Regular dating sites - have they gotten better or worse? Wish I could see their data.

[DoctorDoctor 1,391]

I am in a long-term relationship and not currently looking to date, but I do remember trying a few dating sites, a couple of years ago.  I recently had memories (or "flashbacks") of my experiences and wondered if the dating sites had become better or worse lately.

I vividly remember wading through so many seemingly fake profiles (postal/zip codes that didn't make sense, same picture under multiple profile names, looked way to go to be real, etc.) only to get no responses from messages that I sent or messages saying that they were overwhelmed by too many messages.

Admitedly, I've been "whacked hard by the ugly stick," and I'm slightly below average height for a guy which didn't help my cause.  I got a disappointingly few messages, profile views, or "ping-backs" (or the metric of the site).

I wish I could pull back their "curtain" and mine their activity data - like distribution of profiles views, ping-backs, messages sent, messages received, etc.

My first estimation is that ~50% of the women's profiles are fake, and my second guess is that 10% of the remaining real profiles get 95% of the activity.

I wonder how such sites can remain econmically viable, if all they do is generate mostly dissatisfied customers.  Maybe there is an endless supply of customers to be dissatisfied.

Have these site continued to get worse or have they actually used technology to improve?

[gldenwetgoose 21,486]

On 9/16/2022 at 12:59 AM, DoctorDoctor said:

I wonder how such sites can remain econmically viable, if all they do is generate mostly dissatisfied customers.  Maybe there is an endless supply of customers to be dissatisfied.

I agree with you, it would be fascinating to understand the data going on behind the sites.

I really do suspect there is an endless supply of at least hopeful guys there.  It's in no way the same, but take a look at introduction posts on this site - those with a title like 'New boy here...' get maybe 25 views and half a dozen comments, whilst 'New girl here...' will get flooded.   And if it's one of those profiles which really reads as far, far too good to be true then it gets completely inundated with all manner of guys all hoping for something special.  If there's that level of hopefulness on this respectful site, imagine the parallel to a site which is promising actual sexual and relationship encounters.

I'd guess online dating sites have changed in an era which has seen the rise of Onlyfans and all those similar influencer and creator platforms, and in after a pandemic where people had two years of sitting without actually going to places and meeting real humans.

And don't forget it could easily be a major part of those sites' business plans to hook unsuspecting guys in with the promises of paradise.