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Tinder Announces New 'Height Verification' Feature. But They May Be Lying (gotinder.com) 323

Posted by EditorDavid from the tall-tales dept.
"The Tinder dating app will soon be asking men to submit photos in order to verify their height," writes long-time Slashdot reader SonicSpike, sharing a post made Friday (March 29th) on the official Tinder blog. Let's be real, when it comes to online dating -- honesty is the best policy. Yes, your height matters as long as every other shallow aspect of physical attraction does. Please try not to take it to heart...

Height-lying ends here. To require everyone under 6' to own up to their real height, we're bringing truthfulness back into the world of online dating. Introducing Tinder's Height Verification Badge (HVB), because yes -- sometimes it matters. It's the tool we've had in our back-pockets for years, but we were hoping your honesty would allow us to keep it there... Simply input your true, accurate height with a screenshot of you standing next to any commercial building. We'll do some state-of-the-art verifying and you'll receive your badge directly on your profile.

Oh, and by the way? Only 14.5% of the U.S. male population is actually 6' and beyond. So, we're expecting to see a huge decline in the 80% of males on Tinder who are claiming that they are well over 6 feet.
The post concludes that "Tinder's HVB is coming soon to a phone near you," and Tinder's official Twitter account described the feature as "the thing you never asked for, but definitely always wanted," with a short video showing their app displaying errors for incorrect heights. (The second error message reads "Seriously... Please enter your correct height.") The video has been viewed 2.78 million times. Its tagline? "Let's bring honesty back to dating."

"It's unknown at this point if this is a real feature that the company is adding to its dating app," reported one local news site, "or an early April Fool's joke."
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Tinder Announces New 'Height Verification' Feature. But They May Be Lying More

Tinder Announces New 'Height Verification' Feature. But They May Be Lying

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  • Hilarious (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Sunday March 31, 2019 @01:37PM (#58362046)
    Looks like the men have been violating the number one qualification for women on Tinder.

    Honesty is the best policy? How about you clean up the ladies bios and pictures? Oh - the picture looks like you weigh 100 pounds less? Must be the camera angle.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's just a shitty marketing campaign. Tinder has a reputation for being full of people exaggerating their physical attributes. They pretend to be taller, to have bigger boobs, to have more money and a better car.

      Obviously what they claim is impossible, there is no way to determine a person's height from one or two photos that only show the guy from the waist up.

      • Re:Hilarious (Score:4, Insightful)

        by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Sunday March 31, 2019 @02:17PM (#58362230)

        Tinder has a reputation for being full of people exaggerating their physical attributes. They pretend to be taller, to have bigger boobs, to have more money and a better car.

        Uh, Tinder has a reputation?

        Humans have a reputation for exaggerating their physical attributes. A bullshit artist doesn't need Tinder, and that tool is doing nothing more than representing human behavior. Destroy it today, and the same damn thing will pop up in its place tomorrow. With all the same problems.

      • When are they going to deploy a Weight Verification Badge for the "ladies"?

      • >"Obviously what they claim is impossible, there is no way to determine a person's height from one or two photos that only show the guy from the waist up."

        +1

        There is a relation between "torso length" and "limb length" but it is far from reliable. I know people who appear quite tall sitting, but have short legs/arms, and the reverse- short torso, long legs/arms. You have to get a full photo of someone first.... and even then, you can only estimate height.

        Anyway, it is pretty sad that something so shallo

        • Anyway, it is pretty sad that something so shallow as height will drive people's dating decisions.

          Women in general prefer taller men, and the taller the better. https://www.lovepanky.com/men/... [lovepanky.com] And for an actual study, Rice University: http://news.rice.edu/2014/02/1... [rice.edu]

          I was watching a woman reporter interviewing James Comey, who is pretty tall. She was a pretty liberal person, and would normally be pretty antagonistic toward some damage he might have done. But she was entranced - even giddy around him.

      • It's just a shitty marketing campaign..

        We're into understatement today! 8^)

    • Re:Hilarious (Score:4, Informative)

      by OzPeter ( 195038 ) on Sunday March 31, 2019 @01:56PM (#58362136)

      Looks like the men have been violating the number one qualification for women on Tinder.

      Honesty is the best policy? How about you clean up the ladies bios and pictures? Oh - the picture looks like you weigh 100 pounds less? Must be the camera angle.

      You are presupposing that the women actually exist in the first place. During the data breach a few years ago Ashley Madison was exposed as having a ton of fake profiles (one site even suggested 90-95% of female profiles were fake) I presume that any site that requires men to pay real money to connect women most like has a huge number of fake profiles on their books.

      • I met the love of my life on Tinder. Anecdotal, of course, but hey... it worked for one guy at least :)

        Strictly ontopic, I did a quick conversion and I am 5.97113 feet tall. Bummer :P

      • Eh. Women did exist I tinder, plenty of them. Mate of mine is a regular there and seems to have no problems. He's not tall either, maybe 5'7".

        I don't really see how fake profiles would work on it. So presumably you swipe right(?) And the fake profile auto swipes right. Then you message and... Nothing? Then what?

      • You are presupposing that the women actually exist in the first place

        Plenty of real women there. Take my word for it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by rogoshen1 ( 2922505 )

      Definitely -- they need a weight verification tool for women as well. Maybe some combination of advanced image analysis utilizing gravitational lensing and/or bathroom scale selfies.

      Calling out the double standard is hilarious as well.
      height? women can be picky/shitty about this one -- men can't do anything but chant "grow, grow, grow" and hope c'thulu hears their prayer
      weight? men asking women their weight is a bit taboo for some reason, despite it being 100% under their control.

      • I understand your grief.
        Woman are not to heavy for their height.
        They are just to small for their weight.

        Obviously you could argue the same way for men :P

      • Re:Hilarious (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Sunday March 31, 2019 @03:47PM (#58362620)

        Definitely -- they need a weight verification tool for women as well. Maybe some combination of advanced image analysis utilizing gravitational lensing and/or bathroom scale selfies.

        Calling out the double standard is hilarious as well. height? women can be picky/shitty about this one -- men can't do anything but chant "grow, grow, grow" and hope c'thulu hears their prayer weight? men asking women their weight is a bit taboo for some reason, despite it being 100% under their control.

        It is rather an odd thing, because men are always called out for all of us being shallow. But looking at the bucket lists that so many women have, it becomes obvious real quickly that they will have to lower their standards, or get pets to keep them company.

    • How about you clean up the ladies bios and pictures? Oh - the picture looks like you weigh 100 pounds less? Must be the camera angle.

      Their goal is to get more women on their website. Not going to happen.

      Beyond just being on the Internet, Tinder is a hookup site. There have always been more men available for hookups than women, for rational biological reasons. Hooking up is higher-risk for women, and if women want a family, they need to start earlier. There's less time for curiosity. Unfair, but true.

      Society also pushes it for men, who are higher status if they hookup, and women are lower status if they hookup. Of course, the risk of

      • Beyond just being on the Internet, Tinder is a hookup site. There have always been more men available for hookups than women, for rational biological reasons. Hooking up is higher-risk for women, and if women want a family, they need to start earlier. There's less time for curiosity. Unfair, but true.

        Oh gawd - the let's wait until the fertility window is closing aspect of so many. There are gioong to be a lot of sad ladies about. Tinder? It's a great way to get free food and drinks though.

    • Really, there is only one qualification for men on most of these sites: the size of your bank account.
    • In addition, the sepia tint could be indicative of an older, less accurate photo...

      • In addition, the sepia tint could be indicative of an older, less accurate photo...

        Or even her mother......

  • It also needs weight verification. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Let's face it, thousands of women on that platform are surely lying about their weight. They use "Myspace angles" to hide in pictures in order to deceive potential matches.

    So, let's be fair and make sure women tell the truth.

    • Re: It also needs weight verification. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      When it comes to women and rights/expectations, the world of double standards is the norm, not the exception.

  • Ah joy, the phony April fools stories (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Sunday March 31, 2019 @01:40PM (#58362060)
    where the company wants to float an idea that might be offensive but wants plausible deniability in case it is.
    • Tinder is offensive, let's be honest. In general, people on that site are not looking for out for the best interest of others, they are extremely selfishly trying to get what they want.

      • Like life, then?

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *

        Tinder is offensive

        You're not forced to download it and use it. Let other people do what they want instead of getting "offended" over stuff that has nothing to do with you.

        • Let other people do what they want instead of getting "offended" over stuff that has nothing to do with you.

          I can do both: let people do what they want, and get offended. That is my right, as is theirs.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
            I can't help how you feel, but usually the next step after being offended is calling for it to stop with censorship or a ban - you do NOT have that right.
            • I absolutely have the right to call for a ban. I'm not going to, because I passed 4th grade civics class and know the problems that can be caused by censorship, but I have the right to.

    • Particularly when narrowing a search by height might violate Americans with Disabilities Act and foreign counterparts. Does the height of a wheelchair's seat count toward the height of a wheelchair-using Tinder user? Would the system correctly recognize the height of someone like photographer Kevin Michael Connolly or aerialist Jen Bricker?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *

        Americans with Disabilities Act

        I don't think the Act contemplates getting laid with an internet app.

  • I hate 1st April (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TheNinjaCoder ( 4386037 ) on Sunday March 31, 2019 @01:50PM (#58362106)
    I should stay offline until 2nd.

  • People faking stuff about their body might get an more easy date.
    But get kicked instantly in the ass when they actually have a date.

    So what is the point?

    The funny thing is, you fake something to impress someone you don't know who is actually interested into the opposite ... fail.

    What you think how many people I know who like tiny woman, but they add 10cm on their profile? Or woman who try to impress with breasts, but the guy actually likes small sizes?

    Same for men, just don't find a good example, probably c

    • Re:Stuff like this is silly ... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ledow ( 319597 ) on Sunday March 31, 2019 @02:12PM (#58362208) Homepage

      Obtaining a date is easy if you lie - look forward to being downrated, commented on, blocked, etc. though. That's why there are trends for "date reviews" nowadays, to ward off others from the creeps and work on a reputation-based system (whether that's "he was a really good shag" or "he's a wonderful guy, we're really good friends, but we just aren't quite right for each other).

      But if 80% of men are saying they're over 6 foot, there's no way that those 80% of men aren't getting repeat dates, hence the only people actually fooling themselves are the women who think they have to have someone over 6 foot and would notice, and men know that and so know they can lie about it and get away with it.

      Maybe if we were all a bit less shallow, these things wouldn't matter. Maybe if they opened up their "essential" criteria a bit, it would help everyone. But women get swamped with guys so they can literally afford to filter to what they think is the "perfect" guy. Guys can't be as picky, fact of life. They might all clamber for the young leggy blonde but fact is that they have to await acceptance from the women on such platforms, not the other way around, hence they will lie to pass that filter.

      It's one of the reasons that whenever I'm dating online I ignore absolutely any statistic and go entirely by the chat. I don't care if they're 4 feet or 20, what their cup size is, what they claim their age to be, and so on. It literally means nothing because virtually everyone lies about those things and the people who think it's important enough to actually put on their profile are the type of people I don't want to date (sometimes you can't avoid putting it on, but you can make it clear whether you give a shit about matching on that or not).

      Even for a one-nighter, if you're that vain that you'll only sleep with people over 6-foot, then I don't really want to know you, whether I'm 6-foot or not.

      Now there are some attributes that are worth knowing for elimination purposes - smokers, for instance. But I have to say that all the vital statistics in the world are useless in gauging how much you enjoy someone's company.

      Honestly, there's a lot to be said for "online blind dates". Just chatting to someone who you know absolutely nothing about.

      But lying about a vital statistic is dumb, and this kind of "verification" will just be photoshopped into oblivion.

      • What the world needs in online blind dates that take place in total and complete darkness.

        Beware that the 'girl' doesn't need a shave.

    • Running around faking something you are not, trying to impress someone you like, but might be interested in just the opposite you fake, plain stupid.

      You assume that everyone using the service is looking for a long term relationship. I have a feeling most are just looking for a quick fuck. I that case, why would you look for anything other than some shallow, vapid person that is also looking for the same thing?

      • Re:Stuff like this is silly ... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by WalrusSlayer ( 883300 ) on Sunday March 31, 2019 @03:31PM (#58362552)

        Having jumped into this world recently, I have some observations...

        At least in my age-bracket (early 50-something, but trolling for 40-somethings and even 30-somethings that are interesting), nearly all the women on Tinder want to replace their lost soul-mate and they want to do it yesterday. This seems to be true of most of the dating sites I'm on. And if you are not existentially clamoring for the same thing then you must be just a serial-dater or a hookup guy and are a waste of their time.

        The notion that a soulmate is a difficult thing to find, and that sometimes it needs to develop organically, is just lost on them. Seems they'd rather sit at home alone rather than entertain the notion that perhaps getting out and about with a less-than-ideal match might be a better use of their time. They might even learn something about how other people work/think/behave, and maybe learn something about themselves in the process. And if that less-than-ideal match is physically attractive, not the end of the world to let off some steam in the pent-up-hormones dept.

        Personally I try to go in with an open mind, and if the date goes nowhere, I got an evening out at the very least. Or it might cultivate a beneficial platonic relationship, which has happened more than once for me. If it's a good fit and grows into something more, then I'm open to that too. You know, just like how real dating works. But the "ya-gotta-be-looking-to-get-married-and-yesterday" filter is a huge obstacle for everyone involved.

        I *am* puzzled at the blatant dishonesty on physical attributes. Lying on your height? Really? And I've gotten really good at reading between the pixels, as it were, on the women's photos. Or at the very least, figure they will be one or two notches less attractive in person. But I'm open to the notion that after a couple of hours, if a person's personality is attractive, the physical appearance truly does go down in importance. Which is one of the biggest limitations in online dating, which is that it's a rare photograph that also conveys a person's soul (to be a bit melodramatic).

        My pictures are representative of how I look. And of course I pick ones that make me look good, but not deceptively so. The only fudging I do is with age. And I'm unapologetic about it. There are a statistically unlikely distributions of 39 and 49y/o women on the site. Sorry, no way. The only explanation is they are trying to game the age filter. In my case, losing 25lbs and hitting the gym regularly means an age filter would unfairly bias me out of searches. *Every* time I've come clean on my age after meeting someone, I always get surprised reactions that I really do look mid-40's (I usually advertise upper 40's), and a few times people have commented that my upbeat demeanor is more of a upper-30/lower-40's person.

        So I won't be happy if they somehow implement age verification, as I truly believe that people put more importance on it than they should. But I imagine that the women will be even less happy, based on the number of 9's I see in the ages.

  • Next up will be length verification as many men exaggerate on this point also.

    To keep it safe and friendly, male patrols will be required to show a ruler placed on their hand as the length of the hand is also an indication of the length of the penis.

    Similarly the arm span from from finger tip to finger tip is another DaVinca human proportion used in the art world.

    How many of you are currently measuring your hand?

  • Just use your mug shot (Score:3)

    by david.emery ( 127135 ) on Sunday March 31, 2019 @01:59PM (#58362144)

    Many mug shots are taken with a height scale behind the perp.

  • The Equality of Misrepresentation (Score:5, Funny)

    by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Sunday March 31, 2019 @02:11PM (#58362200)

    Since it appears that there's a significant problem with men misrepresenting themselves in their online profiles, I don't mind men being targeted for some brutal honestly.

    Of course, this also means I FULLY expect a new Tinder policy that requires every woman's profile to include a full body shot (to include whatever algorithmic hashes are necessary to disprove image manipulation), as well as a makeup-free selfie. There's ZERO reason we should allow the women to get away with misrepresentation.

    I think I've also pointed out the obvious differences between the genders. Careful what you wish for ladies. We men might end up demanding you provide the same, in the name of equity.

    • Of course, this also means I FULLY expect a new Tinder policy that requires every woman's profile to include a full body shot (to include whatever algorithmic hashes are necessary to disprove image manipulation), as well as a makeup-free selfie. There's ZERO reason we should allow the women to get away with misrepresentation.

      To be fair....MOST women need a little makeup.

      I wanna see how well they do it....when you take them out in public, you do want them to look their best you know.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Cederic ( 9623 )

      You (and everybody else) seem to have missed the biggest and most expensive lie.

      "I don't want children."

  • Women with no makeup (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 31, 2019 @02:20PM (#58362238)

    Looking forward to women being required to upload unretouched photos of makeup-free faces, also Weight Verification Badges.

  • To be fare to both sexes they should introduce a feature to validade photos with no make-up and push-up bras.

    If this is actually a april fool's joke, I look forward to see they do it next year with weight verification for women, including the same corny video showing them puting their weight as 95lb, then 110lb, then 140lb and getting a verification icon. No chance of rabid comments at all, no sir.

  • Weird (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Teun ( 17872 ) on Sunday March 31, 2019 @03:11PM (#58362486)
    Weird, only 14.5% of US males being over 6'.
    I'm born in 1952 and when I was drafted (1970) the average height of my age was 6'2"...
    (I'm from the Netherlands)
    Still weird because in my youth I was always told about these tall US soldiers that in 1945 came to liberate us.
    What happened between say 1935 and 2019?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Not weird at all.

      The Netherlands has the highest average height of any country in the world, and is much more genetically homogeneous (77% Dutch/Frisian) than the U.S. It also has had good nutrition with loads of dairy in the diet since the end of WWII. And those tall G.I.s were by and large young, Euro-American farm boys raised on diets of cheap beef, milk, and corn, basically the tallest subset of the American population, whereas the Netherlands went through 7 years of war and poverty, during which its ty

    • What happened between say 1935 and 2019?
      They shrinked.
      Shrunk?
      Shronked?

    • Re:Weird (Score:5, Informative)

      by Ecuador ( 740021 ) on Sunday March 31, 2019 @03:52PM (#58362652) Homepage

      I'm born in 1952 and when I was drafted (1970) the average height of my age was 6'2"...
      (I'm from the Netherlands)
      Still weird because in my youth I was always told about these tall US soldiers that in 1945 came to liberate us.

      You are quite off, I suspect you did a conversion error: 6'2" is 1.87 cm, when the average height of Dutch men in 1970 was about 1.76 (5'9" - 5'10"). The average height of the Dutch men has been increasing steadily and fast until around 2000, slower now but it is at its highest ever at 1.84m (just over 6ft). They started as the shortest men in the late 19th century (1.60 average), but I cannot find a 1940s figure to quote.
      US men on the other hand seems to have pretty much plateaued in height around 1970 and they were considered among the tallest in the world the further back you go in time. In 1943 specifically the average height of US recruits was 174cm. As I can't tell how that graph goes from the late 19th century's 160cm to the 1970 176cm, I am not sure if the US soldiers would be noticeably taller during WW 2. But I suspect the difference might have been more "psychological" rather than physical.

    • Wikipedia says 5' 11" [wikipedia.org] self-reported. Self-reported.

    • Mexicans.
      The average height of a Mexican woman is under 5'1".

  • What with it being March 31st I'd say it's just an April Fool's joke that jumped the gun, but from what little I know of Tinder I wouldn't be surprised if it was true.

    If they do this with men, will they also make women post a pic so their weight could be determined? Or would that be atrociously shallow and sexist of me?

    • Anyone that goes live with their joke before April 1, UTC should be blacklisted from the news. And judging by the devuan news just posted to slashdot, slashdot itself should be included :(
  • They didn’t do weight because women would have thought they were serious and protested in front of their offices.
  • I really hope they don't require pics or proof of other ..... claimed physical attributes.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Well yes, but ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Sunday March 31, 2019 @09:27PM (#58363852)

    ... I'm taller lying down.

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