Six types of men turned up on Tinder in December 2014, going by their profile photos: Mr Money, Mr Mysterious, Mr Emo, Mr Mojo, Mr Sunshine and Mr Manscape. Each was read from what his pictures showed, from luxury cars to mirror selfies. In the same month, Bumble, the dating app founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd and Andrey Andreev, launched. Less than two years later it set its own rules for several of the photos on this list.
The status seekers
Mr Money. In 2014 he posted selfies from the back seat of a luxury car, with designer man-bags and a $10,000 bill from a night of partying. The reading then was that he cared only about status symbols and wanted a trophy girlfriend to match his bespoke suit while he popped champagne. The advice was to swipe left.
Mr Mojo. He was the sharp dresser who always appeared surrounded by beautiful women. Those photos were read as a sign that he badly wanted women to like him, and as a warning that he had a roving eye and would not be dropping the women in his group shots any time soon.
Group shots like his became a specific case on Bumble. Its October 2016 photo rules still allowed group photos, but users also had to post solo photos so that others could tell which person in the group they were.
The hidden faces
Mr Mysterious. In every photo, something covered his face: sunglasses, a hat or another prop. In 2014 he was cast as obsessed with privacy, perhaps a man who believed governments used face-recognition technology to track people, and he was counting on mystery to win women over.
Bumble’s October 2016 rules worked against him. They required a user’s face to be clearly visible, with the eyes showing.
Mr Emo. His face was visible, but it wore a pained, trying-to-look-aloof expression. The 2014 reading was that he thought himself unique, looked down on anything mainstream, Coldplay included, and hoped someone would finally understand him.
The sunny one and the mirror fan
Mr Sunshine. He grinned or gave a thumbs-up in every picture. In 2014 he was singled out as the good guy of the bunch, someone who genuinely loved life and would be a loyal boyfriend with no commitment issues, as long as he was not friend-zoned.
Mr Manscape. He was usually bare-chested, well-groomed and very fond of a mirror selfie. In 2014 he got credit for sticking to his exercise routine but was judged a little self-obsessed, and his selfies were read as a possible sign of insecurity and a need to prove his manliness.
His favourite shot was the main target of Bumble’s October 2016 rules, which banned mirror selfies on profiles, along with selfies of users in their underwear and swimsuit photos taken indoors. Swimsuit photos taken at a beach or pool were still allowed, and so were shirtless photos at the gym. The same rules also stopped users from posting photos that showed only their children.