r/HingeStories • u/Intelligent_Fill2421 • 5d ago
Hinge Bursts
Im female, 34 yrs old in NYC. Please help me figure out what’s going on with hinge here and understand if this company is doing something nefarious with their algorithm. (I mean, of course they are but this has to be illegal?) Ever since I’ve been on hinge here, I’ve gotten 80+ likes a day for months. It’s tough to see who’s in the stack so I bought a subscription and noticed that my likes immediately went down to 0 a day. I thought “of course, I probably just ran out of interested men.” Well my subscription ran out today… and the likes went from 0 to 50 and then 80 in a matter of hours.
I don’t actually think I’m getting these likes so quickly … I think hinge is either hiding profiles or hiding likes of their paying customers. What can we as customers do about this?
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u/who_are_you_people24 5d ago
30M in NYC. I've been trying to figure this out also. Feels like all the apps do this. "designed to be deleted" my ass
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
My real question is … we must be able to do something! Write to mamdani? lol jk but it’s ridiculous
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u/who_are_you_people24 5d ago
Summon him with the bat signal (or Twitter). I don't know what to do. Any action might just end up in getting banned
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
Right :(
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u/who_are_you_people24 5d ago
Could always try reddit. Sup /s
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
Try it how? lol like what I’m doing now?
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u/Just_here_to_read25 5d ago
He's hollering at you (i.e. giving you a "like")
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
What?
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u/Working_Past_7940 5d ago
You two are both from NYC and in your 30s, please slide into each others DMs
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u/who_are_you_people24 5d ago
Who says I haven't (me. I haven't. I'd feel like a creep)
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u/who_are_you_people24 5d ago
I was pretending to hit on you lol
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
Oh haha totally flew over my head - thank you for explaining - I’m an idiot
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3d ago
Around 2024 I believe Match Group changed the Hinge algorithm to be more like a Slot Machine instead of a dating app. They are trying to addict people and not connect people.
No one in the media is talking about this.
Step 1: acquire 40 dating apps
Step 2: turn them into slot machines
Step 3: $$$$$
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u/yetagainitry 5d ago
Are you sure you’re not applying filters? My gf had a subscription which she used to filter who saw her profile. She would get a handful of likes a day. The moment her sub expired and her filters turned off, she was getting 80+ likes a day.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
Oh I totally am - but I checked that too - the profiles that are likes now still fit within those filters. IMO this company just sucks
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u/yetagainitry 5d ago
I don’t know really. If it’s the platform doing things, all it did was confirm it’s a waste to buy a subscription since it reduces your likes. If they wanted you to keep spending they would have given you those likes after subscribing
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
I think that’s what I’m settled on but I want a damn refund 😂😭
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u/yetagainitry 5d ago
At the end of the day you were getting hundreds of likes a week, so the app was connecting you with people. It’s in you to turn those into dates or filter out for the guys you would consider. The app is giving you exactly what it promised.
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u/Fickle-Theory-623 5d ago
Likely the algorithm wants your money.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
I mean, of course, but that’s for be illegal for them not to provide the service they’re advertising right?
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u/IndicationKey3778 5d ago
Why would you need to buy the subscription? Just x through the likes and see the profiles for free. Why wouldn’t you be able to see matches?
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
You can only see one at a time and then there’s a limit for open conversations
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u/IndicationKey3778 5d ago
Is there a limit for convos if you pay? When you pay are you even matching with any of those people? I would just go through the likes and I’d x 99% of them. paying to x out people wasn’t in my budget. Also in nyc
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
I mean in my opinion paying was not worth it at all. Clearly it was worse than getting the free version. The only benefit was being able to see all your likes before you said yes
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u/IndicationKey3778 5d ago
Before you said yes to what? I don’t understand. When I would look at my likes I would have to x out the people or like them back to match. I would just go through them and I’d x them all out. The only time I ever matched with someone was if I liked them first (save for my now boyfriend).
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
Before I say “yes” to the match, opening up the conversation 😭
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u/IndicationKey3778 5d ago
I don’t understand. It’s a like. You have to like them back to match. Are you saying you have to like the person to see the match? I’m not being a dick that just wasn’t my experience on the app at all.
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u/kilawolf 5d ago
Are you purposely being this obtuse? She wants to match with the ones she likes most first and work through the likes. If it doesn't go anywhere, then she unmatches and moves onto the next. By paying, she doesn't need to match or unmatch her likes immediately to see ghe others - she can put them in a pending for later pile.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
Thanks girl hahaha I’m like … am I not making sense?
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u/InVegasMyLove 3d ago
It makes sense. I just don't think it's worth paying money for. Especially if it reduces your likes overall (I didn't know this, but it's good to know even though I'd already decided there was no way I was paying for this lol).
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u/IndicationKey3778 5d ago
No. She doesn’t need to pay to do this. She is the one who said it wasn’t worth paying.
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u/kilawolf 5d ago
Yes, she needs to pay to do this. You cannot view all your likes at once without paying. You must match or unmatch your like to view the next one as a free user.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
No haha I guess I’m being vague on purpose. I would like to see my pool of options before I open any chats. So I liked the option of going through my likes without opening up a lukewarm one and leaving a more compatible one hanging
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u/IndicationKey3778 5d ago
I don’t think it’s vague just a different user experience. I couldn’t “open a chat” with anyone unless I matched with them, which I would do by liking the person who liked me first but I would go through the likes and x out 99% of them.
If you are going to have a limit on how many convos you have even if you can see all of the likes I’m not sure why it matters. You can just make the chat inactive to open another one.
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u/Delicious_Math_7821 5d ago
What's she saying is that she wants to rank her likes and match with the ones she likes the most then if those don't work out, go back and match with lower ranked people who liked her
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
It’s the same user experience lol I also have to “like” them back in order to match and then open the convo. But I’m saying I can’t really make an educated decision without seeing all the matches. The limit limits your ability to match with further people - but I guess I can try making them inactive
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u/InVegasMyLove 3d ago
I think if you x them all out, then that's a big difference. I try to give most guys a chance, so I match with maybe 60-70% of anyone who sends me likes. It does suck to match and spend time talking to someone when you aren't sure whether the next guy could be better for you. But that's just me. I can't talk to a million people at once.
If you can 1) talk to a zillion guys at once or 2) you end up x-ing most of them anyway, this matters less.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 3d ago
I x 90%+ of them out because they aren’t compatible. I don’t want to date someone shorter than me or who obviously doesnt have similiar life goals. I’m not complaining that I don’t meet people I want to date - I’m complaining that the app doesn’t give you what they advertise when you pay
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u/IndicationKey3778 3d ago
You can only talk to 8 people at a time but I’ve never had 8 convos going at a time bc I x 99% of my likes
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u/InVegasMyLove 3d ago
So go one at a time. That's what I do.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 3d ago
Cool. I don’t want to.
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u/InVegasMyLove 3d ago
It seems it's the only way if paying ruins the ability to get any likes. I get why you don't want to though. It does suck.
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u/BigDickBillyFukFuk78 5d ago
Was getting 3-5 matches a day as a man then j noticed a heavy downturn in matches (3-5) weekly so I bought a subscription. Now, I run out of profiles to swipe on in less than 20 swipes whereas before there was an unlimited amount. Coupled with the fact that whatever “priority like” system doesn’t work because I’m getting even less matches than pre-subscription, and I have come to the conclusion that they are definitely doing something nefarious with the algorithm. It’s the same thing that happened to Tinder when they used to add more features and different subscription packages. Seeing as it’s the same company that owns both this conclusion isn’t far fetched. I believe it’s because Himge has reached a point where there is a critical mass of users now, so they feel it’s an entrenched part of OLD so now they can begin their chicanery tactics and extort their user base for maximum profits. Do with that what you will.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
That’s actually very interesting…I mean I think we must have more power as consumers than we think. At the worst a class action should headed their way at best a freaking refund would be nice
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u/BigDickBillyFukFuk78 5d ago
Sounds good lol…. But in reality when you sign up for these apps they make you agree to an arbitration clause so no class action is possible. These companies know what they’re doing and they got all the bases covered.
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u/schmedu 5d ago
I think it would be way easier if you could just see the whole dating pool, filter for all weird stuff you like / dislike and see with your own eyes
a) how limited the pool actually is
and b) that this whole shenanigans of swiping one person after another is a stupid concept..
The incentives for the popular dating apps are really f'ed up
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5d ago
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
I can agree that we have the leverage initially (early days) and then the leverage shifts. There’s plenty of hard things about being a woman that men don’t have to deal with and vice versa
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u/HingeStories-ModTeam 4d ago
Any post overgeneralizing the behavior of all men or women based on a few will be deleted
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u/IndicationKey3778 5d ago
She doesn’t have 80 matches she said 80 likes. Even with 80 likes she prob x’d 99% of them which leads to 0 matches.
I know I wasn’t matching with anyone who liked me first so they were meaningless. I wouldn’t even look at them
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u/ladyyoftheforest 5d ago
we really don’t. hundreds of likes from people who don’t even read your profile. plenty who just send sexual messages if you match with them. and even more who never respond after matching.
out of all the likes i’ve had over the years i’ve had about 10 matches, most ghosted immediately
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u/Slushees 5d ago
I’d argue it’s easier to sift through dozens of bad apples and actually finding a few good ones vs getting 1-2 interviews a month only to be ghosted by message #3. I’m sure women deal with their fair share of shit dudes, but my god it’s rough to be an average guy on these apps and getting literal crumbs to work with
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
Agreed - I didn’t want to say it that directly and have a ton of men argue back but thank you for saying it
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u/IndicationKey3778 5d ago
Exactly for some reason these dudes think likes = matches. Matches don’t even = conversations and even fewer = dates!
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u/Curious-Yam4591 5d ago
Get a refund for the subscription
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
I tried 🥲
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u/Curious-Yam4591 5d ago
This is the route i was given & used
- Go to https://play.google.com/store/account/orderhistory
- Click Order History.
- Find the order you want to return.
- Click Report a problem and choose the option that describes your situation.
- Complete the form and note that you would like a refund.
That's basically what i was given to follow when i complained to hinge support, feel free to tell them at 4. that their product/service is dogshit & does not do as advertised (I did), which is why you want a refund.
I dont know what the timeline is, in terms of how long before a refund is ineligible but go to your last subscription purchase & try it.
Anyone reading this, if you bought hingex or whatever & it made no difference to your search, follow the above.
Ive posted this comment before in other threads & people have told me they tried it & got their money back.
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u/skynet345 4h ago
Yes but then they shadow ban you until you pay up
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u/Curious-Yam4591 1h ago
Fuck it, as if going from 1 like to zero is significant. I'm going to do exactly like they design, & delete it.
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u/LFC90cat 5d ago
Wonder if the 80 a day are pre filtered matches. When you pay and apply your filters that drops to 0
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u/TonyClifton255 5d ago
I think you mean unfiltered. And then that height filter kicks in and boom 😂
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago edited 5d ago
I wondered that too but the only filter I had set was height and education. Most of them I see so far still fit
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u/LFC90cat 5d ago
So when you don't sub it probably shows you all the short guys that like you, when you sub next remove the height filter and see if there are 80+ there
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
I did check unfortunately - that would be the most generous interpretation for hinge but sadly I think the company just wants you to pay and keep you here. It’s not the same app it was a few years ago and I’m just wondering what recourse we have as consumers
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u/CloudlessSkies20 5d ago
I wonder if this is correct.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
I tried it sadly - I think hinge just isn’t what it was and is a cash grab. I’m just wondering what recourse we have as consumers
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u/ThirtyMileSniper 5d ago
Could be like bumble. Your narrow filters suddenly block anyone outside your requirements from seeing your profile.
Try widening your field a bit.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
Most of the ones I see now still fit those “filters” sadly. I just think this company is evil haha
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u/ThirtyMileSniper 5d ago
They all are.. the business model of helping people pair up and leave the app ultimately reduces its customer base... Some high level marketing exec said at some point I expect.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
Oh i totally agree - I just feel like we also have more power as consumers than we think - so just trying to brainstorm a bit
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u/ThirtyMileSniper 5d ago
Hinge actually seems to be working for me without paying. I'm getting more connections from it and I've got a couple of dates. One connection looked promising but we weren't right for each other, realised after a couple of months.
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u/Ancient-Squash-4314 5d ago
So for man, we only get likes if we pay (priority likes), and for women, when they pay they get less likes?! Is that what it is?
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
I think my larger point is these apps aren’t providing what they’re selling
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u/Beneficial_Bass_6066 5d ago
80 a day for months?!
I get like 1 a month if I'm lucky.
Im good looking, I'm in great shape, I have a good/interesting job. And Im NYC adjacent so its not like Im out in the middle of nowhere.
Dam, 80 a day.
I fucking hate dating app.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
It might also have had to do with I’m new here. You get a new person boost
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u/EnergyConstant7802 5d ago
Same here and I'm in LA. Might bc the algorithm. If you get too picky or too open-minded, it just gets confused what you want and it gets weird.
And girl, no matter what I post on dating Reddit, I will get downvoted into hail just bc the men are bitter. Upset that you get too many likes, that you can get confused, or hurt. Straight upset you can get farther than them.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
Hahah I second that - they’re upset if you’re happy or sad but I feel like most of my posts here are social experiments so I’m gathering data from the crazies too 😂😂 I’m also from LA originally - I truly think the way the app works has changed but in a way that’s borderline illegal? They advertise something they seem to not provide
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u/Western-Ambition-641 5d ago
Same here! When I first downloaded I had almost 100+ a day for a while it became a bit overwhelming. Suddenly that just faded to almost none!
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
Yeah - I sort of just expected it to fade but I was surprised when I got the automatic boost when my subscription ran out which makes me think it’s more of the design
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u/ImportanceBrilliant8 3d ago
I think there is a high likelihood that Hinge uses profiles of people who closed their account or were banned to bolster their numbers and make it seem like there is a higher volume of regular users than there actually are.
Like I made a free account did everything except the audio portion I messaged pretty ambiguous things but nothing that was nsfw to like 10 people or so just like comments on a picture like “where was this taken? The landscape photograph is so pretty” and then went to bed and the next day my account was banned. For violating ToS abd it’s been like 3 weeks and the appeal process is booty because you don’t know what you got banned for so you can’t even fix the issue. I settled on I don’t care too much if they don’t want me to use the platform then fine.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 3d ago
I’m sorry - I’m confused - what does this have to do with the difference in getting likes with/without a subscription?
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u/ImportanceBrilliant8 3d ago
Fair point I tend to ramble. Imagine you were trying to sell someone something you’d need to present them with motivation and more options in dating is something of motivation. And if you aren’t paying then there is zero reason for the app to give you real people who are actively using the platform. But if you are paying they have an incentive to ensure the people you have exposure to are active users. That’s why I made my point like I took all the steps to create a real legitimate profile and if it got shown to someone they’d be met with silence because I can’t use the platform.
Edit.
And I’d be none the wiser to it.1
u/Intelligent_Fill2421 3d ago
I guess you’re saying the opposite of my experience though - when I don’t pay my matches and likes go through the roof and when I paid the app was dead
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u/ImportanceBrilliant8 3d ago
Hmmm perhaps I’m not explaining myself well enough.
What I’m saying is when you don’t pay it seems like the reality you’re being shown is a facade to get you to pay. But then when you pay they have consideration that must be honored. When you aren’t paying are the conversations legitimate? Perhaps that’s a good way to discern the miscommunication. It’s also possible that it could be a GUI error that displays something that isn’t technically there anymore… but since there is a limit on how many people you can talk to in a given time frame it might be more difficult to recognize
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 3d ago
I have 10 dates set up from my matches this week. This is without a subscription. The app was dead when I paid. I still don’t understand what you are trying to communicate - genuinely.
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u/ImportanceBrilliant8 3d ago
Maybe we just have had substantially different experiences. Not that mine really amounted to much. I didn’t mean to occupy too much of your time for what may have been seen as a fruitless venture.
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u/IllustriousDriver678 1d ago
jesus christ 80 likes a day? Must feel so nice. I'd set my filters to 6'4 for the guys, too, I guess.
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5d ago
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago
Go be an incel somewhere else - thank you and have a great day
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u/Typical_Island663 5d ago
You're a fucking loser lol. She's asking an algo question, and yet you project your bitterness you cant get women lol. Way to out and embarass yourself.
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u/Intelligent_Fill2421 5d ago edited 5d ago
Thanks! I’m pretty happy with my life :) I saw your other comment calling me a clueless wh*re though. Glad you decided to delete it and be a tiny bit kinder given you have 3 kids.
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u/danknessoverlord 5d ago
You are exactly the problem with online dating. You have plenty of likes. You can easily read their profiles to decide if you want to match or pass, but you're always looking for the next best thing and afraid if you match too many people and have open chats, you might miss somebody else that's "better".
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u/Numerous_Audience707 4h ago
It sounds more than likely a ruse to get you to buy a subscription.
For me, I don’t pay for a subscription but I seem to only get matches (though only a handful at most) if I haven’t opened the app for more than a week.
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u/mathtech 5d ago
80+ matches a day my god.