Wasting the Tinder new user benefits

[ThePhoenix]

My preference is day game, but I've been meaning to add Tinder to the mix because I am guessing it may soften the learning curve. (Also because I'm primarily attracted to a minority and it seems easier to cherrypick there than in most live settings.)

But I keep putting off setting it up. The reason is, I know I can do better with my photos. I do have photos that are a lot better than the thoughtless selfies some guys use. However, I can still do a lot better, especially since I have fairly easy access to pro photo gear and expertise. But that does take some planning and preparation, which I haven't gotten around to yet (ironically in part because time I could allocate to it winds up on day game and documentation instead).

Ideally, I'd like to just roll with the decent pics I have right now, and then upgrade the photos as time permits. However, this leads to some concerns:

1. Tinder gives a boost to new users. It seems wasteful to have this boost applied while my photos are just decent as opposed to excellent.
   
   
2. Tinder takes a guess about how attractive you are based on the scores of girls that swipe right on you, and then primarily only shows you girls that attractive. So, if you don't start out with your best foot forward, you stand to profit much less even if you improve your pics later. (Your score probably does eventually improve if you improve your pics, but depending on the algorithms, this could take a very long time.)
   
   
3. I would at least assume that once a girl has swiped left on you, Tinder is not going to show you to her again. So you're permanently losing out on any of those girls that swiped left on the decent photos but would've swiped right on excellent photos. (And this is particularly concerning when going for a minority, since there's less of them to start with.)

Naturally, it's not the end of the world in the sense that, if push comes to shove, you can always start a new account. But that may be harder than you think. I've read that Tinder can pick up on this (presumably via either the phone number and/or the phone's IMEI number) and will still obligingly create the new account, but will silently tie the account to the same stats as the old one - thus totally defeating the purpose of setting up a new account! It's therefore not even straightforward to know whether a given approach for getting a new account is actually working or not!

You could make certain of getting a truly new account by either changing your number or getting a throwaway number AND either buying a new phone or jailbreaking/rooting your phone and installing software that spoofs the IMEI number. But that's a lot of trouble to go to just in order to get a fresh start on some dating app. Thus the reason I have yet to set up Tinder.

Of course, these concerns are from the outside looking in. I have no first-hand experience with the app (other than knowing it's one of those annoying pieces of computer software that lies through its teeth to get your attention - it periodically tells me people (it doesn't even know the gender) have swiped right on the profile that I haven't even set up yet!) So I'm wondering if those with more experience in it would agree with my assessment of the risks of starting before having your absolute best photos at the ready.

 

[ProblemSolving]

Hey Phoenix,

But I keep putting off setting it up. The reason is, I know I can do better with my photos.

With online, either bring your best or don't come at all. Without putting some time and effort into your pics, the odds of you being productive online will be very low.

Having said that:

Tinder gives a boost to new users. It seems wasteful to have this boost applied while my photos are just decent as opposed to excellent.

Don't worry about wasting the new user boost. When you have better pics, just delete your account, and start a new one.

Tinder takes a guess about how attractive you are based on the scores of girls that swipe right on you, and then primarily only shows you girls that attractive. So, if you don't start out with your best foot forward, you stand to profit much less even if you improve your pics later. (Your score probably does eventually improve if you improve your pics, but depending on the algorithms, this could take a very long time.)

Nope, doesn't take long at all. Just delete your account and reload with better pics. What does it matter what girls it shows you? Left swipe the girls that don't attract you and swipe right on the ones that do. I personally believe the Tinder "attractiveness scores" are completely bullshit.

Tinder will show me a bunch of unattractive girls which I swipe left on ("Oh no, Tinder thinks I'm ugly!"), then they eventually show attractive girls ("Yay, Tinder thinks I'm hot!"). It's random, don't overthink it.

I would at least assume that once a girl has swiped left on you, Tinder is not going to show you to her again. So you're permanently losing out on any of those girls that swiped left on the decent photos but would've swiped right on excellent photos. (And this is particularly concerning when going for a minority, since there's less of them to start with.)

Again, this is not a problem once you delete your account and start again.

 

[Ambiance]

You can also delete and recreate your profile periodically to capitaize on the new account boost, as I have been doing for some time now. Bwahahaha...

Ambiance

 

[ThePhoenix]

Hi ProblemSolving, Ambiance,

Thank you for the observations!

I personally believe the Tinder "attractiveness scores" are completely bullshit.

Tinder will show me a bunch of unattractive girls which I swipe left on ("Oh no, Tinder thinks I'm ugly!"), then they eventually show attractive girls ("Yay, Tinder thinks I'm hot!"). It's random, don't overthink it.

Tinder high-ups have openly admitted that their back-end builds up some kind of "desirability" score (as the CEO called it). That was a couple years back, so they might have since scrapped it, but I think a more likely explanation for what you describe is that it may appear somewhat random to someone with a good score, because it gives new girls it doesn't have a good fix on yet the benefit of the doubt, and many of those will be below-average. If you had a worse profile, you might find the distribution a lot less random.

It does sound like starting a new account would be of benefit after improving your profile.

So, when you guys delete and recreate the account, are you linking it to FB or are you using SMS verification and not linking to FB? Are you making a new FB, using a new number, or neither?

This seems to suggest that whichever you use to verify must be new; ie., either a new FB account, or new phone number, or else it still creates a blank profile but you keep the same standing. (But there's so much conflicting information out there it's very confusing - some people say everything has to be new, including the phone number, device ID, and IP!)

Phoenix

 

[ProblemSolving]

Tinder high-ups have openly admitted that their back-end builds up some kind of "desirability" score (as the CEO called it).

This is just Tinder corp bullshit fed to plebs so they don't understand how their algorithm works. The two things that affect how many girls see your profile are:

1)The newness of your account. The newer your account, the more girls will see your profile.

2) How much money you spend. The more boosts you buy, the more girls will see your profile.

You could be the best looking guy on the planet (highest "desirability score"), but if a bunch of other guys have newer accounts than you and are paying for boosts, then most girls will never even see you.

So, when you guys delete and recreate the account, are you linking it to FB or are you using SMS verification and not linking to FB? Are you making a new FB, using a new number, or neither?

Just delete your Tinder account and go into FB and unlink your account. Use SMS verification when you start a new Tinder account. You don't need to use a new phone number or FB account.

 

[ThePhoenix]

This is just Tinder corp bullshit fed to plebs so they don't understand how their algorithm works.

Bumped into your other post on the subject and yeah, it does make sense they'd want to disincentivize using the platform without sinking money into it. (Mind you, I'm not totally sure what purpose lying would serve them, since guys thinking they've gotten a bad Elo score are probably just as likely to try resetting their account, which doesn't make Tinder any money.)

I found out there is a web-based version now, which I'd prefer since it gives greater control in a number of ways. (Also makes it easier to obtain throwaway identifiers, just in case they try to crack down on resets.) But from what I understand it only uses FB, not SMS verification, so I wonder if that version is more strict towards the FB account, such as needing 50 friends etc. (I believe the phone app used to shadowban if you didn't have 50 friends, but doesn't any more since it just verifies the phone number instead.)


As an aside, I've been testing out stuff on photofeeler.com, and man, it's brutal! Putting up a pic that was both well done from a technical standpoint and very far from "nice guy", and being told 96% of pictures are more attractive than you. Shit! lol. Ironically, my best-performing pic so far, which is only worse than 79% of pictures, was a quick camera phone snapshot, with an injury, at that. And had shades on, and had one voter comment that she'd prefer it without the shades.

Gotta really work on the sexy vibe; at least I do know a few things I didn't when all these were taken. Thankfully I'm the problem-solving type, because otherwise I would get depressed thinking I must be ugly!

So, I guess no Tinder for me until I have better pics. I'm just going to get the photo gear over here and work on it myself, because at this rate I don't want to be bugging my photographer every other day with repeated tweaks as I run tests on Photofeeler.

If I was living in Africa I would say, fuck this, and just do day game exclusively. But here, my type is rare enough to want to add online into the mix. Ugh.


Thanks for the info!
Phoenix

 

[Michal]

Personaly, I would not rely on Photofeeler that heavily because I had a pic that had about 92% and 80% smart and with that I had like 3 matches in 4 days. When I switched the first pic for the one that I had as second (where I am on a beach, walking toward the camera with a surfing board held under my arm, I had like 6 a day). But I used to be very picky back then. Not sure how it would work now, given that I have not used the app for past 3 or 4 months.