eHarmony Blog.com

(… to our knowledge, that is.)

Last Saturday 19 April 2008, WorldNetDaily published a commentary regarding the article “Navigating the One Night Stand” that appeared on the eHarmony Advice site earlier this month. WND said:

… A failure to retract will lead many to believe that eHarmony sees this as a minor issue and is open to “navigating” its readers into such risky territory again in the future. …

Read the full text of “Navigating the One Night Stand” here.

The controversial article first appeared on the site circa 8 April 2008. If you visited eHarmony Blog at the time or afterwards you may have seen it in the eHarmony Advice syndication section of our front page.

I would like to admit I didn’t think much of it at the time. “Navigating” was congruous and accordant with many recent articles in the singles-advice site, one of which begins with, “You meet that special someone. You talk, you date, oh and did I mention that you two have amazing chemistry in the bedroom!”

The bad rap began when eHarmony placed the article in its 16 April 2008 newsletter and emailed this to all eHarmony members and all eHarmony Advice registrants.

Many people called eHarmony to close their accounts. I suspect at this point Warren got a phone call from his FotF friends.

eHarmony apologizes for “Navigating the One Night Stand”

Last night the following message appeared on eHarmony Advice. I’m sure Mr. Holt won’t mind that I republish it:

A Note from the Publisher

Last week, the eHarmony Advice site published a column called “Navigating the One-Night Stand” that was also included in the eHarmony email newsletter which reached many regular readers of our Advice site. The advice contained in this column was completely inconsistent with our editorial guidelines and the relationship service that we offer to our members. The day after sending the e-mail newsletter, I was made aware of the column and it was immediately removed from our site.

eHarmony is committed to helping its members find highly compatible, long-term relationships and I regret that the inappropriate content and tone of the column could lead our members to believe that we were not interested in their long-term relationship success. For nearly a decade, eHarmony has served its members very effectively by delivering matches that have resulted in tens of thousands of marriages. We apologize to anyone who read the column and found it inappropriate.

You deserve and expect the best from eHarmony and we are dedicated to providing information that resonates with our diverse, vibrant, and thriving community. Please be assured that we are immediately upgrading our editorial review process and are also reviewing our existing content to make sure that it is consistent with the interests of our members.

Stan Holt (bio) (stan.holt@eharmony.com)
Vice President, Publishing

Aftermath: What people are saying

• My comment

  The company has skirted several issues and public concerns in the past, and I have never seen them publish a retraction or an apology about anything. In numerous occasions they don’t return calls to news reporters. The CEO dodges interview questions. I praise eHarmony for this letter. What a great start!

  Issue cleared; They’re sorry. Will we be able to move forward?
  21 April 2008

• Online Dating Industry Journal wrote:

  … People and businesses make mistakes. For eHarmony this was a big blunder in that it was a huge contradiction to the message they try to portray to the public. But an even bigger mistake may have come in the form of censorship in eHarmony’s discussion forums. There was a thread created to discuss the article and many people shared their feelings about it. Instead of allowing the discussion to continue or simply making the last post an apology and closing the thread, eHarmony instead deleted the entire thread. It’s like eHarmony is trying to erase the fact that the article ever appeared on its Website. The forum was created for feedback regarding eHarmony and the articles in its Advice section and to completely disregard that is sure to infuriate members who posted there even more. … 22 April 2008

• Ted Slater posted in Boundless Line:

  … I think it’s actually more of a damage control editorial than a sincere mea culpa. In my opinion, eHarmony has become all about market share and money, and only tangentially about facilitating healthy marriages. They seem more concerned about affirming its less-virtuous dues-paying members than about guiding couples into forming good marriages. … 22 April 2008

• J.P. Duffy, author of the WND commentary, wrote:

  … We fully accept the apology and are greatly encouraged that the statement calls the article “completely inconsistent” with the relationship service that they offer to their members. I thank eHarmony for recognizing its mistake and making it clear that they wish to remain in the values-matching service business. … 22 April 2008

• Lisa wrote:

  It’s good to publicize that the Family Research Council is dictating content for homophobic eHarmony’s customer communications. How many would choose to retain their memberships if they knew the FRC was not just a friend, but in charge? 24 April 2008

• Scott Grey wrote:

  … I understand eHarmony’s position. They hate to lose customers and the good word-of-mouth among the Christian right.

  But, I hope they they keep focusing on why they’re successful.

  It isn’t because of a Christian right affiliation. … People come to the service because of their core promise. That, when you use their service, you meet people who are “more compatible” than you’ll meet elsewhere. … Frankly, I hope this trend continues. … 25 April 2008