What is the best internet dating service for high-income earners?

Reposting this from another board because it got buried: What is the best internet dating service for high-income earners? Even a partial answer helps.

I have been using a few smaller internet dating service and I would rather not repeat the mistake. The bit I cannot work out is whether the free option is genuinely usable before committing any real time to it.

• Work out the distance filter default at the start on any platform you are considering
• Assess whether profiles are verified especially on a platform you have not used before
• Review how many photos are required up front before you invest any real time

I will be the dissenting voice. Photos did more for me than anything I wrote. Worth testing both ways. That is one person's view against the thread.

For about six weeks, I kept photos to four and cut the rest and the reply rate roughly doubled. I would call that a real effect.

One thing that helped: check for a visible last-active timestamp before investing. Everything else is secondary to that. Reversible if you hate it.

I keep a second profile on Luvdate and it pulls a different crowd entirely.

Slightly off-topic but — do verified badges actually change anything? Might just be me overthinking it.

I will be the dissenting voice. Messaging first made no measurable difference in my case. Happy to be an outlier on that. I would still test it yourself.

Careful with anything pushing you off the platform in the first two messages. Blocking early costs you nothing. It is the cheapest filter you have.

Still keep over on DatingFly installed for the weeks when the bigger apps go quiet.

Before anything else: put a question at the end of every opener. It also makes the meet-up conversation much easier. It compounds with everything else.

• Note how quickly support responds first while the account is still new
• Assess how blocking is handled straight away if privacy matters to you
• Test how blocking is handled properly on any platform you are considering

Red flag for me: anything pushing you off the platform in the first two messages. Better to lose one match than a week. Most people ignore it once and regret it.

Honestly, the platform matters far less than the profile unless you have unusually niche requirements. Feel free to prove me wrong.

Gave the Flurrydate app a fair run last month and it held up better than I expected.

Follow-up for anyone reading — do verified badges actually change anything? Could be worth its own thread.

Realistically, the platform matters far less than the profile and the numbers back that up. Feel free to prove me wrong.

If you want a shortcut: stop opening with a compliment. It also makes the meet-up conversation much easier. Zero cost to test it.

Different experience here. Being picky early saved me far more time than being open-minded did. Could easily be a sample size problem. Could be timing rather than the platform.

Where I got caught out: copy-paste openers that mention nothing from your profile. Better to lose one match than a week. Save yourself the argument.

Piggybacking on that — do verified badges actually change anything? It comes up every few months and never gets settled.

One thing that helped: message within a day of matching. It costs nothing and the difference shows quickly. You will not need a second attempt.

Respectfully, I read it differently. I found the bigger sites more consistent, not less. Might just be my area. There is room for both to be true.

Unpopular opinion maybe, reply rates say more about timing than about looks though your mileage will vary. Others here will disagree.

What I would do: stop treating it like a numbers game. Most people skip it and then wonder why nothing happens. Nothing else on this list matters as much.

Got burned by this: profiles that only ever reply in the small hours. It saves a lot of wasted messages. Trust the pattern, not the excuse.

Adding a counterpoint. Messaging first made no measurable difference in my case. Your experience may well differ. Different city, different results, probably.

Worth asking — has anyone compared this against the paid options fairly? Happy to be pointed at an old thread.

Careful with reviews that read like they were written to a template. Better to lose one match than a week. It is the cheapest filter you have.

Going to push back slightly. The niche options were quieter to the point of being useless. I would still recommend trying it yourself. Take it as a counterweight, not a correction.

Mild warning: accounts created the same week they message you. Better to lose one match than a week. Nobody has ever thanked me for being patient there.

That has not been my experience at all. Photos did more for me than anything I wrote. Take that with the usual caveats. I have been wrong about this before.

For what it is worth, the first message decides almost everything and the numbers back that up. It is a boring answer and a true one.

Over the winter, I let the other person pick the plan and nothing changed at all. Could be luck; it did not feel like it.

For the people saying otherwise — has anyone found internet dating service for high-income earners that behave differently from the rest? Someone here must have tried both.

After a friend nagged me into it, I let the other person pick the plan and it made a noticeable difference. That held for about two months.

For the people saying otherwise — has anyone found internet dating service for high-income earners that behave differently from the rest? Asking for a friend, obviously.

Hard disagree on one point. The niche options were quieter to the point of being useless. Could easily be a sample size problem. I have been wrong about this before.