First, it seems like both articles say "there's no real data, but ...", so I wonder why both articles are on the front page of Hacker News. I guess this article

First, it seems like both articles say "there's no real data, but ...", so I wonder why both articles are on the front page of Hacker News. I guess this article deserves the upvotes, though, because it points out that fact in its title. Second, I notice that the few stats in this article refer to "using Internet to find partners," and the question isn't about partners but length of partnership. Third, this article reminds me of the 'industry rebuttal' to one of pg's essays - the one about how glossy magazines all cost the same - which cried out to a whole industry "please rebut this." Someone had to publish a rebuttal, so someone did - although their 'rebuttal' was basically just pointing out that Sarah Palin's new book sold a lot of copies. In this case, the industry is the online dating industry. This article is the industry rebuttal. It happens to be correct, but there's just something weird about this kind of article to me, and the eHarmony shirts in the accompanying picture smell of PR.