MeetFighters News

How do I get verified?

Go to 'Administration'. There's a button with a green shield on it.
It's explained on there what you have to do.

Awesome idea! As I was recently hoodwinked for the first time on this site (tho have heard other stories from here and all the other wrestling sites too) this should keep trolls and "cyber" folks in their place, leaving those looking for real matches a more with a more secure feeling. Great job guys.

Ha! There's one photo in the picture that does not meet the requirements! He has a shirt on!

But seriously, this wil probably help people with no to a few past opponents a lot! This is a great idea, thumbs up!

...although, just because they are a real person does not mean they will actually meet up (they might just want to deceive and do cyber), but it is progress, nevertheless.

I see this mostly as a thing for people who want to meet up in real life.

How do I get verified

Hey buddy u can get verified by this method if u take ur mask and show ur face and give up discretion.

U & I have over 100+ guys we wrestled and 15 common buddies we wrestled, therefore I know u r one of the guys that wrestle for real. Therefore U r verified already.

Strongly considering this... but isn't the 'discretion' of Verification kind of undone by one having to have a public face pic on one's profile to verify against? Can you please clarify the acceptable setting for the compare-against profile photo that is needed before taking the verification pic with code?

Thanks,

Sean

Good point, didn't think of that issue Sean!

You are correct. Verification is currently only available to members who have a face photo in their profiles.

Thanks for the responses guys... Prob gonna do it, had been considering uploading a face pic anyway. Just concerned about the effect on privacy.

Cheers, and thanks for the continual work on improvements.

Sorry, have previously had my profile photos misused by site members so I'm never going to post one with my face on it. Privacy is important.

Great point bro!!!

I agree. I never posted a face photo and I had my photos with out a face misused by some guys. Imagine if I had my face posted.

DISCRETION is more important to me.

This is what I was thinking. I don't want my face picture as my profile as I look for discretion. There must be a better way?

I'm completely open to suggestions that do not compromise the purpose of verification.

Agree.
I had my photos without face misused by some guys. Imagine if I had my face posted.

Discretion is more important to me.

I have wrestled over 114 guys from MeetFighters and From others sites. I think MeetFighters is the BEST site to find real wrestlers but as u pointed out this method does not consider the need for DISCRETION.

Yay, us. :-)

WHAT is the point to be verified and go through all this process when someone ( like me for example ) has been on this site for YEARS and has TONS of recommendations and reviews and opponents ? Whats the points...guys with several reviews and opponents should be automatically verified unless we are assuming that all the past opponents listed are either crazy or fakes.

I got the messages that someone replied but i don't see it

The notifications just mean another comment was inserted into the whole blog, not a reply to just your comment.

i agree !!!!

Thank you !! they are trying to make things complicated for us ....lets verified who has ZERO opponents then...but guys like us ..30..40...50...60 opponents ? really ? what needs to be verified lol

Short response to your comments is that it is your choice.

In depth response - it is a blanket offer to all members, and is entirely voluntary! No one is holding you at gunpoint to do it, and if you have vast amounts of past opponents with a good reputation, then it is unlikely to do you harm not verifying yourself.

The key benefit is for new members looking for action to identify genuine members. On the flip side, it helps genuine members see if new members will go so far to boost their chances of earning the trust of the sites members, leading into arranging matches.

There is no harm done introducing this, but it does add an optional layer of proving your authenticity.

Site privacy is taken seriously, hence why you have the option to close your profile from the public and keep it to members only. All verification pictures are handled in the privacy of admin and supporters, it is used to compare against your chosen profile photo and will not appear in public. So any reasons you have regarding privacy is going to be beyond the control and concern of the site.

But nonetheless, it is always good to hear opinions, how about you open a support request and provide some constructive criticism along with a solution you feel will work?

It's about showing face pic.. some guys post body pics that isn't themselves

It is called DISCRETION and I have my photos w/o face misused. Imagine if I had posted my face.

I completely agree! What's the point?

I agree with u buddy.
To me I go by reference. U have 64 guys that certified they met u and I have 114+ guys listed here.
To me that is the best CERT.
Also placing a face photo takes away the need for DISCRETION!

This may be a good feature for somebody with no past opponents or somebody who is returning back to action after a long time.

I usually ignore only people who have been members for a few years and have no past opponents. Some of these are very keen to talk about matches but never get to real action.

Maybe there could be different kind of member profiles, "Active wrestlers", "Introducing to sport" or "Just viewing" depending on how many past opponents one has or how frequently one is recommended?

I agree...no point to do all this no sense process who has several past opponents...its obvious that he is real !
We don't need more complication

Hi
I think it's a great idea!
Also it wd be nice to verify all the profiles...

Thank you! So many other sites have this. It's about time we get the feature here. I can see a lot of the big names become less relevant.

I think if the verification photos were just for the admin eyes only and they gave those verified profiles the check mark, that would clear up any privacy issues, as some guys are weary of being found out bout their hobby...even tho there is a feature to hide ur profile from general Internet searches and non-members as well.

But those without faces would then have to provide a face pic l to the admin plus a verification code photo (2 pics) That might help with those who don't wanna show their face on here.

Only a profile picture showing the face can be used, the idea is to confirm that the profile owner is the same as what is displayed. There would be no pointin using a private picture used exclusively for verification if it does not show the same as the profile pictures.

Just throwing out ideas for those complaining man. I dunno how to please everyone lol

Hehe well thanks for trying, attempts to provide a solution always sounds better 👍

Honestly... when you are a supporting member and you have more than 20 past opponents and recommendations, I don't see the point of this...

Because of my public work, I would go for this suggestion.

Very quickly I always look at recommendations and use these as my guide. I don't see any need to have this feature. Privacy is also import as well. We all have views that should be respected.

This is a great option for those that want to prove themselves who dont have masses of prior meets. But I have seen loads of pics on here of guys that were taken like over 10 years ago and they are still displayed - seriously!! Keep them up to date - or there will be doubt.

I dont think you have to have a face pic actually displayed on your profile - you can have an acceptable body shot without face, but the verifiers will match the non face to the face one iiuc

Actually im wrong about the non-face pic. But thats what it seemed to suggest when I looked at getting verified.
I think its wrong to have to show a face pic on your profile to be verified. There are a lot of evil people around.

Sadly, I agree with this and this is why I will not risk getting verified despite being a donor with recommendations.

I do not wish to be coerced into sharing a face pic on my profile permanently, when I can and do send my pics to anyone I approach or who might meet me.

Currently my face gets shared with maybe a few hundred folk on whom I have taken a calculated gamble based on the content of their profile. Suddenly this goes up to all 13,000 people including anyone who happens to sign up for the day? It's a massive leap that changes the site and in my view increases risks for members like myself where exposure would be professionally detrimental.

I understand the point that it's optional but as you're already talking about filtering the search engines, the "optional" feels like the start of a big push.

Happy to see how it develops of course but I think without tweaks it could backfire. Thanks, as always. for the site.

I agree and if you have tons of reviews its a huge waste of time and its risky .

I like the idea except for the face pic appearing on the profile. Yes, you can hide it from public web search, but there's nothing to stop someone signing up so they can have a look around. I have a face pic in my private gallery to send to people when a chat becomes serious, why couldn't you use that pic for verification instead of a public face pic?

I'm a tad confused. Do you have to upload the face pic as your profile photo? Or do you submit it to admin to get verified?

That's kinda messed up if someone can't get verified if they don't want a face pic on their profile.

Can it be amended so we can submit a photo to admin without it being on the profile?

About damn time!

So I have a masked photos on my page now. What if I don't want to unmasked. Should I bother to get verified

I also have an issue with the profile face pic requirement. For whatever reason, genuine members may not want to show a face pic in their profile, even if it's "members only". Surely it is possible to submit a photo (code + face) to Admin and Peer Review for verification, while showing a cropped, faceless version of the same photo in a member's profile.

The verification process as it is will actually make second-class citizens out of genuine members who have numerous past opponents, as their profiles will be excluded from any "search for verified members only" searches – even though their profiles are just as genuine.

I agree. I have had eight past opponents all of whom have recommended. Due to my work and the always present concern someone I know professionally is on this site I kept my face hidden.

I don't like the idea of suddenly making my face available to thousands of unknown people

However, I do have an alternative. Get rid of all the dick pics and the softcore. Genuine members who feel uncomfortable showing face pics on their profile might feel more comfortable then.

Hear, hear! Well said StrikeFighter!

And here's another alternative: automatically verify any profile (face pic or not) that has more than 10, 20, 30 (or whatever) past opponents. There is absolutely no way that a profile with more than, say, 20 past opponents is not genuine.

I totally agree...there is no point to waste time when others members and a lot already verified you with their reviews and being your past opponents, its a unnecessary push

Right. Since really a bunch of posts have missed the quite reasonable responses from site supporters, let me help.

Don't want to upload a face picture? You don't have to.
Concerned about privacy? You don't have to.
Worried about partner(s) finding out about your hobby? You don't have to.
Uncomfortable with sharing a face pic, even with turning on privacy settings to members only? You don't have to.
Don't feel that it's relevant to you, because you have many past opponents? You don't have to.
Dont feel that it's relevant to you, because you have many recommendations? You don't have to.
Don't feel that it will help you in evaluating if a user is genuine? You don't have to.
Think your work colleagues might browse this website and recognise you? You don't have to.
Not interested in using the optional feature for any other reason(s)? You. Don't. Have. To.

Reacting negatively to an optional feature that you will not use is not constructive. It will clearly not inhibit your site use, which is already free. This site offers many features, probably very few users utilise every single one of them regularly, but it would not be constructive to keep or ditch optional site features purely because some people don't think they'll use said optional feature. Plenty of us find this new feature to be a long time in coming, helpful, constructive, and useful for a variety of situations, particularly with evaluating if new people are legit.

In short, if you want to use it, do. If you don't want to use it, don't. People who do want to use it gain a new site feature that helps them. People that don't continue to have free access to the best site on the Internet for this sort of thing.

Well said!

Thanks for your attempt to clarify things, MCRLON30UK.
And thank you Admin for putting so much effort in making our great site even greater!

I feel myself to be in the "no facepic" camp and to my happy surprise reading all those sceptical comments I don´t feel alone, thank you all:-)

I doubt that all of my soulmates just misread the "Verification is voluntary" thing, but I think they rather have doubts about two other aspects:

- they stumble upon those two words "peer pressure" which might make their profiles look suspicious if they lack that green shield that many other profiles will eventually show in the result listing...

- the search functionality is for "verified profiles", where instead (or additionally? although that might make matters confusing and difficult to explain...) a search function for "genuine profiles" would serve better.

Maybe I should write a feature request to change the
[ X ] Verified
search option to
[ X ] Verified or more than ___ past opponents
with a sensible default value like e.g. "10".

That would be an easy way to calm one of those concerns.
The other concern (no shield in search results) could be mitigated by showing profiles with more than e.g. 10 past opponents a slightly different styled "genuine shield" icon: different shade of green or writing a "10+" or ">10" onto the shield instead of the checkmark.

Just my two lengthy cents.

For the large part, most people reacting to this aren't being negative. Most, like myself, are offering a suggestion for improvement. That is the definition of constructive. Just because people disagree with you, doesn't mean they are being negative.

You are right, if people don't want to use it they won't. This is a forum though so people can make suggestions for improvement. That's what they are doing.

Thank you for the feedback, everyone! (Even fightsoldier who posted "waste of time" FIVE TIMES, and probably spent more time on that than it takes verification process would take him.)

I propose two modifications to the process:

• Accept body photos for verification from members with 10+ opponents. For such verification the body photos need to be very clear we will go over every hair and mole to make sure they compare. ;)
• Automatically consider members with 30+ opponents "verified" for purposes of search.

The exact numbers are to be discussed, I just pulled 10 and 30 out of some safe place right now.

You say at www.meetfighters.com/verification:
"Is Member Verification discreet?
The photo you submit for Member Verification is kept private. Only the site's support personnel will see your verification photo. We also do not require you to write the name of our site or any other possibly incriminating thing on your photo."
What is the point in saying that if the face photo used for verification has to remain on the profile and be visible.

Another option would be to somehow mark the profile face photo as 'verified' and matching a faceless copy on display so that the user can keep the face private and send that to a potential meet to show the profile is genuine if he chooses. If you get me .. :)

I'll consider that.

Or what if when you submit the face pic, you submit an exact copy but with the face blurred out. That way admin sees the face pic, but the non facepic (which they know is real), can go on the profile?

First of all. Want to say MeetFighters has become the BEST site in the world. So CONGRATULATIONS!

I want to also thank u for trying things to weed out the fakes and the flakes.

The face photo for me was a no no no because breaks the need for discretion.

I like what you are proposing here. Guys that have more than 10 or 30 or whatever the number is to me they r no longer fakes and therefore they have been certified already.

That sounds like a fantastic compromise.

Have you ever thought that many people here are real people that really want to be here but because they are married, their jobs, their couples, friends or many other reasons dont want to show there faces...what will they do? Leave the group? Thanks

Why the drama? Nobody is forcing you to do anything. This is completely optional.

Can you PLEASE at least read the page before you comment?

Thanks a lot. Sorry.

Hey Admin !! Great feature !
As i've written privately to the support, and as some people requested here, I also would like to keep my privacy and still get myself verified. Since I do have a hidden self pic, that obviously you as an administrator can verify, I warmly request that you enable people to verify themselves using their hidden pic as a reference for the admin. This way I don't have to worry about my BJJ class recognizing me while seeing my openly gay profile and not so subtle recommendations.

Whatever you finally decide, your work is highly appreciated and i'll continue supporting this site by all means !

Thanks, Admin, for listening to members' feedback and considering the modifications you mention above.

Thank you so much, Admin, for this initiative. It is thoughtful, valuable and I am grateful. As anyone could see from viewing my profile, I prefer not to have a visible face pic. My reasons foare no different from those of other members who have commented above.

I would therefore favour the grant of verification to members who have achieved an agreed number of positive recommendations from other members. That encourages people to meet and wrestle. It also means that the verification derives from real life, positive encounters with other members. That has to mean more than any picture.

Thanks again for thinking of this.

Did the process a couple of days ago and it is so easy and quick. Ironically it made me realise how out of date my pictures were (not that I've changed much!) so may also prompt people who don't update their pictures as often!

I read all the comments. I agree there are genuine concerns and I would prefer to err on the cautious side myself.
.
However, I think Admins most recent "two option proposal" eminently reasonable......
.
So,.....13000 members are never going toally agree, especially the who fakes, but we are all out to get rid of them and scammers etc, so if Admin decide on this reasonable interpretation, I would go with it.
.
Jon

I have wrestled over 200+ guys and Just in MeetFighters I have met over 114 guys that can certify I am for real.
MeetFighters by far has become the BEST site and the site of preference by me and by most real guys that seriously want to meet and wrestle and AVOID the fake and flakes, but there is 1 problem with this method ... by posting ur face then there is NO DISCRETION!
I wish I can certify myself with this method but since there is NO DISCRETION I can't agree to use it!

lol - Just realised I'm gonna have to write the code backwards so it is correct in the mirror!!

First of all I do agree with some sort of verification. However I do not see how this helps as you put in the site news

Verification is voluntary.

Established members with lots of recommendations and past opponents have little to prove. They too should get verified, though, to put a bit of peer pressure on the rest of us to get verified.
We all stand to benefit from verification. Except the fakes. It's super bad for them.

I do not see how this is bad for them not all fakes flakes or whatever you call them will be bothered some probably use their own photos. So those will ask for verification they will do as requested
send back a face photo holding a code all this really does is verify their email and picture is of them. It does not mean they won't still be fakes flakes time wasters no shows.

We can already see in the site who is online how many years they have been on here and how many matches they have had that is already a good indicator as to if the guy really wants to meet. After all say a guy who lives in London been on the site for 2 years and had no opponents in a city where there are many wrestlers different builds into different styles and they can not find a suitable opponent then there is a clue they probably don't wont to meet in real just want to chat or collect photos.

I think a better means of verification would be more like the recommondation but done slightly different. The site should request say 3-4 members who have had quite a few matches for the time they have been on here
and if they are willing they should have like request verification option in their profile, only the profiles selected should have this option to start.
Then once they get a request from someone they have wrestled in real time and accepted then that person also gets the request verification button on their profile and it becomes a trickle effect on the site slowly
more and more real wrestlers get verified.

Unless I miss understood the site news and was just to stop others using other peoples photos. But if the site wants to continue using the current version of verification then I think it needs a bit of tinkering maybe you should only be able to verify your profile once you have had more than one match say 2 and one reccomondation after all there are guys on this site who have been on the site 6-7 years and only have one past opponent.
does this mean if they go through the verification process they are actualy more likely to meet than a guy who has been on the site for 6 months and not verified themselfs ?
Or have two different forms of verification one for photo profile verification and one for genuine wrestler who will meet may be white shield for profile which then goes to green when they had 2-3 matches and one recommondation just and idea. As i said the current version at the moment is just checking email and photo does not mean they will show or will wrestle anyone

Also i think the ideas box is a bit neglected on the site not visited much so in the future before you launch a new idea maybe you should open up a discussion topic in the forums and sticky it so it all ways remains at the top of the forum s thread until it goes live as it would that way i think get the community more involved .Just another idea and suggestion

I've been listening and doing some thinking and I think I have come up with a solution for performing verification without posting a public photo with your face. It is a bit more complex than the simple face validation, but it should still be relatively straightforward. It goes like this:

• You post a private photo that shows both your body and your face. Private photos are not shown to anybody, although they can be sent as attachments to your messages. So far your privacy is safe.
• You post a public photo that is the exact same photo as the private one, with the face blurred or cropped. Still preserves your privacy, this is what most people do who don't want their faces on this site shown.
• Validation will accept a public and the private photo as a pair. You must select both and take a photo with the code with your face so we can perform validation. The private, uncropped version of your photo will be used by our supporters to check that the public, cropped version is indeed you. After, the public, cropped version will become your validation photo, marked with the green shield icon and the private, uncropped photo can be removed from your profile.

What happened here?

• At the expense of some complexity (three photos required instead of just two), you preserve your privacy: your face photo is not shown to the general public.
• The supporters handling your verification request will naturally need to see your face, but that is minimal exposure.

How do you guys like this version now?

i have no problem with the current version or your new suggestion however to me verification is some thing people should apsire to and have shown a commintment to achiving this . As it is now i think the current format
is not reflecting this . I think over time we will see verified profiles that have been on here for a while with no actual meets .We are then back to where we started and are now.
As i said in my previous post it does not make it super bad or any harder in anyway now to those who have been on this site a while and have had no meets and using there own photos nor to new members who set out to do the same and usng their own photo.
It would not tackle say those either who have been on the site 6-7 years and have only had one match or none,if they are using then own photo too then they can also be verified and will also pop up in searches.

Yes verification is a good idea and we have a good starting base which is good ,this is a small step but it does not make it super bad for them nore do think it is tackling the issue becuase of the above. This is just my view may be i am wrong only time will show.

Excellent, thank you so much for listening to the feedback ;)

may be if this is just for photo verification give them a green tick this means they passed the test. the photo is of them and been verified that this is them.
Then once they have had 2 or 3 past opponents and one recommondation they either get automatically their green shield meaning they are fully verified photos is of them and they meet . Or they then can request from the site their green shield . That way both issues are tackled .

A vastly improved proposal.

Thanks for addressing peoples' constructive concerns.

That sounds much better and far more practical.
Thankyou for being so flexible and understanding - reasons why this site is such a great place to be a member of :)

One thing at a time. First let's let the standard verification take off before we expand and/or complicate it.

This verification process is common on other sites such as Real Jock. Oddly, I think it is most useful to those who do *not* wish to disclose face pix. It is an excellent way of saying "you can't see my face, but the site has confirmed I am who I say I am."

Prior opponents are not a verification because the site does not certify matches. I have met many men who have only cyber matches and have never met an opponent in person. The site also unlocks additional features based on number of matches, which encourages fraud.

While I think verification a great feature, I probably won't be getting verified. I'm an old man. I'm not vain enough to imagine anyone would impersonate me. I'm looking to meet a future relationship. Verifying my identity is not my biggest problem meeting men on this site.

Thank you, Admin, for taking those concerns serious!
And thank you for adjusting the verification process:-)

Admin, the adapted verification procedure (as described in your latest post above) sounds great. Thanks for considering people's feedback.

By the way guys, the only thing this does, is having a nice green shield next to your name (in the search list at least), and people are able to find you when you search with "advanced search".

At the part where it says "Filters", you can pick between certain things like "Past Opponents", "My favorites", "My past opponents" and now you can also filter to "Verified".

Meaning, when you use the search function, you can press "Past Opponents" AND "Verified" to see who has had past opponents and/or (repeat: or) verified his/her profile.

Can you explain how you get the "or" semantics?

I just tried it and it seems to be and "and":
Country: germany, verified: 6 results
Country: germany, verified, has past opponents: 5 results
If it would be an "or" semantic I would have expected the number to rise instead of shrinking (it shrinks because there is one german verified guy with 0 past opponents, thus the difference between 6 and 5)

Country: germany, has past opponents; 653 results
So, with an "or" semantic I would expect 654 results to show up instead of just 5.

I don´t know a way to change the "and" behaviour to an "or" behaviour, but am happy to learn about it if there is one:-)

Oh it's an AND... Damn sorry I saw the list and presumed it would be an OR... My bad then!

But you can still look them up separately :p (takes a bit more work though.)