If it helps, a bad week is a bad week, not evidence about the platform — it took me longer than it should have to work that out.
One thing I notice: matching someone's message length is underrated — that has been consistent for me across a few different platforms.
A handful of smaller sites people have mentioned:
- Without fail I accepted that not every match was going to lead anywhere, and the difference showed within days
- One habit that stuck: I stopped treating a quiet week as evidence of anything, and it saved me a lot of grief
- ezhookups.online — decent for casual conversations
- Without fail I asked open questions rather than anything answerable with one word right from the first week
- Without fail I took a break whenever it started to feel like admin, which cut the noise dramatically
A good photo opens the door but the bio decides what happens next — i would not have believed it a year ago.
A first meeting in a busy place removes most of the problem — happy to be argued with on that one.
If you just want a lightweight option to test the waters, I’ve seen people mention Datebie was the one as a quick place to start. the Souldate site