How a RATE score is calculated, and how we keep it honest

What a score is

You post one to four photos of yourself as a single post. Other people see the post in their feed and give it one rating from 1 to 10. Each person can rate a post once, and nobody can rate their own. The score is the average of those ratings, shown next to the number of people who rated.

It is a weighted average. Most ratings count in full. Some count for less, and a few don't count at all, for reasons explained below. No algorithm looks at a face and produces a score: software checks photos for safety, but every rating comes from a person.

The score you see on your own post counts the people you choose to match with. If you match with women, it is the average of what women gave you. Alongside it you get breakdowns by the raters' age group, gender, country and cultural background, so you can see where the average comes from.

Why a new post shows no score at first

A post has no visible score until enough people have rated it. Until then it shows that results are being gathered. The reason is measurable. When we followed 89 posts rating by rating, the very first rating was 1.57 points away from the post's eventual score on average, and for 30.3% of posts it was off by 2 points or more. After 20 ratings the typical miss was 0.35.

The number of ratings required is not fixed. It follows how many people are actively rating, so it grows as RATE grows. The person who posted sees their result somewhat earlier than everyone else does, and RATE Gold members see theirs sooner still. Other people see a post's score only when the full bar is reached.

Not every rating counts the same: rater credibility

Some people rate in bad faith: a 1 for everyone, or a 10 for everyone, without looking. To keep those ratings from bending other people's results, every rater has a credibility value. RATE compares the ratings you give with what other people gave the same posts. Ratings close to the crowd keep your credibility up. Ratings far from everyone else's, again and again, bring it down.

Disagreeing is not penalized. It could not be: in RATE's data, 34.7% of posts with 10 or more ratings received both a 1 and a 10 from different people, so honest raters disagree all the time. An occasional rating far from the average costs nothing. Only a steady pattern does.

• Credibility decides how much a rating weighs in other people's scores and statistics. New accounts start at a reduced weight until they have rated enough to be measured.
• At the lowest level a person's ratings stop counting entirely. They are left out of every score, count and breakdown, and they can't create a match.
• That account gets a warning. If the pattern continues, it is paused from rating for 7 days, then 30, then 90, while the rest of the app keeps working.
• A rating from someone who follows you counts for less than a stranger's, because people who know you tend to be kind.
• Credibility is never shown to other people. Anyone can ask for a person to review a decision by writing to [email protected].

Checks on every photo before it goes live

A score is only worth something if the photo shows a real adult who chose to post it. Every photo in a post, and every new profile photo, is checked automatically before anyone else can see it. A photo that clearly breaks the rules is not published, and the person is told the reason. Borderline results go to a person for review. The checks look for:

• Nudity, sexual content and underwear.
• Graphic or violent content, weapons and self-harm.
• Images that look AI-generated, illustrations, screenshots and reposts.
• Whether a person's face is clearly visible.
• Signs that the person may be under 18.
• Automated checks make mistakes in both directions. A rejected photo can be reviewed by a person on request, and a photo that passed can still be removed later after a report.

The face check: photos must match a live scan

Photo checks can tell that a picture shows a face. They can't tell whose face it is. To stop people posting photos of someone else, RATE asks for a face check before a person's posts go live. You take a short live video selfie in the app, and a liveness check confirms that a real person is in front of the camera, not a photo, a screen or a mask.

From that scan a face template is created: a set of numbers that describes a face and from which the face can't be rebuilt. RATE keeps no image or video from the scan. Each photo you post afterwards is compared with the template. A photo that doesn't clearly match is removed from the post and the rest go live. If none match, the post isn't published. You are told each time.

The template is created only with your explicit consent, is used for nothing else, and is destroyed at the latest 90 days after your last checked post. You can remove it yourself in Settings at any time. Two honest limits: the comparison looks at the largest face in a photo, so a group shot can fail, and a face check shows that photos match a live scan. It is not proof of anyone's identity.

Adults only

RATE is for people aged 18 and over. Everyone gives a date of birth at sign-up, and nobody under 18 can create an account. Because a date of birth can be typed in falsely, photos are also checked for signs that the person may be a minor. A photo that clearly looks under 18 is blocked. A borderline one is looked at by a person.

When an account turns out to belong to someone under 18, its photos and posts are taken down and the account is closed. Anyone can report a concern from inside the app or by writing to [email protected].

What a score can't tell you, and what stays anonymous

A score has limits worth stating plainly. It is the reaction of the particular people who rated one post: today that is a young community where women are a small share of raters. It describes a photo taken on one day. It says nothing about a person's worth, and it is not a measurement of attractiveness in general. The numbers RATE publishes on this site are totals over at least 20 people and 100 ratings, so no figure can be traced to one person.

Ratings are anonymous. There are no public likes and no comments, and the person you rate is not told what you gave them. There are three exceptions, and they are the same ones written in the Privacy Policy:

• A mutual match: when two people rate each other 8 or higher, they are shown to each other and a chat opens.
• RATE Gold: members of the optional subscription can see who rated them 8 or higher.
• Friends and groups: when a post is shared into a chat between people who follow each other, or into a group, its members can see the score each of them gave that post.