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Relationships

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Original poster

Interesting article on the Ashley Madison hack

52 replies

Skiptonlass · 26/08/2015 22:19

gizmodo.com/almost-none-of-the-women-in-the-ashley-madison-database-1725558944

Someone went through the data and it looks as though the vast, vast majority of female profiles were fake. Very interesting read.

OP posts:

Wando · 26/08/2015 22:26

Doesn't surprise me!

suzannefollowmyvan · 26/08/2015 22:32

hahahahah all those men paying membership fee's so they could cheat with women who didnt even exist

the cheats were rinsed by a scamming website and then exposed by hackers

wickedlazy · 26/08/2015 22:34

Serves them right.

suzannefollowmyvan · 26/08/2015 22:34

sad fuckers didnt even get to fuck

Stompylongnose · 26/08/2015 22:35

I wonder how many men on here are registered as a woman?

Lurleene · 26/08/2015 22:39

The real ladies must have been very busy

Original poster

Skiptonlass · 26/08/2015 22:44

It doesn't surprise me that the ratio of men : women was high, but the sheer scale of it is interesting. The author mines the data to show that almost zero percent of the women on the site were real at all... Those data bars she has aren't to scale - if they were the pink ones would be invisible.

Very interesting bit of data mining and sociology...

The comments are interesting too - several people say they were employed by the other big online dating sites to create fake profiles.

OP posts:

suzannefollowmyvan · 26/08/2015 22:59

Seems to support the generally accepted belief that men are orders of magnitude more likely to seek out extracurricular sex, but very few of those up for it actually get any due to the sheer scarcity of women seeking similar. ?

howtorebuild · 26/08/2015 23:03

What is the problem with these Men wanting multiple sex partners, is it biological?

Original poster

Skiptonlass · 26/08/2015 23:24

I'm wary of using biology to explain it. I think a lot of bad behaviour is excused by this recent 'evolutionary Determinism' movement and I am not convinced by their arguments. We are human beings - to what extent can biology be used as an excuse for immoral behaviour?

It's certainly sociological. Biologically I'm less convinced. Some human cultures have women seen as the insatiable sex... I think the explanation that men are all hard wired to be cheats is a bit lazy and flawed.

While I have little sympathy for the AM users, I am uneasy about recent large scale hacks. What if medical records got hacked because say anti abortion protestors wanted to out women who'd had abortions?

Massive can of worms... Lots to think about.

OP posts:

suzannefollowmyvan · 26/08/2015 23:36

we are a complex and inextricable mix of nature and nurture, I wasn't arguing that anyone is hardwired for anything...at least not in the true sense of the phrase

Original poster

Skiptonlass · 26/08/2015 23:47

we are a complex and inextricable mix of nature and nurture

Yes, that's absolutely my thought as well. I'd like to think that our biology is a big contributor to what we are but that our sentience allows us (compels us even) to rise above that.

It's a very interesting story. It raises questions about biology, sociology, crime, scams, ethics...

OP posts:

TheStoic · 27/08/2015 03:45

I have heard quite a few cases of women who registered as men.

This was to avoid being bombarded by contact when they signed up. They would contact the men of their choosing and send them a picture etc to prove they were actually female.

So some male profiles were really women. But yes, the overwhelming majority were male.

HellKitty · 27/08/2015 04:25

I read an article about online dating the other week. When one woman tried to cancel her account she was suddenly bombarded with messages from impossibly handsome men obviously set up to keep the punters interested.

MrsTerryPratchett · 27/08/2015 05:12

I was talking about this with my husband today - more on the privacy side of things actually. We were debating the ethics of the hack. He was saying he was torn between a sense of 'serves them bloody right, the cheating gits' and uneasiness that so much personal detail was released. Exactly that. The ends justify the means this time but do I trust hackers to target just the 'undeserving'? Recent events at MN would suggest otherwise.

noblegiraffe · 27/08/2015 05:13

So who were the 20 million men chatting to and getting messages from?

sofato5miles · 27/08/2015 05:19

And yet in RL I may have suspected male friends but I know 5 girlfriends who have had affairs, other the years. For them it was about connection though, not just looking for sex.

Wando · 27/08/2015 06:11

The difference in the stats is very stark. It may well say a lot about why men and women seek sex.

SickInBedOnTwoChairs · 27/08/2015 07:46

As giraffe just said, surely if there were hardly any women on AM, men would soon realise it was a scam and the site would be widely known as such. Could it be that the site owners were totally relying on the embarrassment factor to prevent men telling other men that AM is a scam and there are no real women on it? With people being able to communicate with people so easily online anonymously, I find this hard to believe. Surely millions of people can't pay a lot of money, join, realise it's a scam and just do nothing about it, not even speak to each other?

TyrannosaurusBex · 27/08/2015 07:58

Apparently there were female prostitutes on the site. Not sure how that worked - on Ashley Madison's payroll, perhaps?

suzannefollowmyvan · 27/08/2015 08:32

If you are a sex worker hook up sites and cheating sites are a perfect place to look for business.
Men have signed up looking for no strings sex, are getting no where and presumably easily persuaded to pay to get what they want.
The sites are a popular place for 'cam girls'

They are are not on the site payroll, all you need to do is sign up (women use these places for free, men pay) and men will bombard you with messages.
I am sure it is pretty easy to pick out the ones who will be amenable to paying. ?

suzannefollowmyvan · 27/08/2015 08:41

Surely millions of people can't pay a lot of money, join, realise it's a scam and just do nothing about it

They get just enough response from the few women to keep them trying, a bit like gambling, the occasional win makes you keep on trying.

Many men find their way to casual sex sites via free online porn sites, ads on those sites promise that 'hundreds of local women are desperate for no strings sex' I suppose said men are not at their most rational whilst in the grip (pun intended) of a jerking off to porn frenzy.
So they sign up, for some real life action.
Because fat old men can easily pull hot young woman for nsa sex.
Suckers?

noblegiraffe · 27/08/2015 08:50

A lot of men seem to have been saying 'I signed up in a moment of madness, but never actually met any women'.

That's probably true then, although possibly not through want of trying.

suzannefollowmyvan · 27/08/2015 09:06

In my experience very few men on casual dating sites ever even meet any women, let alone get what they signed up for.

The small number of women who use the sites can afford to be very very picky and even if they are interested in 'something casual' very few women are up for sex with total strangers in the way that men are.

The existence ?of sites like AM gives the impression that loads of men are cheating, it is more the case that loads of men would like to but they don't get the opportunity.
?

Wando · 27/08/2015 10:31

That does sound true Suzanne - you can imagine lots of men looking but not feeling able to take the next step.

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