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Business: Matchmaking
Relationship references   (+5, -4)  [vote for, against]
Background checks for potential mates

Don't you wish you'd known this before you went out with (fill in the blank)?

When a current becomes a former, both parties fill out the form. Perhaps a mandatory cooling-off period......

Potential mates could, for a fee, access your references and consider your history, as presented by those who should know. As well would the volume of references, or lack thereof, speak.......well, volumes.
-- normzone, Dec 30 2003

Halfbakery: E-Lay E-Lay
Not quite what you describe, but some of the links veer there. [jutta, Aug 02 2008]

XKCD take on things like this... http://xkcd.com/796/
[normzone, Sep 22 2010]

Found this corporate review and thought of this idea ... https://www.indeed....echnologies/reviews
[normzone, Mar 01 2018]

we did this before but until the former turns up +1

my mother spoke well of me :)
-- po, Dec 30 2003


It seemed like something who's time would have already come...I searched in vain...thanks for the vote, I'll delete if it is demonstrated redunredundant.

Re-done dant?

I'm shuddering picturing my own scores on this service...
-- normzone, Dec 30 2003


the word is redundant. you will not hear it from these lips!

hey Norm is OK - big hearted bloke if you know what I mean :)
-- po, Dec 30 2003


This could possibly be added to the Protection of Privacy issue. I personally wouldn't want background info done on me. Although that being said, this would have been a great service if I had used it on my ex..
-- v0rtexx, Dec 30 2003


[po] thanks, I was unable to think of a tactful way to mention that....[renfield] I see where you're going with this, and it might even be amusing if the database was all based on reports from " ex-friends, ex-lovers and enemies " (Joe Jackson, "On Your Radio")
-- normzone, Dec 30 2003


Hey, you could add fingerprint checks, 25 last known residences, HIV test (current within last 2 days), DNA profiling for defective genes (got to rule out mental illness or birth defects), 10 verifiable references (not family), all employers from last 15 years, school transcripts going back to kindergarten, mother's maiden name and a list of every living family member including address and phone number (all deceased relatives going back 3 generations would have cause of death listed).

Or you could date, listen to your heart and learn about the person, as a friend. "Potential mates" puts too much pressure on early in the relationship.
-- Klaatu, Dec 31 2003


"Previous cellmates include ..."
-- Letsbuildafort, Dec 31 2003


But the only reason I have an ex is that I found out she was a liar. Ah... can't be that bad a report. She keeps finding me again every seven years. or so. All the same, I do not want a crazy liar who is still infatuated with me to write up reports any future partner might read.
-- ye_river_xiv, Aug 02 2008


Would be useful if you wanted to convince a potential partner that you were capable of an amicable break-up. Would it be useful if you were seeking a life parnter? For that, I think, you'd want a reference from someone with whom you were in a relationship that ended against both your wishes. Maybe a testimonial written, during life, by a spouse who subsequently died? I would hesitate to ask for such a thing.
-- mouseposture, Sep 22 2010


Hmmm, if twenty years is any indication, I appear to have found a life parnter. But I'm having difficulty finding the definition of parnter.

Parn is a pharmaceutical outfit ... this is my brain on drugs, I guess. Of course, since your brain IS drugs, that is a default state.
-- normzone, Dec 29 2016


It seems to me that liars would be a problem, when filling out the form. If someone wanted to extra-diss the ex, then some lies/exaggeration about flaws would make for a worse report than the ex actually deserved. Any suggestions on how to prevent that problem?
-- Vernon, Dec 30 2016


To mitigate the concerns, I think it would work better in the same way references work when applying for a job, rather than like a business-review website. (Anybody heard of Peeple? It tried to do the business- review-for-people thing and everybody hated it.)
-- notexactly, Dec 30 2016


You could call it "Ex Factor".
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 30 2016


//liars would be a problem//

I'd write up a nomination for this as "Understatement of the Decade", if I wasn't too busy fishboning this idea for being far too useful to psychopaths. Sadly, the only suggestion I can think of is "Kill all the psychopaths", but somehow that doesn't really work. [-]
-- Wrongfellow, Dec 30 2016



random, halfbakery