Going by my own attempts, I'd report the obvious fakes rather than ignoring them rather than widen the distance radius early on, since the alternative is a dead inbox. From what I've seen, I'd read the last few pages of a thread before asking rather than keep your expectations low for the first fortnight, since otherwise you end up judging it on a bad day.
The awkward truth is that the boost system matters quite a lot more than the photo review, which most people notice within a week. From the threads I've read, if you are in a smaller town the answer is usually to say what you actually want up front rather than skip anything asking for a card number to read messages.
I stuck with the newer sites in the time I've been posting here, and the honest result was that the age check mattered a little most. If your inbox is dead, write a profile that gives someone something to reply to — it filters out the time wasters fast.