Features of various OLD sites
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Features of various OLD sites
| Tue, 03-08-2005 - 7:08pm |
Could you share details of the features that you like and dislike about any of the OLD sites that you have tried? Which one is your favorite and why?
Sunshine

Hi Sunshine -
I mainly use JDate. I hate the price, and that you have to pay to read your emails. I like that you can see who looked at you, who hotlisted you, the chat, and that you can see exactly when someone logged in. These all take it above match...you have a lot more control. But at a hefty price...sometimes I feel like it's worth it, sometimes not. OH...one thing I noticed about match...they do not have a category in your profile showing what type of relationship you want...or am I missing something? Entirely possible...
Robyn
MATCH.COM
PROS
-Large member base
-Competitively priced
-Fairly stable site
-Non-members can read but not reply to emails
CONS
-Lacks chat (some might consider a pro)
-Rather stagnant feature set (cannot see who browsed your profile, whether email was read)
-Big user base also means lots and lots of tire kickers
-Lots of "life members" (both male and female)
SINGLEPARENTSMINGLE.COM
PROS
-Niche site for parents
-Competitive price
-Nice features - can see who viewed profile, if email was opened, chat, message boards
CONS
-Have to pay to read email (can only read headers)
-VERY small user base in my area
-Seems to attract a hard core set of people who do nothing but chat an message
-Weak searches - you have to seek out the advanced search menu, cannot save searches
Of the two I would recommend Match. Online dating is largely a numbers game and the more people you interact with the better your chances. Niche sites are nice but I wouldn't recommend doing Singleparentsmingle for more than a month. There just aren't enough people.
Match, strictly for numbers.
The Jdate/American singles sites... I've never really understood why/how seeing who's looking at your profile is some kind of advantage or benefit. First of all, it's an incomplete picture, because people can turn that feature off and browse secretly/anonymously; and second, all it does is tell you exactly who looked at you and decided you weren't worthy of an email or wink.
>>I've never really understood why/how seeing who's looking at your profile is some kind of advantage or benefit.
Non-members will view your profile AND hotlist you -- to let you know they aren't a member. On those sites non-members can usually receive chat's -- thereby saving the dating service fee....
Other than that I agree that seeing who has browsed is pretty useless. It's usually just curiousity.
Thanks for posting everyone - I just thought whether you were new or experienced to OLD, that this might benefit some of us.
I have mainly tried Match and it was good for me. At first I liked that they had Instant Messenger (IM) and used it some but then I quit using it because so many people it seemed were just looking to line up casual sex for the evening. So when Match stopped their IM service it was strange, but maybe a good thing. I often wondered if sexual pros used it to line up business... When I stopped my membership, I kept my profile up and received winks and emails and read them, but I couldn't wink or email back to anyone.
I also posted my profile on Yahoo Personals, but never actually joined. I didn't think the selection of men in my area appealed to me as much as the ones on match, yet many are on both sites and are probably even on more yet, I'm sure. I got pre-worded responses on there called ice breakers and some wordier responses, but couldn't reply back, not being a paying member. Yet I got IM's on my Yahoo Messenger (IM) from guys who had seen my profile on the Personals.
Those are the two I have had experience with, but now since I have been seeing this guy from Match for 1.5 months, I do not have my profiles showing. Thanks again everyone for sharing your info.
Sunshine
Singlesnet is new. I'm paying for that one right now. My regional area...KS/OK/TX isn't as large as I would like, but it looks promising memberwise. Doesn't have any bells or whistles. Its basic. Just browse the profiles, wink, and email. You do not have to join, but can only "email" members that have already joined. But, every time someone looks at your profile, they send you an email saying that person is "interested" when all they did was look. Gets annoying. I probably will not renew that one.
Don't like match since they cut out all the good features like the messenger. I like seeing who browsed me personally. Sometimes men are shy and if they've looked several times, they are usually interested. Sometimes they are not a paying member and simply too shy to wink at you.
In my opinion, the rest like American Singles, and Tickle are all about like. You see the same faces on each site anyway.
Jeanie