Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Tinder…

It’s officially been four years since Tinder first appeared in app stores (this past October). Today it boasts over 40 million users worldwide and more than a billion daily swipes. It’s used in 196 countries, has been downloaded 100 million times, has made 10 billion total matches, and has launched 1.5 million dates. Tinder is now worth a reported $1.2 billion. It’s the app everyone loves and loves to hate.

In honor of the big birthday, let’s take a stroll down memory lane and remember how Tinder became mobile dating’s flashiest success story.

Extroverts can often be misunderstood. They are charming, engaging people who are full of curiosity and you tend to seek out adventure. Extroverts are also energized by being around people, so parties and social gatherings are what they crave.

But when an extrovert is dating an introvert, there can be challenges. You might feel the need to be heard, or to talk about issues that bother you, while your dates might avoid confrontation and tend to retreat. Or you might fall in love over and over, but things don’t quite work out.

Extroverts are the life of the party, and are exciting to date, especially for introverts. It’s easy to take over making decisions, making plans, and guiding a relationship or conversation forward, but the extrovert needs to be careful, too. Relationships are a two-way street, so they require compromise.

Following are some tips for extroverts when dating:

Do you have what it takes to join The Inner Circle? The super-selective, Amsterdam-based dating platform has officially entered the US market with a launch in New York City.

The Inner Circle’s premise is not unlike The League, another elite dating service that vets potential members before allowing them to join. Both apps aim to create exclusive communities of “high-quality” users - singles who are smart, attractive, ambitious, and career-focused. To do so, new users must apply to join and all applicants are carefully screened before being granted access.

Let’s face it, the U.S. election was a polarizing event, and now that it’s over, people in both camps are weary of those in the other. This can make two strangers who meet via a dating app hesitant about each other. Should they talk politics or not? Will political party allegiance be a factor in whether or not the relationship moves forward?

More and more daters are wondering where their dates stand politically than ever before. For many, it’s not about playing politics, but about connecting over shared values. Conservatives and Democrats are very divided in what’s most important on a more personal level, so much so that it can affect romantic relationships.

Selecting your Gender on Tinder

Last month, Tinder rolled out a new feature for its popular dating app that provides daters with more gender options to complete their profiles. Following a similar move by OkCupid, Tinder users will be given more options than just “male” and “female” when selecting a gender.

By selecting the “More” option, users can choose between almost 40 identities, including “non-binary,” “transgender woman,” “transgender man,” “transmasculine,” “agender,” “two-spirit” and “other.” Users can also write in their own gender identity if none of these options apply.

According to website Slate, this was a move forward by Tinder to reach out to the trans community, who have reported being discriminated against and harassed on the app. Trans users were frequently reported as “spam,” or accused of trolling on the app, typically by other users who weren’t happy to be matched with someone who was trans. As a result of this false reporting, trans users often found themselves unfairly blocked, as Tinder didn’t have the capacity to thoroughly verify each complaint.

Even though we waiting more than a few weeks before posting the original story about Date.com and Matchmaker.com disappearing along with the website for their parent company Avalanche, it looks things migh be turning around for the company, at least partly anyways.

Matchmaker.com, Amor.com, GayDating.com, and Gk2Gk.com are all accessible again (confirmed last week from one of our visitors who commented on the original story). Date.com though now redirects to Matchmaker. A message on Date.com explains that it has become part of Matchmaker and all existing members have been moved over, including all of their profile information and messages. I was a little surprised of this since I thought the Date.com brand was stronger than the Matchmaker brand (though the Matchmaker brand is older).

Avalanche's corporate website (avalanchellc.com) is still down and all of their affiliate programs (at CJ, Flexoffers, etc.) have had their campaign paused. I am not sure what is going on at Avalanche where their websites disappeared for around 2 months. Maybe they had financial issues or the websites have been sold? I am not sure but when we know more, we will let you know.

We currently have all Avalanche dating sites listed as closed. Once we get a bit more information and see if things have stabilized we will update the reviews.