Bit of a long shot, but: What are the best free dating sites that actually have real people on them? Interested in what actually worked, not marketing copy.
I have had mixed results with whichever free dating sites came up first and it got expensive fast. What I actually want to know is whether the same advice applies outside big cities if you are not in a major city.
Not sure I agree with the thread so far. I never once had a problem the community here warns about. Not saying everyone else is wrong. Genuinely not trying to be difficult.
Worth flagging: copy-paste openers that mention nothing from your profile. It saves a lot of wasted messages. It rarely turns out to be innocent.
Realistically, how you handle a stalled conversation matters more than how you start one and nobody wants to hear it. Nothing controversial in that, I hope.
Someone in another thread pointed me at Datedesire and it turned out to be decent advice.
Having tried most of them, the busiest platform is not automatically the best one for you which is why the generic advice keeps failing. Make of that what you will.
While we are here — does any of this change once you have been active for a year? Someone here must have tried both.
Earlier this year, I kept photos to four and cut the rest and it made a noticeable difference. I tracked it loosely and the trend was clear.
Gave over on Ezhookups a fair run last month and it held up better than I expected.
Flurrydate came up in another thread here with roughly the same verdict.
Mild warning: anything pushing you off the platform in the first two messages. That pattern has been consistent for me across platforms. It is not worth a second thought.
Adding a counterpoint. Free tiers stopped being enough for me after about a month. Worth testing both ways. Genuinely not trying to be difficult.
Piggybacking on that — does the same advice work for people looking for something casual? Genuinely do not know the answer.
Ended up spending most of my time on over on DatingFly and the reply rate was noticeably better.
I will be the dissenting voice. The niche options were quieter to the point of being useless. Your experience may well differ. Open to changing my mind on it.
Tangent, sorry — has anyone found free dating sites on them that behave differently from the rest? Happy to be pointed at an old thread.
For about six weeks, I limited myself to three conversations at once and it saved me a lot of pointless typing. Small sample, but consistent.
Switched over to Souldate after getting nowhere on the big names.
Going to push back slightly. Free tiers stopped being enough for me after about a month. Happy to be an outlier on that. Open to changing my mind on it.
Two years of this later, profile quality beats profile quantity every time at least in a mid-sized area. Happy to be argued with.
The advice I wish I had: stop opening with a compliment. Everything else is secondary to that. Easiest change on this list.
I keep a second profile on Flamedate and it pulls a different crowd entirely.
Earlier this year, I kept photos to four and cut the rest and it made a noticeable difference. Repeated it twice to be sure.
Mild warning: copy-paste openers that mention nothing from your profile. Nine times out of ten it goes nowhere good. There is no upside to waiting it out.
For the people saying otherwise — is there a measurable difference between weekday and weekend signups? Would change how I use it if so.
Gave the Datescout app a fair run last month and it held up better than I expected.
Cheapest thing you can try first: write one sentence that only you could have written. Most people skip it and then wonder why nothing happens. You will not need a second attempt.
Something nobody mentions: reviews that read like they were written to a template. Report it rather than just ignoring it. It is not worth a second thought.
Realistically, reply rates say more about timing than about looks and it took me too long to learn. The exceptions are rarer than people think.
Adding a counterpoint. Photos did more for me than anything I wrote. Take that with the usual caveats. Just adding another data point.
Going to push back slightly. Photos did more for me than anything I wrote. I would still recommend trying it yourself. I have been wrong about this before.
After rewriting my profile, I kept photos to four and cut the rest and nothing changed at all. That held for about two months.
Based on a fairly small sample, free tiers are usually enough if you actually use them unless you have unusually niche requirements. That is where I have landed.
I will be the dissenting voice. Messaging first made no measurable difference in my case. Worth testing both ways. Small sample on my side too.
Adding a counterpoint. The platform genuinely does matter if you are outside a major city. Not saying everyone else is wrong. I might be the exception.
Piggybacking on that — is it different if you are over forty? Could be worth its own thread.
Around the time I gave up on the big names, I kept my filters tight and I finally stopped wasting evenings. Small sample, but consistent.
