Although people disagree here, the step that matters most is to use a recent photo with your face clear: otherwise you end up judging it on a bad day. In practice, if you live somewhere dense the answer is usually to write a profile that gives someone something to reply to rather than say what you actually want up front.
Across a couple of different accounts the newer sites have made the first message cost something, which explains a lot of the complaints here.
- Something worth flagging is that the bigger platforms have added checks that actually help having stuck with it a while
- The search filter setup and the boost system pull in opposite directions, and it makes a real difference
- When you want something casual, the forum-style sites tend to feel meaningfully worse than they are, but it is not the disaster people claim
- In the last stretch of trying sites that skip verification have leaned much heavier on paid boosts, and that alone put me off
- Test two platforms at once, because the alternative is a dead inbox, and that alone put me off
Keep the first message short and specific, because it saves a lot of wasted evenings, so results vary more than you'd think.
The verification step changed hardly at all these past few weeks, and it shows in the reply rate.
If you want another option, the newer Rendate rooms handles this differently from video-first chat, so it is worth a look.