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At 12/16/08 11:55 AM, poxpower wrote: But I haven't found the whole thing so maybe not. Though given the number of matching websites and match services in the past, I'd wager it's about as close to a pseudoscience as you could get since it seems any moron can start one up with bold claims like they have "studies" and a "proven method" and so on.

It's a pseudoscience in the same way that psychiatry is a pseudoscience. They can guess and make correlations and know that their shit works statistically without actually knowing what's going on.

It's the modern equivalent of a witch doctor. It does work, they just don't know what they're actually doing.

Yeah the business can pretty much run their business however they want, as to who they want to service and how they want to service them.

I think the only reason those sites work is because everyone that uses them are desperate as hell.

At 12/16/08 12:46 PM, Elfer wrote:

It's a pseudoscience in the same way that psychiatry is a pseudoscience.

The pseudoscience lies in their method, not in the results, sort of like how acupuncture relaxes people simply by the act of being treated for an hour by another person. They could be doing anything for one hour and it would probably work.

So I'm pretty skeptical of how "exclusive" their match-making method is, especially given the kinds of questions I've seen so far. If it were possible to see the whole questionnaire or to hear exactly why this doesn't work for lesbians, I'd check it out :o

At 12/16/08 12:55 PM, StephanosGnomon wrote: So going along with your example a better question would be this: If a black person walked into your white yuppies-only bar and asked for a snifter of Hennessy but your bar doesn't stock that type of drink, would he have a right to FORCE YOU to stock it just so you could serve him? Why should you have to change YOUR menu and YOUR inventory when there are simply other bars out there that would gladly cater to his tastes?

This is a flawed example.
Because eHarmony outright banned gay people from using their services, this isn't exactly a, "Oh, so sorry... don't have Hennessy, have a Guinness instead."

What is more,
how comparable is a person's tastes versus a case of discrimination?
Not that comparable at all.

I mean, anyone can compare Chernobyl to a car collision in terms that both are accidents and both are very sad, but-- you couldn't pick things anymore dissimilar.

eHarmony has a right to drop profiles based on an individual's quality, but it doesn't have a right to renegade on discrimination laws.

I don't know about you, but I have never been in any ethnic restaurant entirely composed of whatever ethnic group they're serving. Last month, I made sushi made by a Mexican man who primarily spoke Spanish working on a staff that primarily spoke Japanese. Yesterday, my pho soup was served by a Black man, yet everyone else looked Vietnamese.

Having a White waiter in a Chinese restaurant shouldn't bother people that much. And even if it's important for the waiting staff to look Chinese, this doesn't disbar the White person from working in the kitchen or from other positions.

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One of the things I've always wondered was... if I applied for a job at a Chinese restaurant and got turned down, could I claim descrimination? That I didn't get hired because I'm not Asian? I probably COULD sue, but still, that'd be some frivolous bullshit. They can hire whoever they want to hire, and it's their right to have only Chinese-looking people working at their Chinese-themed restaurant if they so wish.

Yes. Actually, you can.
Although, you would have to be sure that they didn't hire because you're not Asian, and not because of other factors. (Perhaps you have a history of picking and dropping jobs, maybe your interview didn't go too well, and other things like that.)

Because even if a restaurant had a theme, that restaurant is obliged under law to not discriminate.

I worked in a gay bar. Not many people know, but I also worked in a gay bathhouse. Now, you would think, "Oh, both things are gay... so you had to be gay to work those jobs." Nope, wrong... not even a factor considered in the hiring process. A lot of these guys I worked with were straight, some with wives and children.

Wasn't there a King of the Hill episode like this also? Where Dale started working at a Hooter's or something like it? LOL. Anyway, discrimination laws should apply to government shit only, not private citizens or businesses.

This is where you're wrong.
Of course a business needs to act appropriately, and they should not discriminate. Instead, this should base this on the qualities of the person than the attributes.

Even if you applied to Hooters, they don't have a basis to discriminate you on the basis of your gender because there are other jobs that you can do that don't depend on your gender... cook, janitor, whatever the next position.

At 12/16/08 01:01 PM, poxpower wrote: So I'm pretty skeptical of how "exclusive" their match-making method is, especially given the kinds of questions I've seen so far. If it were possible to see the whole questionnaire or to hear exactly why this doesn't work for lesbians, I'd check it out :o

What do you mean "if it were possible"? Just go check.

Note: You'd probably want to check for any differences between the questions for women and men.

Also, I'd be very surprised if they just arbitrarily selected a matching algorithm and were as successful as they are now without doing any research or testing.

At 12/16/08 07:06 PM, Elfer wrote:

What do you mean "if it were possible"? Just go check.

I did, but it won't let me sign up.
Every time I fill out the "sign up" shit to take their test for free, it goes to a blank page and I get no emails.
I can't find the quiz online but apparently it's very extensive and possibly biased towards people who are straight and religious. At least that's what some people say, i.e. they won't match you if you're not religious enough. Whatever, probably just some fat ugly star trek nerd who got pissed.

Most questions seem to be completely arbitrary and simply aimed at 2 things:
- matching people who have the same answers
- letting members quiz each other to see if the prospective date gives out desired answers.

Basically, anything that a gay/ straight/ lesbian/ animal / robot / bag of nails would ask to get with another.

1) E-Harmony is a private organization and has EVERY RIGHT not to allow users based on race, creed, sexual orientation, etc.

2) My straight friend signed up and was rejected for not being pretty enough. I lol'ed.

Ok, I'm officially starting a new petition against the state and every business in the country. I want women's bathrooms open to all who wish to enter. Why should I be denied just because I have a penis?

At 12/16/08 08:27 PM, poxpower wrote: Most questions seem to be completely arbitrary and simply aimed at 2 things:
- matching people who have the same answers
- letting members quiz each other to see if the prospective date gives out desired answers.

Basically, anything that a gay/ straight/ lesbian/ animal / robot / bag of nails would ask to get with another.

I'm assuming that the algorithm is somewhat more complicated than a simple least squares thing. I sure wouldn't want someone EXACTLY like me.