Like some kind of bad nightclub with an amateur bouncer, the ratio of men to women on the hacked cheater site Ashley Madison was about 6-to-1. That’s no velvet rope — that’s silly string. But apparently even that unhappy figure is misleading. Further analysis of the leaked Ashley Madison data paints an even more unhappy picture for would-be male cheaters. The women were probably mostly fake. Or the worst kind of real.
Gizmodo’s Annalee Newitz claims that fewer than 1500 women in the Ashley Madison database opened their inboxes on the site. So were they even real? At this point it’s impossible to say. But even if there are real women behind the profiles, they’re inactive — which is truly the last thing anybody’s looking for in an illicit liaison. Inactive mistresses are the worst — ask any cheater. The data say more than 20 million men opened their Ashley Madison inboxes, hoping to find a lusty (presumably real) partner there. A 6-to-1 men-to-women ratio is bad enough. But 20 million fellas looking for an answer from one (or more) of 1500 women? There are lotteries with better odds. What’s that old saying stupid people always ignore? Too good to be true?
