Not everyone who is drawn to someone wants romance. Some people arrive here newly single and not ready. Some have moved to a new city and want the friend who feels like family. Some know exactly what they want and would rather say so once than explain it on every first date. So My Beloved asks one question, at the start, and everything follows from it: what are you looking for?
Six answers
Soul mate. Lasting, and open to something lighter first. Casual, and open to more if it grows. Casual. Just friends. Still figuring it out. You pick one. It shows on your profile under your name, other people can filter by it, and you can change it whenever your life does.
Why one answer, not modes
We could have built two apps in one: a romance mode and a friendship mode, each with its own queue, likes, matches and messages. We chose not to. Modes split a small community in two and make everyone explain themselves twice. One answer does the job with far less friction: it tells us who you should meet and how to introduce you.
What the answer changes
Friendship is its own world. If you chose just friends, you only meet people who also chose it, and they see that you are here for friendship. Nobody hoping for romance will find you in their queue, and you will not find them in yours. The compatibility reading for a friends pair is written in a different register too: ease, loyalty, humour, good company, and none of the romantic charge.
The five romantic answers all see each other. What changes is the order. Two people who want the same thing rank higher for each other; a soul-mate seeker still sees a casual seeker, a little further down than the same chart would otherwise place them. When two answers align closely, the card says so: you want the same thing. The score itself, the number computed from your charts, does not move. Alignment shapes the queue, never the stars.
What the other person knows
Your answer, as a plain label. Not your reasons, not your history, not anything you did not choose to show. If you switch from figuring it out to lasting next spring, your profile simply says so from then on, and the people who want the same thing move up.
Why we think it works
Because the awkward conversation happens before the conversation. Two people who match already know they are looking in the same direction, or at least in compatible ones, and can spend their first messages on the interesting part: what their charts say about the two of them, and whether the room feels different when the other walks in.