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Comment by AtlasBarfed | Hacker News Reader

What? You were a (presumably male) student at a 25% female college and don't see the point of a dating app that would drastically increase the pool of women you could interact with? What am I missing here?

Unless you were in the apex male top 5% at the college, that just sounds nuts.

Women may meet a lot of men regardless of dating apps, but everyone wants a bigger better deal. Dating apps provide access to many people, such that a better quality mate is possible. Again, you may be flawed by being in university.

In the real world you meet a far wider range of people in demographic, socioeconomic status, age, education, etc. So the people you meet that may match what you want is drastically lower that university, which will generally function as a filter for socioeconomic status, demographic, location, and especially intelligence. At a technical college, it even preselects for area of interest.

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IIRC the OkCupid data indicated that women pursued the top 20% of men almost exclusively, rated by physical attraction. Men pursued the top 50% of women.

Online is a stacked deck, though I'd agree it can still widen an IRL pool. Met my SO through an online site. Though it still took years and I was using 4 sites at a time, occasionally paid ones too.

I have to wonder if some of this is due to women wearing makeup and more flattering clothing, so that the top 50% of women are as attractive as the top 20% of men. IME as a bisexual on dating sites, women typically have more game, or at least know how to flaunt it better. Back in the day I certainly reached out to many more women than men… though in retrospect, that’s also because women are less intimidating; it was easier to break the ice with them.

> ...due to women wearing makeup and more flattering clothing, so that the top 50% of women are as attractive as the top 20% of men

Possibly part of the picture. It could also be that women aren't expected to disclose their waist, hip, or bust size; yet men are often expected to disclose their height and fitness.

Dating services are not representative of general population. Even biggest most well established slow dating platforms have m/f ratio of about 2. Young people dating - parent would be lucky to get into a 4:1 pool. Like he said, it's the same thing, except more shallow and at a higher pace.

He's saying that the ratio and attitudes are the same. Women can almost universally get a massive number of dates, regardless of what they can bring to the table. It leads to some bizarrely inflated egos, and other frustrating issues.

It is true that it's easier for attractive women, but IME, it really seems like everyone was getting loads of attention. Not just low effort moves for quick sex, although that's still a huge problem. I didn't know any women that didn't get more serious attempts by decent looking, and normal enough guys.

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