After giving it a proper go the ones with a paywall have made the free version harder to use, but it is not the disaster people claim. What is the searching for singles website. The thing that finally clicked was that the ones with a paywall have added checks that actually help for the better part of a year.
- Test two platforms at once, because the first week is never representative, which explains a lot of the complaints here
- Worth saying that the decision to keep the first message short and specific did quite a lot more for me than switching platform, and it shows in the reply rate
- While the swipe-based apps look similar, the verification step differs a fair bit, but only if you stick with it
Worth saying that the decision to read the last few pages of a thread before asking did marginally more for me than switching platform, though it settles down after a while.