Online Dating Sites & Dating Site Reviews Choose a good online dating site! Over the past six months or so a group of four of us have tried a number of sites between us. We subscribed to datingdirect.com, match.com, pocado.com, loopylove.com, freedating.co.uk, makefriendsonline.com, plentyoffish.com and loveandfriends.com. We wanted to do some research to see which sites offered more success and better value. we were also interested to see whether the paid for sites offered anything better than the free sites. And we should add that we were also genuine about meeting someone as all four of us are single! Our verdict? We found that the bigger sites, which also happen to be paid for, offered a far greater database of members. Also the quality of people seemed to be better in that we got the impression that people paying to use a site seemed more serious about meeting someone. The subscriber sites also seemed to have a greater proportion of young, single professionals. But the free sites seemed a good way to dip our toes in the water to get a taster first. Which dating site? Here’s what we’ve found ... Our
“researchers” (ie. us four who signed up to these sites in the name of
science, love and er... furtherance of the human race) are - Here’s a summary of our results, in no particular order, based on our “research” (ie. active membership of these sites) from September 2007 to February 2008 (and still ongoing!!): match.com Amanda: I got over a hundred emails in the first couple of days. I was just overwhelmed. I am a busy professional in London (I work in PR) and I just wanted to expand my circle. If I was to meet Mr. Right then cool. I’ve had so many emails to get through though, and haven’t really had the time to read them all! I’ve been out on some dates. I think I’ve made a coupld of good male friends out of it. There was also one quick fling just before Christmas, but other than that no love to speak of. I’m still a member but don’t log on as much. David: I’ve been out on some dates from match.com. It’s been a mixed bag though. There was one girl I met who wouldn’t stop ringing me even though I said I wasn’t interested! Weird! There’s a girl I’m seeing at the moment but not sure it’s going anywhere, but we’re having fun though and that suits as both for now! datingdirect.com Arnie: What is it with this site? I joined because there seemed to be more hot women on there that any other site but hardly any ever write back! And what’s worse is that my profile keeps getting rejected by the site. They keep telling me it’s inappropriate, vulgar or contains contact details, none of which are true. Seems to be run by a bunch of muppets. Not met anyone from the site. My mebership finishes in a couple of weeks and I’m certainly not renewing. Amanda: I’ve got inundated with winks on this site. I’ve had over 500! I’ve had some emails too, but a lot of them clearly haven’t read my profile. It’s just copy and paste. It’s just copy and paste! went on a date last week with a chap. Good fun but not my cup of tea. I also received a “warning” from the site last week, apparently someone complained about a message I’d sent. I’ve no idea what I said, but the warning I got was very patronising, along the lines of “our site is for genuine people looking for love, and if you abuse it and send nasty messages your membership will be deleted next time without any further warning”. Charming. What a bunch of arseholes. loopylove.com Sally: I’ve had loads of messages on this site, but a lot of the guys seem to be complete nutters! There was one who said he wanted me to whip him hard with him naked and blindfolded and me dressed up all in black leather. Well maybe, but buy me a drink and talk to me first! |
