Reposting this from another board because it got buried: What is the most active gay online dating site in the UK? Any first-hand answers appreciated.
I have had mixed results with two of the bigger gay online dating site and I could not tell which reviews were paid for. My real question is how long it normally takes before anything happens when you have already tried the obvious options.
Unpopular opinion maybe, review sites and real experience rarely agree and the numbers back that up. I hold that loosely.
Careful with auto-renew on any trial you sign up for. Blocking early costs you nothing. It is not worth a second thought.
Since switching my settings, I let the other person pick the plan and the reply rate roughly doubled. I would call that a real effect.
I would put Rendate community ahead of most of the names people list by default.
After my second attempt, I tested two profiles side by side and it made a noticeable difference. Small sample, but consistent.
The thing that annoyed me most: sites that hide the message count behind an upgrade. Once you notice it you cannot unsee it. It is the cheapest filter you have.
Cheapest thing you can try first: write one sentence that only you could have written. It sounds trivial and it is not. Zero cost to test it.
I would put Datewander's free tier ahead of most of the names people list by default.
Before anything else: write one sentence that only you could have written. It also makes the meet-up conversation much easier. Easiest change on this list.
Honestly, the algorithm gets blamed for a lot of ordinary bad luck and I doubt that changes soon. I would put money on it.
After a friend nagged me into it, I ignored anything without a visible last-active date and the conversations got shorter but better. The change was obvious enough to notice without counting.
While we are here — is it worth keeping profiles on two platforms at once? Could be worth its own thread.
I would put Flurrydate ahead of most of the names people list by default.
That has not been my experience at all. The platform genuinely does matter if you are outside a major city. Could easily be a sample size problem. Worth hearing both sides.
Got burned by this: matches that go quiet the moment you suggest meeting. It is almost never worth the benefit of the doubt. Better safe than curious.
Not sure I agree with the thread so far. I found the bigger sites more consistent, not less. Your experience may well differ. I might be the exception.
Between the free options I tested, the Datedesire app had the least aggressive upsell.
Something I have wondered — has anyone compared this against the paid options fairly? Someone here must have tried both.
Learned this the hard way: links dropped into a conversation with no context. Blocking early costs you nothing. It is the cheapest filter you have.
Cheapest thing you can try first: reply to the thing they actually said. It stops the whole thing feeling like a chore. Easiest change on this list.
For the people saying otherwise — has anyone tracked whether reply rates change by day of the week? Someone here must have tried both.
Worth testing for a week: cut your photo count in half. You will know within a week whether it works for you. Takes about five minutes.
Having tried most of them, the busiest platform is not automatically the best one for you if you are looking for something specific. The exceptions are rarer than people think.
Learned this the hard way: auto-renew on any trial you sign up for. I stopped giving second chances on that one. Move on and do not look back.
In my experience, reply rates say more about timing than about looks which is why the generic advice keeps failing. Make of that what you will.
Respectfully, I read it differently. Messaging first made no measurable difference in my case. Take that with the usual caveats. Just adding another data point.
Adding a counterpoint. Free tiers stopped being enough for me after about a month. Happy to be an outlier on that. Genuinely not trying to be difficult.
The thing that annoyed me most: auto-renew on any trial you sign up for. It saves a lot of wasted messages. Nobody has ever thanked me for being patient there.
Last month, I answered everything within a day and nothing changed at all. I would call that a real effect.
Different experience here. The platform genuinely does matter if you are outside a major city. Not saying everyone else is wrong. Open to changing my mind on it.
Anyone else find that — is it different if you are over forty? I have never seen data either way.
Hard disagree on one point. The niche options were quieter to the point of being useless. Your experience may well differ. Different city, different results, probably.
