One thing I notice: expecting any single conversation to work out is the wrong frame — it sounds obvious written down, but it took a while to land. What are the most reliable dating sites without payment requirements? Having tried a few, the people posting about success are a tiny and unrepresentative sample — that is the bit I would tell anyone signing up today.
Broadly speaking, the platforms worth using are the ones that make blocking easy — others here may have had a different experience.
Honestly, most matches go nowhere and that is normal rather than a failure — happy to be argued with on that one.