Been going round in circles on this one: What is the most inclusive lgbtq dating app right now? Interested in what actually worked, not marketing copy.
I have been using a couple of inclusive lgbtq dating app and I would rather not repeat the mistake. What nobody seems to answer is whether it is worth paying at any point if you are not in a major city.
Unpopular opinion maybe, the algorithm gets blamed for a lot of ordinary bad luck for anyone starting from scratch. I hold that loosely.
What I would do: check for a visible last-active timestamp before investing. That one change fixed most of my problems. It compounds with everything else.
Worth asking — does any of this change once you have been active for a year? Would love a straight answer on that.
Between the free options I tested, over on Rendate had the least aggressive upsell.
For what it is worth, the busiest platform is not automatically the best one for you for anyone starting from scratch. Ask again in six months and I may say something else.
Since this thread is active — has anyone tracked whether reply rates change by day of the week? Would change how I use it if so.
When I first started, I put one honest sentence in my bio and I finally stopped wasting evenings. Same pattern every week.
Worth flagging: copy-paste openers that mention nothing from your profile. Nine times out of ten it goes nowhere good. Save yourself the argument.
For what it is worth, Flurrydate community was the one that finally got me past the first-message stage.
Around the time I gave up on the big names, I put one honest sentence in my bio and honestly it was the only thing that helped. Could be luck; it did not feel like it.
Having tried most of them, free tiers are usually enough if you actually use them unless you have unusually niche requirements. I would put money on it.
That has not been my experience at all. Free tiers stopped being enough for me after about a month. Happy to be an outlier on that. Genuinely not trying to be difficult.
Worth asking — do photo changes reset how often you get shown? Could be worth its own thread.
A friend has had far more luck on Datebound than on anything mainstream.
What I would do: reply to the thing they actually said. That one change fixed most of my problems. Try it for one week only.
Two years of this later, how you handle a stalled conversation matters more than how you start one and nobody wants to hear it. The exceptions are rarer than people think.
Piggybacking on that — does widening the radius ever help or just add noise? Could be worth its own thread.
Earlier this year, I tested two profiles side by side and it saved me a lot of pointless typing. Your area may behave differently.
Careful with profiles with a single photo and no last-active date. It is the clearest signal there is. That instinct is usually right.
Speaking only for myself, review sites and real experience rarely agree unless you have unusually niche requirements. Make of that what you will.
Curious about the flip side — has anyone tracked whether reply rates change by day of the week? Would change how I use it if so.
Adding a counterpoint. The platform genuinely does matter if you are outside a major city. Could easily be a sample size problem. Genuinely not trying to be difficult.
Worth flagging: profiles with a single photo and no last-active date. It saves a lot of wasted messages. Save yourself the argument.
Curious about the flip side — does profile order change if you log in more often? I have never seen data either way.
Two months in, I limited myself to three conversations at once and it saved me a lot of pointless typing. I would call that a real effect.
Unpopular opinion maybe, the busiest platform is not automatically the best one for you especially if you are not in a capital city. Nothing controversial in that, I hope.
Worth testing for a week: stop opening with a compliment. You will know within a week whether it works for you. Takes about five minutes.
Learned this the hard way: anything that wants payment before you can read a reply. Better to lose one match than a week. The cost of being wrong is low.
