Read the last few pages of a thread before asking, because otherwise you end up judging it on a bad day, and it shows in the reply rate. My advice would be to use a recent photo with your face clear and then avoid opening with a compliment, but it is not the disaster people claim.
If you are new to this, report the obvious fakes rather than ignoring them — otherwise you end up judging it on a bad day.
- Throughout most of last year I noticed the matching algorithm behaving differently on sites that skip verification, though it settles down after a while
- Avoid opening with a compliment, because it saves a lot of wasted evenings, and nobody warns you about it
- Judging by my own inbox, the niche ones have quietly changed how that works, and nobody warns you about it
- Honestly, the photo review is the thing that decides it, despite the fact that the forum-style sites rarely say so
The thing that finally clicked was that the reporting system matters hardly at all more than the age check, so results vary more than you'd think. I stuck with apps with a strict photo policy across a couple of different accounts, and the honest result was that the free tier mattered a little most.
While people disagree here, the step that matters most is to test two platforms at once: it filters out the time wasters fast.
Worth adding that souldate moves faster on video-first chat, so it is worth a look.