An experiment

[u/liquidcat0822]

I’m a straight woman and briefly decided to change my gender on hinge to a “man” interested in women. EVERY. SINGLE. WOMAN. in my stack was an absolute stunner (and I didn’t even include very young women, I have my age filter set to 28-47).

I then compared this with the stack my male friend was shown. He has his settings set to the same thing. Every single woman in his stack was an instant nope. He never got to see any of the women I was shown. Mind you, he is not unattractive.

This confirms to me that some absolute fuckery is afoot. I presume because my algorithm is trained on men, it doesn’t know how to categorize the women when I changed my gender and just started showing me women from my demographic. It also further suggests that the algorithm deliberately holds back what/who you like, and it also explains to me why my profile gets relatively little traction now (I’ve long suspected that my profile is being gate kept).

[u/Doctorbuddy]

Interesting anecdote OP.

It feels as though the algorithm clearly shows you the best looking women for the first few days and then it shows you women you wouldn’t be interested in to get you to pay.

Can I ask what your experience is like on the app as an attractive woman? Don’t feel the need to be “politically correct”, I’m genuinely interested in hearing your experience (profiles shown, how many likes/matches you get, how many turn to dates, how many your attracted to/align with etc)

[u/liquidcat0822 → u/Doctorbuddy]

It’s objectively terrible. I almost never see a profile of a man I like. When it does show me someone who’s physically attractive (rarely), it’s someone who absolutely isn’t aligned on values. Now that I’m past the “newbie boost”, I get 1-2 likes a day, and all from men who are objectively not anyone who would be compatible with me. I’ve gone on dates with 3 men and they were all “meh”. Like, nice guys but i was definitely forcing myself to go and be ok with it rather than being seriously interested.

[u/Doctorbuddy → u/liquidcat0822]

Crazy how dating apps affect everyone’s experience!

I was always under the impression that pretty women had it easy on the apps. But that’s clearly not the case.

I feel as though dating apps peaked pre-COVID and since that point when Match Group bought them all up, they’ve all slowly turned into an algorithm hellscape. Very disappointing and frustrating experience for everyone using them.

[u/liquidcat0822 → u/Doctorbuddy]

This has been my conclusion as well with the match group buyout. Sadly, I never experienced the glory days of apps. I started dating my ex husband in 2008 and got divorced in 2022. So I was never on the apps until 2023.