Getting to Know You

Match.com spokeswoman Kristin Kelly says that in one of its surveys, 92 percent of respondents reported being perfectly honest in their profiles. But in a large-scale 2001 Canadian study, more than a quarter of respondents admitted misrepresenting themselves; other surveys have had similar results.

Clicking through the reviews on Truedater -- which are browsable, by the way -- the road to the truth revolution seems paved with juicy schadenfreude.

"This guy's pictures are WAY out of date! They are about 10 years old -- and those 10 years haven't done him any justice!" writes MindyW about an unfortunate date. A link to her mark's JDate profile shows three pictures of a mop-haired young man, smiling and squinting in the sun.

"REAL waste of time," begins a review of another unfortunate. "Age & years he went to school don't jive. Graduate education that doesn't exist. . . . Rambling about excuse . . . You get the picture!!"

Attempts to reach the dissed were unsuccessful.

"Definitely, a fair number of people go on just to read the dating reviews," says Dominic Ang about Niftyguy.com, the site he co-founded in April. Billing itself as "your guide to who's nifty in the San Francisco Bay area," the site contains browsable reviews -- sometimes labeled with the person's full name. The reviews are not just about dates, but also cover professionals for hire, like plumbers and hairstylists.

As on Truedater, a decent percentage is positive. But the negative ones -- like the guy who gets tagged a "total weirdo" for IM-ing his crush too much -- "are the funniest," says Ang. "They crack me up."

Like Geller, Ang says that because his site merely posts the reviews rather than creating them, he and his site are "only publishers and distributors and disseminators of the information." Both sites plainly say they do no verification, though they do remove posts deemed offensive, and give users an easy to way report those.

Match.com's Kelly finds that position troubling. "A free-form venue to discuss people is interesting," she says. "That does seem to be something that consumers want to do. But you have to be real careful about violating people's privacy.

"Truedater is not making any claim about the veracity of the information, which could be hurtful and damaging. They're careful to distance themselves from that responsibility but it's there nonetheless."

Opinity.com, a Web site launched last month as an "online and social reputation services company," also guards its information carefully.

"We don't let users browse the reviews," says CEO Ted Cho. "This is not for fun."