> "you need to be properly verified (as an actual person) before being allowed to post"

What method are you planning to use to determine whether a person is "actual" or not?

(Also you talk about going "from blobs of text to more structured data", but is the plan to allow keyword searching for common interests, and allow filtering out profiles based on attributes you are not compatible with, once this structured data is available? I can imagine the UX being quite frustrating for, say, someone who only wants to date a vegan, if they end up having to read thousands of words from dozens of people before finding that keyword. At that point it would make more sense to write a browser extension that automates the "Ctrl-F" and "swipe left" steps until it finds a relevant profile.)

(Disclaimer: I am making this all up as I go along. I just have a vague hunch that there exists a world of people who prefer reading long form text over swiping anything.)

1. I am imagining it to be really small, so either personal referrals or actual verification of people.

2. And yes, once there is some structure forming in the data, it will allow for labelling and searching on these criteria. This is how it naturally evolves, e.g. in subreddits that invent their own lexicon and labelling allowing for quick filtering.