Comments on: eHarmony’s Free Trial: For Dating Blindly Only* http://www.mouseprint.org/2006/11/27/eharmonys-free-trial-for-dating-blindly-only/ Exposing the strings and catches in advertising fine print. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:41:54 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Natalie Cook http://www.mouseprint.org/2006/11/27/eharmonys-free-trial-for-dating-blindly-only/comment-page-1/#comment-186797 Natalie Cook Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:43:37 +0000 http://www.mouseprint.org/?p=164#comment-186797 I have not heard very many good things about eharmony. My sister got rejected 100% when she put in her profile information, they came back to her saying they found 0, yes, ZERO suitable matches for her!! Pretty hard to believe that not one of their 12 million members was a match! I have not heard very many good things about eharmony. My sister got rejected 100% when she put in her profile information, they came back to her saying they found 0, yes, ZERO suitable matches for her!! Pretty hard to believe that not one of their 12 million members was a match!

]]> By: Michael M http://www.mouseprint.org/2006/11/27/eharmonys-free-trial-for-dating-blindly-only/comment-page-1/#comment-182893 Michael M Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:40:25 +0000 http://www.mouseprint.org/?p=164#comment-182893 I agree,their exclusion of gay users is certainly an issue that would be nice for them to fix. To play the devils advocate,they do use a rather complex matching system using a personality test. Adding gay users is not as simple as just allowing the database to query same sex matches. They make a lot of claims that about their "Scientific matching" and if we take them at their word,that there was some testing to make sure that this system actually works,it would be a significant cost to test to see if their model works for same sex matches and if not to develop a new one. If the answer were as simple as just changing a few lines of SQL code I would say there is no justifiable reason for their site to discriminate but if it costs a signifigant amount of money,then I understand why they might choose to serve one narrow segment of society. I think however this is not the case. It turns out that e-harmony, to settle a lawsuit, made a separate gay dating site (compatiblepartners.net). This is a significant cash outlay in maintenance and development. It would seem that it would be much easier to setup a new front end to the e-harmony database and let a few thousand gay people do a free beta test to prove or disprove the validity of their model for same sex couples,which presumably is similar to the way that the side was presumably created for mixed sex couples. If it works,there is no reason not to allow same sex couples. If not,then they can reasonably explain to anyone who complains that the system simply does not work for same sex couples. In fact,they could even allow it to match same sex couples,with giant red warnings that tell you that the personality matching just will not work,and your throwing your money away. If you want to flush your cash down the toilet,go for it. The fact that they decided to spend all the money on a different site suggests to me that the model may well work for gay couples,and that they just want to exclude them from the eharmony site. Im not sure if it has similar matching,but that would be even more evidence that they want to discriminate. (Keeping their e-Harmony brand "gay free" certainly seems sort of sleazy to me) I agree,their exclusion of gay users is certainly an issue that would be nice for them to fix. To play the devils advocate,they do use a rather complex matching system using a personality test. Adding gay users is not as simple as just allowing the database to query same sex matches. They make a lot of claims that about their “Scientific matching” and if we take them at their word,that there was some testing to make sure that this system actually works,it would be a significant cost to test to see if their model works for same sex matches and if not to develop a new one. If the answer were as simple as just changing a few lines of SQL code I would say there is no justifiable reason for their site to discriminate but if it costs a signifigant amount of money,then I understand why they might choose to serve one narrow segment of society.
I think however this is not the case. It turns out that e-harmony, to settle a lawsuit, made a separate gay dating site (compatiblepartners.net). This is a significant cash outlay in maintenance and development. It would seem that it would be much easier to setup a new front end to the e-harmony database and let a few thousand gay people do a free beta test to prove or disprove the validity of their model for same sex couples,which presumably is similar to the way that the side was presumably created for mixed sex couples. If it works,there is no reason not to allow same sex couples. If not,then they can reasonably explain to anyone who complains that the system simply does not work for same sex couples. In fact,they could even allow it to match same sex couples,with giant red warnings that tell you that the personality matching just will not work,and your throwing your money away. If you want to flush your cash down the toilet,go for it. The fact that they decided to spend all the money on a different site suggests to me that the model may well work for gay couples,and that they just want to exclude them from the eharmony site. Im not sure if it has similar matching,but that would be even more evidence that they want to discriminate. (Keeping their e-Harmony brand “gay free” certainly seems sort of sleazy to me)

]]> By: Debbie http://www.mouseprint.org/2006/11/27/eharmonys-free-trial-for-dating-blindly-only/comment-page-1/#comment-166826 Debbie Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:12:44 +0000 http://www.mouseprint.org/?p=164#comment-166826 The free communication weekend is a ripoff, after spending an hour answering questions, then you see you must pay a high fee inorder to see pictures. The free process to talk to anyone is so long and laborius that it would take the whole weekend just to get thru one profile, so in essence, there is nothing free about it and its a waste of time. The free communication weekend is a ripoff, after spending an hour answering questions, then you see you must pay a high fee inorder to see pictures. The free process to talk to anyone is so long and laborius that it would take the whole weekend just to get thru one profile, so in essence, there is nothing free about it and its a waste of time.

]]> By: J http://www.mouseprint.org/2006/11/27/eharmonys-free-trial-for-dating-blindly-only/comment-page-1/#comment-54539 J Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:55:25 +0000 http://www.mouseprint.org/?p=164#comment-54539 Amy, thanks for mentioning that. The fact that they only allow straight people looking for "true love" and not also gay people looking for "true love" is one of the reasons I chose to never use their services. I don't deal with any company that blatently discriminates like that. Amy, thanks for mentioning that. The fact that they only allow straight people looking for “true love” and not also gay people looking for “true love” is one of the reasons I chose to never use their services. I don’t deal with any company that blatently discriminates like that.

]]> By: Internet Dating Support http://www.mouseprint.org/2006/11/27/eharmonys-free-trial-for-dating-blindly-only/comment-page-1/#comment-43544 Internet Dating Support Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:09:49 +0000 http://www.mouseprint.org/?p=164#comment-43544 Hi there I tried E Harmony and it did not really work for me and the costs seemed to be hidden. I am now using elea models and i have met the girl of my dfdreams so i am very happy. Take care Adam Hi there

I tried E Harmony and it did not really work for me and the costs seemed to be hidden. I am now using elea models and i have met the girl of my dfdreams so i am very happy. Take care Adam

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