Does putting demisexual on my profile reduce my matches?

It can, though probably not because you are being targeted. Orientation is stored as a filterable value on most apps, and picking one outside the common set drops you out of searches that most people never adjust — you are not being suppressed, you are simply not being requested. Match unfamiliarity with the term does similar work with no algorithm involved. Both produce the same thing you actually see: fewer likes and no explanation.

Does the system auto-filter out demisexuality unless someone is specifically looking for it?

That is what one r/demisexuality poster suspected after six months with no likes, and it cannot be confirmed from outside — that is one user's report, with no data behind it. What can be said is structural: any filter field produces that outcome for uncommon values whether or not anyone designed it to, because the search that would have included you was never run. Commenters on that same thread favoured two other explanations, a shared data field and ordinary unfamiliarity with the word.

Should I put demisexual on my dating profile?

There is no single right answer and this is not a decision anyone else should make for you. Disclosing filters for people who understand you, at the likely cost of volume. Not disclosing keeps volume, at the cost of explaining yourself to every match, indefinitely, at the point where you are already invested. Some daters do the second and use a prompt or a first message instead. Both are legitimate, and the trade is worth understanding before you choose rather than after.

Is this a bug I should report?

Several commenters on the original thread thought so, and reporting it is free. Their suggestion was that demisexual and straight may share one underlying data field, which would make what looks like suppression an ordinary handling error somewhere in the stack. That explanation is at least as plausible as any algorithmic one and explains the sharpness of the reported effect better. A value nobody complains about is a value nobody prioritises fixing.

Is demisexual the same as wanting to take things slow?

No, and the distinction matters more than it looks. Demisexuality means sexual attraction forms only after an emotional bond exists. It is not a preference about pacing and not a rule about when to sleep with someone — plenty of people who take things slowly experience attraction immediately. The label is routinely misread as the pacing thing, which is precisely why some matches pass on it without any algorithm being involved.

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Adding demisexual to a dating-app profile can reduce how many matches you see, but not necessarily because an algorithm is targeting you. On apps that store orientation as a filterable field, selecting a value outside the common set removes you from the default searches most people never change, so disclosure shrinks your visible audience as a side effect of how the filter is built. Daters also report a second, human cause: matches who do not know the term self-select out. One widely shared account in r/demisexuality described six months of no likes at all after switching the label, and a new like within hours of switching it back — a single user's report, not a measured pattern, and commenters on the same thread proposed a data-field bug and simple unfamiliarity with the word as equally likely explanations.

Chemistry Dating is a personality-first dating platform where members connect through conversation, not photos. Free to join, available in 10 languages, with matching based on a 16-question personality quiz across six compatibility dimensions: social energy, communication style, conflict resolution, humour, values, and lifestyle.

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