Yeah, you read that right. I've gotten kicked off of Tinder twice now.
I've never really taken Tinder seriously. I mean, yeah, it's a good way to meet new people. And, yeah, window shopping for the most desirable partner is pretty fun. Out of the four years I've had it, I've only really followed through with meeting two people from Tinder.
For me, it's a huge self-esteem boost to match with my peers. Getting pickup lines (vulgar as they usually are) allows me to continue being as vain as I want. Besides that, I use it as practice to guess people's zodiac signs with as little information as possible.
Needless to say, my profile is pretty joke-y. So when I came across a Buzzfeed article about a girl that was getting random matches to send her money, I had to try it.
You remember this, right? Her bio just said, "Send me $5 and see what happens". When she would get matches, she sent them a link to her Paypal account.
In an interview, she said that she had gotten money from about 20 matches in one week. I'm a struggling college student, so this was the perfect way to stop balling on a budget.
I opened up my Tinder and changed my bio. "Send me $5 and see what happens!" I wrote. Then I kept using Tinder the way I always had.
I didn't notice that I was getting more or fewer matches. Everything seemed pretty much the same. Then that familiar beep played and I rushed to open the first message I'd gotten.
"What happens if I send you $5?"
It was some unsuspecting college student.
"Find out," I replied. He asked how he should send the money, and I sent him a link to my Paypal account, just like that girl had. I closed Tinder and waited.
The next day, I hadn't gotten a notification that he had responded. I didn't get a Paypal notification, either. That's kind of weird, I thought. Besides that, I hadn't gotten any "New Match" notifications.
I opened Tinder and saw the "Login or sign up with Facebook!" screen. Maybe my phone was glitching. Whatever. I hit "Login" An error message popped up.
So I tried again. And again. And again.
Finally, I gave up. The guy must have reported me or something. But why?? He was only my first match!
A few days later, I got that familiar itch to swipe through the eligible bachelors in my area. Tinder used to only work if you had a Facebook, so I made another account. I didn't friend anyone and I only uploaded the photos that I wanted to put on Tinder.
When my family confronted me about why I had two Facebook accounts, I just shrugged it off and didn't give them a real answer. I wasn't hurting anyone by having another one.
I kept Tindering for awhile, but then it hit me: Maybe the only reason he reported me was because that girl had gone viral, and he was just doing his civic duty or something. So I decided to try again.
Surely I won't get kicked off Tinder again! Obviously, I was wrong. This time, I put a link to my Venmo account right in my bio. That way it wouldn't seem like I was actively soliciting money. If I never had a conversation with someone, how could they report me?
I started swiping away, as usual. Out of nowhere, the app crashed.
When I clicked back into it, what screen do you think popped up? "Login or sign up with Facebook!"
You're joking.
No, they were not joking. I tried logging in a few times, only to get the same error message.
I have a new Tinder account now. You can link your account to your phone number now, so that's what I did. And I'm not trying to go viral on Buzzfeed anymore.
Moral of the story: Don't ask for money on Tinder. Or do. But if you do, just know that you might get banned indefinitely.
Other moral of the story: Guys don't get banned from Tinder for their vulgar pickup lines, but soliciting money is A HUGE NO-NO.