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Comment by Lacerda69 | Hacker News Reader

I personally had great experience with dating apps. Met two of my long-term partners on an app. Not sure if I would still use them now, but back then it wasn't bad.

Of course social media and the internet has enshittified a lot over the last 10 years, so my experience could be different now.

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Yeah, like for a lot of things, there was a window. Tinder was probably the pivot. When Tinder was at its peak, so were dating apps. Now, they're all just kind shit. They've gamified the wrong aspects.

I think it's totally not in the interests of dating apps for you to find a long term partner and stop using the app. They need a charging structure that is a fixed single cost, not a subscription. Ideally if you don't get a match in, say, 2 years, you should get your money back.

It’s a bit complicated because they rise and fall by word of mouth.

People will say things like, “everyone on Tinder is gross lately but I’m going out with someone cute from Hinge Thursday so fingers crossed”. And their friends will download Hinge/be more likely to delete Tinder if it’s not working for them either.

Maybe the ideal situation for the apps would be to match you with a steady stream of short term partners who turn into good friends, so you both say good things about the app and also keep using it.

Met my wife through OKC when it was still good, with that percentage questionnaire match score and such. By all accounts it's about as crappy as all the other dating apps now, so I suppose I lucked out on hitting the right point in time.

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