General Settings (Matching Algorithm)
General Settings
Section titled “General Settings”The General tab controls the core suggestion engine: which profile fields the plugin compares, how much weight each field carries, and the baseline score that every pair of members starts with.
Go to BuddyPress > Friend & Follow Suggestion > General to find these settings.
Enable Profile Matching
Section titled “Enable Profile Matching”This is the master on/off switch for the entire plugin. When it is off, no match percentages appear on profiles, no suggestion widgets render, and all shortcodes return empty output. The switch must be on for any of the settings below to take effect.
Default: on (the plugin enables profile matching automatically on activation).
Baseline Percentage (Universal Match Score)
Section titled “Baseline Percentage (Universal Match Score)”Every pair of members starts with a baseline score before field matching is applied. The default is 20%.
A baseline of 0% means two members with nothing in common show exactly 0% compatibility. A baseline of 20% means they start at 20% and field matches add on top. Keep the baseline between 15% and 25% for most communities — it avoids showing harsh zero scores to members who have filled in only a few profile fields.
Range: 0–100%. Recommended: 15–25%.
Weighted Field Matching
Section titled “Weighted Field Matching”This table is where you configure which xProfile fields contribute to the match score and how important each one is.
Adding a field
Section titled “Adding a field”Click Add Field. A new row appears with:
- Profile Field — a dropdown of all xProfile fields on your site. Pick the field you want to use for matching.
- Weight (%) — how much this field contributes to the total score. A field with 30% weight has three times the impact of a field with 10% weight.
- Required — if checked, a mismatch on this field (or one user leaving it blank) removes the other member from suggestions entirely. Use this sparingly — for example, on a language preference field where you never want to suggest members across language boundaries.
Field type recommendations
Section titled “Field type recommendations”Not all xProfile field types produce good matches. The engine compares values as exact matches (or set overlaps for multi-value fields).
| Field type | Match quality | Recommended weight |
|---|---|---|
| Checkbox (multi-value) | High — overlapping selections produce good signals | 25–35% |
| Multi-select box | High | 20–30% |
| Select box (single) | Medium — exact value must match | 15–25% |
| Radio | Medium | 15–25% |
| Date box | Medium — age/date proximity works reasonably well | 10–20% |
| Number | Low | 10–20% |
| Text box | Low — exact text match rarely succeeds | 5–10% |
| Textarea | Low | 5–10% |
Weight totals
Section titled “Weight totals”The admin shows a running total of your configured weights. If the total exceeds 100%, the engine normalises all weights proportionally so they sum to 100%. The baseline score is added on top of the normalised field scores, not included in the normalisation.
The View Suggestions button
Section titled “The View Suggestions button”Clicking View Suggestions opens a modal that lists your xProfile fields sorted by how useful they are likely to be for matching. Fields you have already configured are excluded. This is a starting-point guide — pick fields based on your community’s actual data, not only on field type.
Ordering fields
Section titled “Ordering fields”Drag the handle (the up-down arrow icon) on the left of each row to reorder fields. Order does not affect the score calculation; it only affects how rows are presented in the admin.
Removing a field
Section titled “Removing a field”Click the trash icon on the right of the row.
Saving
Section titled “Saving”Click Save Matching Settings at the bottom of the form. The settings take effect immediately on the next page load — there is no cache to clear after changing field configuration.
Next: Display & Appearance to control how the scores and suggestion cards look on the frontend.