Young and Full of Fluff

That's awesome!! Hahahaha. I am impressed.

From:

eHarmony is evil. So glad somebody's decided to point that out.

From:

trinityvixen.livejournal.com

They're trying to get those ads pulled--eHarmony is, I mean. The guy who runs it is saying that his lack of experience with the gays is reason enough not to try to apply his crazy formulas to them.

From:

Yeah-huh. I'm sure that's it. But the chemistry.com ads do say "we don't know why eHarmony has rejected over a million people..." They imply it, but they're not saying "eHarmony hates gays!" And the rest of the ads in the campaign don't imply anything at all, just that it's absurd for a dating website to reject people.

Whatever. eHarmony needs its comeuppance. Their ads always piss me off.

From:

svilleficrecs.livejournal.com

The playboy/"Nope, still gay" one slays me every time. His expressions!!! All, "Oh, that's...that's very nice. That's, um, okay." HAH.

From:

Um, I have to sort of disagree with you. Saying that eHarmony is "evil" and needs its comeuppance is sort of ridiculously reactionary. Why is it evil? Because it doesn't match gay people? A private dating company is under no obligation to match gay people, just like a gay dating site would be under no obligation to accomodate straight people. eHarmony definitely doesn't try to hide the fact that it's not set up to accomodate same sex matches, and it's not like they're conning people into paying, and then refusing to match them.

And actually, the chemistry.com ads DO imply that eHarmony hates gays, as well as implying that they're religiously bigoted with their "was it my love for Buddha?" ad. There's a good article about the whole thing in the Washington Post here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201350_2.html

I mean, yes, the ads are funny, but they're purely match.com trying to go "nah nah nah" to their older competitors - nothing noble about them. It's a little silly to act like they're finally having the bravery to stand up to the evil conglomerate that is eHarmony, just because you disagree with their business practices.

Okay, I'm done.

From:

Interesting article. But I still stand behind finding that ad funny. Yes, a private dating company has every right to reject whomever they want to reject. That doesn't mean I can't point and laugh at them.

From:

Oh, the ad is totally funny. I'm pointing at your "eHarmony is evil and deserves comeuppance" statement, rather than the, "these ads are hilarious!" statement, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

From:

trinityvixen.livejournal.com

It not only rejects them. Doesn't it also call them some name or say they're damned or something, too? I know it does something specifically not nice to people who say they're looking for a partner of the same sex as themselves.

From:

The problem isn't that they reject them, it's that they allow people with homosexual orientations to sign up for their website and pay for a service that eHarmony refuses to provide.

From:

Nope, it just says that mysteriously you have no matches.

From:

Not true, actually. People complete the questionaire for free, and are told immediately whether or not eHarmony feels they can match them. No one ever pays any money if they're rejected.

From:

Is that true? That wasn't my understanding. If that's the case, my apologies.

From:

edgehopper.livejournal.com

Yup. eHarmony, like most internet dating services, only charges you to communicate with matches, not to look at them. If you're never matched, you'll never have a reason to pay.

From:

trinityvixen.livejournal.com

I thought it also poked mean. I stand corrected.

From:

I'm going to jump back in and say that there's nothing unethical or illegal about eHarmony, they're just a little skeezy. Lots of other dating services target specific audiences: J-date for jewish people, Good Genes for Ivy Leaguers, gay.com for gay people. But for all these other services their selectivity is out in the open--heck, it's their advertising campaign.

eHarmony, on the other hand, advertises itself as the place for happy shiny people looking for love. And while nothing in their ads implies that it's gay-friendly, nothing implies that it isn't. A quick poke around their website and I couldn't find any mention that it didn't have a service available for gay people, as it says in the article. The fact that you'd have to go through their 258-question survey to be told there are no matches for you when it's a company decision based on lack of accurate data for gays makes it seem shady. If it's as above-board and innocent as they say, why not make it clear up front?

They also don't take people that their survey shows have dysthmia, which again, they have every right to do. But it is insulting to those people to have a dating website tell them that they aren't worth even trying to match. I mean, getting rejected from a dating service before you even have a chance to be rejected by dates is kind of harsh.

So in conclusion: they're not evil, they're not commiting fraud, they're not prejudiced, they're just deceitful.

From: