unfortunately, we are not able to make our profiles work for you. Our matching system is not suitable for about 20% of potential users, so 1 in 5 people simply would not benefit from our service. We hope that you understand that we regret our inability to provide service for you at this time.

Is that the eHarmony equivalent of "It's not you--it's me"?

I only "know" you from your posts, but I think that a personality algorithm probably wouldn't capture the charm of your snarkish intellect. I'm not sure what eHarmony's "rigorously defined profiles" are, but IMHO it is probably a good thing that your personality can't be described as 'standard'.

www.nerve.com is a pretty smart dating site--no "complex matching system" or "extensive testing", but since when is love scientific anyway?

Originally posted by lmgnyc
Is that the eHarmony equivalent of "It's not you--it's me"?

Exactly.

I wasn't seriously interested in anything but what the free test would say, so my fatal flaw was probably being too honest.

Why hide tendencies toward sociopathy? Isn't that just what a real sociopath would do?

I agree with your assessment of computerized personality diagnosis lmgnyc. Beware the "standard" personality. They'll cut your penis off while you sleep.

Still odd to me though, they turn away people at all. It is a business after all.

Or is it?

Probably a cover. I bet it's a government database for maintaining a psychological profile on the populace and recruiting potential operatives. Find a nice patsy and embed a "matched" mate for observation and to push them over the edge. Yea, that's it.

I'm not too paranoid to match, I'm just too smart for them! :p

(What a cool idea for a movie plot though, huh?)

Yeah, honesty and dating are two things that don't really go together. I'm not saying that lying is okay, but it is a better idea to let neuroses unfold over time (hint: on a first date, it's not a good idea to talk about your anxiety attacks, how you follow people who might be terrorists through the subway, or how there is a history of mental illness in your family... not that I have done this personally... )

I just assume that everyone has some kind of mental disorder, cross my fingers and hope that it doesn't have a body count. The ones that are too normal freak me out--somewhere down the line you'll discover that he spends thousands of dollars a month on subscriptions to animal fetish websites or that it isn't a coincidence that you seem to run into into him whenever you leave your apartment, your office, the gym, your friend's house, when visiting relatives in different states, on business trips to Tokyo...

I'm not sure why eHarmony turns people away--I can't imagine they have integrity. You may be on to something about the government front thing. I think they might be gathering information. You know how they are doing psychological testing on schoolkids and tracking them through college--what about adults? Marrieds tend to have health insurance and the government could develop profiles using medical and mental health claims history... but singles are the largest group without coverage--we are under the radar. And singles tend to be the group most likely to be serial killers, terrorists, and other assorted criminals.

And because you pay for eHarmony with your credit card, your profile can be mapped back to your credit history and social security number... although this probably could be accomplished just by linking your email address to prior online purchases, so even those who have taken the free personality profile could be tracked. eHarmony, match.com, lavalife.com--any of the sites that you have to pay for and fill out some kind of profile could be used for this purpose...

Than again, I don't know how accurate using dating site profiles would be. Isn't it funny how most men are 6'2, someone all of their friends say is attractive, and have a full head of hair and most women weigh 105 lbs and resemble Carmen Electra? Judging by this data, the companies that make TrimSpa & Rogaine should be out of business...

But this definitely smells like a government project. Spend billions of dollars building a huge covert database and when it comes time to use it, homeland security agents are staking out the beaches at 6pm and checking ASPCA adoption records because the terrorist that they are looking for--who oddly enough is a dead-ringer for Brad Pitt, loves puppydogs and enjoys long walks on the sand at sunset.

I would have loved to see Condi Rice face a Senate hearing to explain that intelligence failure... now THAT'S a movie...

reply to post by RANT

No, me too! According to them, I'm "Fair, Considered, Collaborative, Responsive, Sensible, Diplomatic, Contemplative, Indulgent, Rational" hence I am unmatchable, haha. What a bunch of clowns. _javascript:icon('')

Rant just get it over and done with and post your pic.






[edit on 8-10-2008 by riley]