I can't address all the particulars raised in this analysis, but the biggest is essentially correct:
> The worst side effect of the current scoring system, is that a spammer could easily answer only the questions with obvious answers (basic facts and display of non-bigotry) and get a decently high match percentage with a lot of people. At which point, the spammer uploads a picture of an attractive guy/girl, writes some generic profile text, and scams away.
The algorithm as described in the FAQ does suffer from this problem. However, we have enhancements that address the issue very effectively. The FAQ is slightly out of date, and shouldn't be taken as a complete, exhaustive description of how we make matches.
Amusingly, you could. Create a new account, answer just those questions as "mandatory", and see who your matches are. That's a bit effort-intensive, obviously.
This actually lets you see people who've answered those questions privately. I've used it to snoop on personal questions that not everybody wants broadcast.
I can't address all the particulars raised in this analysis, but the biggest is essentially correct:
> The worst side effect of the current scoring system, is that a spammer could easily answer only the questions with obvious answers (basic facts and display of non-bigotry) and get a decently high match percentage with a lot of people. At which point, the spammer uploads a picture of an attractive guy/girl, writes some generic profile text, and scams away.
The algorithm as described in the FAQ does suffer from this problem. However, we have enhancements that address the issue very effectively. The FAQ is slightly out of date, and shouldn't be taken as a complete, exhaustive description of how we make matches.