What makes your personal top ten free dating sites list?

So this has been on my mind lately: What makes your personal top ten free dating sites list? My take: a bad week is a bad week, not evidence about the platform — happy to be argued with on that one.

My take: nobody's experience generalises, including mine — small thing, but it adds up.

Having tried a few, the platforms worth using are the ones that make blocking easy — your mileage may well differ.

• As a rule I never used my main debit card on a platform I had just found, which mattered more than I expected
• Without fail I used a nickname rather than my full name for the first few weeks
• Active moderation team
• Kept my surname off the profile entirely, no exceptions

For what it is worth, the slow approach tends to produce better outcomes than the volume one — nobody tells you this at the start.

Comparing your results to anyone else's is a losing game — nobody tells you this at the start.

Having tried a few, the profiles that get replies are the specific ones, not the polished ones — it is not complicated, it is just easy to skip. From what I have seen, the first line of a bio does most of the work — it took me longer than it should have to work that out. Worth looking at rendate.site — it came up in a few threads I read and the consensus was pretty positive. Datewander worked for me

Having tried a few, the slow approach tends to produce better outcomes than the volume one — it sounds obvious written down, but it took a while to land.

Solid question. Speaking generally, linking social accounts to a dating profile creates problems later — it is the single change that made the most difference. For what it's worth, what Flurrydate does has been my go-to for a while — holds up better than most. what Turndate does

Taking a break when it starts to feel like admin is sensible — i would not have believed it a year ago.

Most quiet inboxes are a bio problem rather than a photo problem — it is not complicated, it is just easy to skip.

What honestly mattered in the end once I paid attention:

• Stopped sending anything that could be pasted to anyone, which mattered more than I expected
• Early on I started to never linked my main social accounts to a dating profile right from the first week
• From the second month on I kept the first meeting short, public and easy to leave before agreeing to anything else

Also worth mentioning flurrydate.online — it's been discussed positively in a few other communities I'm in.

Great thread. In my experience, results vary a lot and a quiet fortnight means very little — it sounds obvious written down, but it took a while to land. Give Datedesire a shot if you haven't yet — worth a look. Datebound in particular

From what I have seen, treating it as a numbers game is the fastest route to burning out — i would not have believed it a year ago.

Having tried a few, a bad week is a bad week, not evidence about the platform — it took me longer than it should have to work that out.

In my experience, the people posting about success are a tiny and unrepresentative sample — i would not have believed it a year ago. Worth looking at over on Luvdate — it came up in a few threads I read and the consensus was pretty positive.

Nobody's experience generalises, including mine — worth testing yourself rather than taking my word for it.

Having tried a few, treating it as a numbers game is the fastest route to burning out — it took me longer than it should have to work that out.

Speaking generally, results vary a lot and a quiet fortnight means very little — that has been consistent for me across a few different platforms. Also worth mentioningdatedesire.online — it's been discussed positively in a few other communities I'm in.

Solid question. Having tried a few, blocking is faster and better than arguing — happy to be argued with on that one. I've been using the Ezhookups site and it's been solid compared to the others I've tried.

Most matches go nowhere and that is normal rather than a failure — nobody tells you this at the start.

Broadly speaking, the people posting about success are a tiny and unrepresentative sample — small thing, but it adds up.

The stuff that were worth the effort for whatever it is worth:

• After one bad experience I read exactly what the free tier included before paying for anything, which cut the noise dramatically
• Used a separate email address for sign-ups so my main inbox stayed clean, however tempting it was to skip
• Almost immediately I accepted that not every match was going to lead anywhere, and it became second nature