
I’m Single, Therefore I Tinder - deanmoriarty
http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/20/love-im-single-therefore-i-tinder/
======
sergiotapia
I'm more and more convinced companies strategically post things online using a
very large, diverse asset base.

Commonly known as astroturfing.

I haven't heard a peep about Tinder for about 6 months now, and today suddenly
it front pages on Reddit _and_ hackernews?

[http://www.reddit.com/r/Tinder/comments/23gvy0/its_hard_bein...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Tinder/comments/23gvy0/its_hard_being_average_my_tinder_experiment/cgwyzoe)

[http://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/23hyv2/uragu35_creat...](http://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/23hyv2/uragu35_creates_an_experiment_using_average/)

Who is pulling the strings here, and how can I hire them? I also want an
obscenely large amount of eyeballs on my product.

~~~
lsc
The post that launched my company in 2009[1] was not launched or encouraged in
any significant way by me, but it showed up on hacker news, reddit, and a few
other places nearly all at once. I mean, the guy had asked a few questions,
and maybe he told me he was doing a review; I don't rightly remember, but that
wasn't particularly unusual; sysadmins benchmark things all the time and it
usually doesn't end up causing anything noteworthy.

What was unusual was that my revenue went from... very little to enough to
quit my dayjob in a very short period of time. Afterwards, I gave the guy a
lot of free credit, just 'cause he was so impactful to my business, but he did
another review not that long after, finding that Linode's superior I/O (and, I
think, more VCPUs) made more difference for his application than the
additional ram that I gave them at the tested price point.

My point is that when something gains natural traction on one user-curated
news sites, it's only natural that it will gain traction on other user-curated
news sites with overlapping userbases.

[1][https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=590993](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=590993)

------
tomasien
I use Tinder and have met a ton of really amazing people through it, including
a girl who is now my best friend's long term girl friend. I don't use it to
date though purely because if I venture into that realm, the temptation to
play it like a game is too high.

However, if you want to know how to Tinder, it's simpler than this is making
it:

1\. Choose pictures where you look good. Simple as that, don't overthink it -
whatever "looks good" means to you is probably right. If not, ask your friend
of opposite sex.

2\. Write something funny in your description that leads the other person to
have something to say to you.

3\. Don't be shy - message people you find interesting with what you find
interesting about them. If you don't find anything interesting about them and
have nothing to say, don't send anything! If what you find interesting about
them is they're attractive, that counts as finding nothing interesting about
them.

4\. Ask them out with your friends. The goal should be to include new people
in your life, and the best way to do that is to say "my friends are going out
to x place tonight, would you like to join us? It'll be x number of us, bring
your friends if you want".

#4 is why Grouper is so fantastic btw.

~~~
carlob
Right whatever you want, but if you can't spell I'll never date you. ;)

~~~
tomasien
I don't know why people are downvoting this, I like it! Fixed (for anyone
wondering, I spelled "write" "right")

~~~
jamesaguilar
The guidelines suggest to avoid Reddit-like jokes and cleverness (or at least
they did at one time -- I can no longer find that admonition).

~~~
havaze
I don't get this, you're supposed to decide whether you like somebody or not
with _only_ one picture while writing unique descriptions that could give you
some insights to his or her personality is actively discouraged?

I mean sure, this would work great for one night stands, but I think bars with
drunk people are superior in this aspect.

~~~
jamesaguilar
The guidelines for HN. Not the guidelines for Tinder.

------
return0
Data or it didn't happen.

Also i think some of this advice is plain wrong. Pictures of you alongside a
female friend attract more attention, and "being original" doesn't really cut
it, attraction is moments and being your average self is sometimes not enough
to initiate the spark.

------
thyroxo
This reads like one of those cheesy pickup line / how to pick up women
"tutorials".

"Peter, with his crazy profile, has a strategic opening message that he claims
to be successful with more than 80 percent of the time. I call it 'The Neg And
Reverse.'”

I mean come on!

~~~
jamesaguilar
Here are the steps to Tinder, as I understand it (never used it personally,
since I'm married, but I have friends who do):

    
    
        1. Be reasonably attractive.
        1.1. Have a reasonably good picture of yourself.
        2. Use the app for a few minutes a day.
    

There is no step three. At this point you will be busy dating.

If you fail step one, it's probably time to get in shape, since that can make
almost anyone a lot more attractive. If you're in shape and unattractive, that
is hard, and I wish you the best of luck. :-/

~~~
dropit_sphere
As someone relatively plugged-in to the PUA community, outsiders would be
surprised how nuanced the discussion on this divide is.

I suspect that the game of love is impervious to hacking. Not that PUA
techniques don't work (they do, and it is not a fun realization to have that
people are so easily manipulated on something that seems pretty core), but
that a lot of what people are seeking is ego validation, and you'll get
"technique validation" instead.

~~~
jamesaguilar
I don't doubt that some variations on PUA techniques can improve your success
rate. I mean, the negation is ludicrous: humans are perfectly capable of
detecting and ignoring posturing during mating dances. But you can get NN% of
the way there by doing things that actually add value, and as a bonus, people
won't think you are a scumbag.

------
Inufu
Tinder is good for random hookups, but if you are in any way selective based
on something else than appearance then it's a waste of time.

I've used it quite successfully for the former in the past weeks, but since
I'm looking for the latter I've mostly stopped. (There's really no need for
elaborate messages. A few witty and original messages, followed by "Do you
want to get drinks?" has so far always worked.)

------
alashley
There is still no good way to solve this problem using technology at the
moment. Or maybe I'm bitter because I lost at the tinder game.

~~~
Demiurge
I lost at tinder because it "failed to send the sms" message. No response from
their "support".

------
BESebastian
This reads like a mess of disgusting PUA crap.

