As of about a week ago I noticed that the formerly very steady number of search results was declining .  So I sent SA Admin the following message and thought y'all would be interested;

Hi Folks, I'm just curious whether you are intentionally deleting inactive profiles or if that is an unintended consequence of some other website change you have made.  When I do my normal search, the number of results I get is remarkably steady over time. New profiles appear and old ones get deleted at about the same rate, so the number of search hits stays the same.

Except for recently.  Every day the number has been shrinking for the past week or so.  As of today, the number of search results is down 23% which is statistically significant.  I believe it is worth investigating. One thing I noticed is that the oldest "recently active" profiles are gone.  Only those active up to 11 months ago are displaying.  Perhaps you decided to no longer display inactive profiles?  I'm just curious, in a nerdy sort of way, what is going on.  And if you were unaware of this attrition I thought I'd bring it to your attention.  

And here's the reply I received:

Hi there,
Thank you for contacting us today! I'm sorry for any confusion, due too an increasing number of inactive profiles we have recently begun to delete inactive profiles from the website.  
All profiles that are inactive more than 180 days get notified by email and if still inactive, get deleted.
Let me know if there is anything else that I can help you with!
Respectfully,
Alice
SeekingArrangement Support

I was wondering why the sudden drop too.  Seems like a sensible policy.  

It’s about time.  That dam seeking tab that the phone app opens to always shows me a bunch of women that look hot, so I’ll fav them. Then have to go on the computer or iPad and look to see their last active date. Quite a few were always really old (greater than 3 months).

SA has a large enough database that they don't have to "massage" the numbers like other sites in order to make it appear they are worth joining.

 
The only downside to this new policy that I can see is that it makes it harder for me to go back and analyze my success rate. I used to be able to scroll back through all my messages and make a tally of how many POT SBs that I had messaged or had messaged me actually turned into BCD experiences. Now when I scroll back through my messages most of the conversations I had a year or more ago only show up as "SB" without a pic and it's way too much effort to open up the conversations to try and remember which one was which. Other than that I think it's a net sum positive.

I've run into the same mildly frustrating experience. When the pic is gone and the name is gone and the message string just comes from "Sugar Baby" it can be hard to remember who's who.  So one practice I've adopted which helps is in my first message to her I'll repeat her screen name, like, Hi there Sweetytits69, instead of a generic Hello Miss.  That way I can find her screen name easily.  Also, when I actually go bcd with a new SB I return to the site and print out one of her pics.  I write her screen name on the page too, and the date I went bcd with her.  Organize them in a folder alphabetically, of course.  Maybe that's too nerdy for you , but it really helps me remember who I've been playing with!