Single readers suffering from social anxiety disorder might want to click away now, because a recent report by Fast Company brings the panic-inducing news that not only are your fellow Tinder users judging you, so are the people who work there. What, exactly, Tinder employees are judging you on—as opposed to Tinder users, who are judging you on looks, obviously—isn’t clear. But writer Austin Carr was able to determine that the company assigns something called an “Elo score” to everyone who uses the app, scores that are then used to rank users according to “desirability.”
Tinder CEO Sean Rad, who describes his Elo score as “above average,” says the process for determining the score is “very complicated. It took us two and a half months just to build the algorithm because a lot of factors go into it.” He also says that the score, which is similar to those used by Uber and Lyft drivers to rank their passengers, is based less on personal attractiveness—whatever that means, right guys? (laughs nervously)—and more on quality of Tinder use.
Of course, the company isn’t saying what that means. But, in case Tinder is open to suggestions on how to improve its algorithm, here are a few ideas: Maybe ding users for indiscriminate use of the right swipe, for example. Or for using one picture clearly taken with a disposable camera at your junior prom in 1999. (The frosted tips give it away, bros.) Or for messaging matches the word “hey,” and then failing to engage in any further attempts at conversation. Or for inquiring as to a potential date’s opinion on anal sex before asking literally anything else about them. Those might be good first steps.
Anyway, if you are confident and/or drunk one night and want to stare into the dark abyss of your Elo score, Carr was able to see his after Rad asked his analytics team to look up Carr’s profile. Contact Tinder customer service and they might—might—do you the same courtesy.
[via Mashable]