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Can someone explain to me how Tinder has such a bot problem? I'm not a Tinder user, but the impression I get is that there is an epidemic of bots such that peo

Can someone explain to me how Tinder has such a bot problem? I'm not a Tinder user, but the impression I get is that there is an epidemic of bots such that people have to start conversations with silly "Captcha" type tests. Is this impression correct and there is a bot problem? And if so, how has Tinder not fixed that already?! It's not a particularly hard problem to kill off all but the most determined bots. Or are they not motivated to do so due to it inflating user numbers?

whimsicalism 5y ago
I think that the Tinder experience is very non-homogenous, so some may have a problem with bots and others don't.
Teknoman117 5y ago
It's a big problem. 99% of matches for me (a straight white male, late 20's) are bots or people pushing some onlyfans account.
- FilMo 5y ago
  That's the reason why I don't consider such big hyped platformі as Tinder like a real possibility for relationships. I believe that it's easier to find a couple, friend or just a hookup (whatever you're searching for) in a narrower space. I mean, a person registered on https://datehookup.dating/singles-tx-san_antonio.htm https://datehookup.dating/singles-tx-san_antonio.htm knows exactly what to expect. While registration on Tinder can deviate your expectations, especially with all those bots now. But it's just my subjective opinion.
notyourday 5y ago
> And if so, how has Tinder not fixed that already?! It's not a particularly hard problem to kill off all but the most determined bots. Or are they not motivated to do so due to it inflating user numbers? Most of bots pay Tinder, which is how they get the "unlimited likes", ability to change location and ability to pull those that "liked" them. Cleaning up bots will wipe out a significant portion of tinder revenue.
- bob33212 5y ago
  Some percentage of the users may be OK with not knowing if there are bots. Get a few attractive "people" to match with you, get a self esteem boost and move on with your day. And there is the lottery element. What if this one isn't a bot and actually picked me out of the thousands of other options.
  - notyourday 5y ago
    This does not answer why Tinder does not get rid of bots. Bots running on paid accounts does.
    - bob33212 5y ago
      Yes it does, it increases daily usage
      - notyourday 5y ago
        Tinder is money printing machine via subscriptions. It does not give a two cents about daily usage metrics popular among VC supported or advertiser centric companies that don't have a product its users want to pay for.
        bob33212 5y ago
        They care about those metrics because they know the conversion rate on those users.
rchaud 5y ago
Tinder's UX is about delivering the illusion of choice. Swiping through an endless carousel of potential companions keeps users on the app. Whether they're real or not is the user's problem. Worst case scenario, they get fed up and go to OkCupid, which has the same parent company, and the same dehumanizing swipe based UI. Or they could go to Match.com, which I think is the parent company.
- FooBarBizBazz 5y ago
  Interesting how much of human mating falls under a small number of brands controlled by a single company. Also funny how problematized dating outside of those approved channels has become. It is, ultimately, monopoly control over human reproduction.
- MiddleEndian 5y ago
  It's been about a decade since I last used OKCupid but I remember really enjoying it. Wacky quizzes and questions, fun usernames, long profiles, trying to find people who had both a high match percentage and enemy percentage for potentially hilarious but exhausting conversations and dates, etc. Sad to hear that now it's a Tinder clone with swiping, forced real names, short profiles for mobile, and such.
  - stevekemp 5y ago
    Speaking as somebody who met his wife on OKCupid, 10+ years ago, a lot of that stuff has now gone away. You can write a long profile, but in order to message somebody you have to match tinder-style. The quizzes are gone, the interests are gone, and the journals are gone too. (There is the ability to send an "intro" message, which shows up to people who haven't matched, but it is hard to discover as a recipient.) Where I am there are way way way more people on Tinder as a result I think.
somedude895 5y ago
I'm in Europe and 2 or so years ago I'd get a ton of bot matches on Tinder. I've been using it again earlier this year and the bots were gone, so it seems they are doing something about it, but it's cat and mouse for sure. Just look at Blizzard and their botting issues in World of Warcraft. It's not a trivial problem it seems.
ramesh31 5y ago
>Can someone explain to me how Tinder has such a bot problem? It's a feature. All dating apps/websites go through the same 3 part lifecycle. At any given time, there is only one "hip" service that everyone is using and that attracts all of the tier 1 members (i.e. attractive women) to use exclusively. Right now, that app is Hinge. Before Hinge took off, it was Bumble. And before that it was Tinder. The app that occupies this top space is generally able to get there by optimizing for the female experience, to the complete detriment of the male experience because men will always go where the attractive women are, and they will put up with anything because of that. As a new service comes along and takes all the tier 1 users, the previous front runner drops to the second part of its' lifecycle. This is where there's still a modicum of tier 1 users left, enough to give an impression of vitality to the community and continue pulling in the new users (desperate single men) who will pay for the service's extra features in hopes of finding someone. Bumble currently occupies this space. At this second part of the lifecycle, there becomes a strong incentive to start balancing out the UX optimization between male and female, because you're no longer in the growth stage and need to start extracting revenue. Finally, once a new service again comes along that displaces the current number one, the original number one drops to the third part of its' lifecycle. This is where Tinder is now. At that point, it has completely lost relevance to all tier 1 users, but it's able to continue along in a zombified state based on its' previous reputation and the purposefully allowed proliferation of bots that create an illusion of vitality. This is honestly where dating apps make the most money, even if the service itself is terrible. You have no mandate to continue innovating or providing good customer service, and you can totally optimize for the male experience (which is far more profitable) because there are no real women left. source: Worked for $large_dating_app in the mid-2010s
- crtasm 5y ago
  Isn't Tinder aimed mainly at hookups and Bumble/Hinge at relationships? While I've not used any of them it feels surprising to hear that most of the attractive women on Tinder moved to Hinge and then again to Bumble. As an aside, I'm curious if there's still any dating websites worth spending time on (no phone app install required).
  - 5y ago
EricMausler 5y ago
I am an automation hobbyist and single guy on tinder, and I think I can crack the code on this one: Activity difference On top of you doing the math on how active a bot is verse regular humans, some additional probably related factors are: - Bot accounts use attractive photos - Bot accounts can claim to be anywhere - Bot accounts are often new accounts, and new accounts get boosted - The longer you use the app, you run out of actual people to swipe on, but the new bot accounts continue to pop up at the same rate - making their % of your total swipe pool increase over time. - Bots might just be masking the reality that there isnt many people in your area using the app lately. All that said, in my region of NY I would not consider it a problem at all. maybe this is not a problem for me because my area is very populated, so there's a lot of actual people on the app.

whimsicalism 5y ago

I think that the Tinder experience is very non-homogenous, so some may have a problem with bots and others don't.

Teknoman117 5y ago

It's a big problem. 99% of matches for me (a straight white male, late 20's) are bots or people pushing some onlyfans account.

FilMo 5y ago
That's the reason why I don't consider such big hyped platformі as Tinder like a real possibility for relationships. I believe that it's easier to find a couple, friend or just a hookup (whatever you're searching for) in a narrower space. I mean, a person registered on https://datehookup.dating/singles-tx-san_antonio.htm https://datehookup.dating/singles-tx-san_antonio.htm knows exactly what to expect. While registration on Tinder can deviate your expectations, especially with all those bots now. But it's just my subjective opinion.

notyourday 5y ago

> And if so, how has Tinder not fixed that already?! It's not a particularly hard problem to kill off all but the most determined bots. Or are they not motivated to do so due to it inflating user numbers? Most of bots pay Tinder, which is how they get the "unlimited likes", ability to change location and ability to pull those that "liked" them. Cleaning up bots will wipe out a significant portion of tinder revenue.

bob33212 5y ago
Some percentage of the users may be OK with not knowing if there are bots. Get a few attractive "people" to match with you, get a self esteem boost and move on with your day. And there is the lottery element. What if this one isn't a bot and actually picked me out of the thousands of other options.
- notyourday 5y ago
  This does not answer why Tinder does not get rid of bots. Bots running on paid accounts does.
  - bob33212 5y ago
    Yes it does, it increases daily usage
    - notyourday 5y ago
      Tinder is money printing machine via subscriptions. It does not give a two cents about daily usage metrics popular among VC supported or advertiser centric companies that don't have a product its users want to pay for.
      - bob33212 5y ago
        They care about those metrics because they know the conversion rate on those users.

rchaud 5y ago

Tinder's UX is about delivering the illusion of choice. Swiping through an endless carousel of potential companions keeps users on the app. Whether they're real or not is the user's problem. Worst case scenario, they get fed up and go to OkCupid, which has the same parent company, and the same dehumanizing swipe based UI. Or they could go to Match.com, which I think is the parent company.

FooBarBizBazz 5y ago
Interesting how much of human mating falls under a small number of brands controlled by a single company. Also funny how problematized dating outside of those approved channels has become. It is, ultimately, monopoly control over human reproduction.
MiddleEndian 5y ago
It's been about a decade since I last used OKCupid but I remember really enjoying it. Wacky quizzes and questions, fun usernames, long profiles, trying to find people who had both a high match percentage and enemy percentage for potentially hilarious but exhausting conversations and dates, etc. Sad to hear that now it's a Tinder clone with swiping, forced real names, short profiles for mobile, and such.
- stevekemp 5y ago
  Speaking as somebody who met his wife on OKCupid, 10+ years ago, a lot of that stuff has now gone away. You can write a long profile, but in order to message somebody you have to match tinder-style. The quizzes are gone, the interests are gone, and the journals are gone too. (There is the ability to send an "intro" message, which shows up to people who haven't matched, but it is hard to discover as a recipient.) Where I am there are way way way more people on Tinder as a result I think.

somedude895 5y ago

I'm in Europe and 2 or so years ago I'd get a ton of bot matches on Tinder. I've been using it again earlier this year and the bots were gone, so it seems they are doing something about it, but it's cat and mouse for sure. Just look at Blizzard and their botting issues in World of Warcraft. It's not a trivial problem it seems.

ramesh31 5y ago

>Can someone explain to me how Tinder has such a bot problem? It's a feature. All dating apps/websites go through the same 3 part lifecycle. At any given time, there is only one "hip" service that everyone is using and that attracts all of the tier 1 members (i.e. attractive women) to use exclusively. Right now, that app is Hinge. Before Hinge took off, it was Bumble. And before that it was Tinder. The app that occupies this top space is generally able to get there by optimizing for the female experience, to the complete detriment of the male experience because men will always go where the attractive women are, and they will put up with anything because of that. As a new service comes along and takes all the tier 1 users, the previous front runner drops to the second part of its' lifecycle. This is where there's still a modicum of tier 1 users left, enough to give an impression of vitality to the community and continue pulling in the new users (desperate single men) who will pay for the service's extra features in hopes of finding someone. Bumble currently occupies this space. At this second part of the lifecycle, there becomes a strong incentive to start balancing out the UX optimization between male and female, because you're no longer in the growth stage and need to start extracting revenue. Finally, once a new service again comes along that displaces the current number one, the original number one drops to the third part of its' lifecycle. This is where Tinder is now. At that point, it has completely lost relevance to all tier 1 users, but it's able to continue along in a zombified state based on its' previous reputation and the purposefully allowed proliferation of bots that create an illusion of vitality. This is honestly where dating apps make the most money, even if the service itself is terrible. You have no mandate to continue innovating or providing good customer service, and you can totally optimize for the male experience (which is far more profitable) because there are no real women left. source: Worked for $large_dating_app in the mid-2010s

crtasm 5y ago
Isn't Tinder aimed mainly at hookups and Bumble/Hinge at relationships? While I've not used any of them it feels surprising to hear that most of the attractive women on Tinder moved to Hinge and then again to Bumble. As an aside, I'm curious if there's still any dating websites worth spending time on (no phone app install required).
- 5y ago

EricMausler 5y ago

I am an automation hobbyist and single guy on tinder, and I think I can crack the code on this one: Activity difference On top of you doing the math on how active a bot is verse regular humans, some additional probably related factors are: - Bot accounts use attractive photos - Bot accounts can claim to be anywhere - Bot accounts are often new accounts, and new accounts get boosted - The longer you use the app, you run out of actual people to swipe on, but the new bot accounts continue to pop up at the same rate - making their % of your total swipe pool increase over time. - Bots might just be masking the reality that there isnt many people in your area using the app lately. All that said, in my region of NY I would not consider it a problem at all. maybe this is not a problem for me because my area is very populated, so there's a lot of actual people on the app.