eHarmony Blog.com

Question:

What counts as a “view” in Who Has Viewed Me? What counts as an activity in “Sort by recent activity”? What counts as a “Match Update”? Help me figure out my match is doing!

Answer:

There are many programming inconsistencies on the site, borne from many years of disparate revisions by many disparate programmers who never used the site as actual customers. This article hopes to clarify which is what… at least until the next revision.

Views. A “view” means your match looked you up. It is anytime a person accesses a Match page, that is, any page that has your photo on it — with a couple exceptions. Two exceptions are the “Icebreaker” page and the “Request Secure Call” page. The system doesn’t count them as views.

Accessing the Personality Profile is also not a view. Neither is clicking on a link in an email on your Inbox from eHarmony.

Take note that closed matches (by either you or your match) do not appear on the list.

To answer this question, we first made a match-pair, that is, we created two eHarmony accounts which eHarmony has matched together. Next, we compiled the URLs of the pages that might or might not be a view. Finally, we tested one URL per day (or actually two a day since we controlled both accounts).

Activities. An “activity” marks the last time your match wanted to learn more about you. Activities are exactly those that advance the “last communication date” on the My Matches page. “Sort by Recent Activity” sorts by this time stamp. Activities can be any of the following:

• viewing the profile the very first time
• any one of the 21 steps of Guided Communication
  • e.g., reading questions, answers and MH/CS lists for the very first time
• sending a message in eHarmony Mail
• closing the match
• reopening the match

It’s true; viewing the profile the first time counts as a communication.

The following are examples of non-activities:

• rereading something or viewing something again
• archiving the match
• actions affecting all matches, such as:
  • logging in
  • ending one’s subscription
  • buying anything from the site
  • changing one’s match settings or sharing settings
• requesting, accepting or rejecting Secure Call.
• viewing the Personality Profile
• viewing or sending an Icebreaker

Closing your account causes the site to close all your matches in a couple of days, so it, indirectly, counts as an activity.

Updates. Four things trigger a “Match Update”. It is exactly any of the following:

• Making changes to “In My Own Words”
• Having a newly-approved photo.
• Sending an IceBreaker, a Nudge, or any communication that allows a reply.
• Reopening the match.

Other actions, like making changes to Something to Talk About settings, to Match settings (such as if one has kids) or to MH/CS lists, do not show as Match Updates.

Take note that closed matches (by either you or your match) do not appear on the Match Updates list.