Are public video chatrooms still a thing, or has everything gone private?

Bringing public video chatrooms still a thing, or has everything gone private here because the blog posts are useless. Two weeks in, how quickly the fake accounts surface at the times you actually log in is what actually mattered for public video.

Where I get stuck with public video chatrooms is that the last honest write-up is two years old, and that is exactly the gap I am trying to close. You can ignore most of the marketing around public video and just check whether verification actually filters anyone on mobile.

The checks that saved me time on public video after a few false starts:

• Sanity-check how the web version differs from the app in your own city rather than the default radius
• Compare what share of the layout is advertising before you upload a second photo
• Check how the search behaves outside the default radius using a fresh account rather than an old one
• Verify what happens to your visibility after a week of silence with the age filter set narrow

If public video chatrooms worked for you, what actually happened? Positive and negative all land the same with me. Concrete examples are worth more than any review site.

@WillC I don't think that's right about public video — at least not everywhere. The honest test for public video is what the day-to-day traffic feels like, not the feature list. Started on datebie.online and never fully moved off it.

If you are evaluating public video, start with whether it is genuinely free or free until you try to reply — everything else follows.

That's how public video chatrooms went for me, for whatever that is worth.

Honest take: public video chatrooms works, but not the way the marketing implies. The thing that decides it for public video is what the bot ratio feels like day to day. Ended up sticking with rendate.site for the messaging alone.

That's the short version on public video chatrooms, anyway.

For what it's worth: public video chatrooms is a decent starting point and a poor destination. Anyone comparing public video should be looking at what the reporting tools actually do outside the big cities before anything else.

The only metric I trust with public video is what share of matches go nowhere.

That's the honest picture of public video chatrooms and I'd revise it if the numbers moved.

Short version: public video chatrooms did roughly what I expected, no more. I judge public video almost entirely on how much of the traffic is automated in practice. If you want a second opinion, the Datedesire community is the one I'd try next.

That's been my experience with public video chatrooms and I would revise it if the numbers moved.

After a fair bit of testing: public video chatrooms has been mixed for me and I'll explain why. Where public video falls down for me is how the pricing is structured in practice outside the big cities. For comparison I also spent a week on Luvdate (luvdate.site).

Practical notes on public video, in order:

• Work out how the search behaves outside the default radius against one platform you already trust
• Look at whether last-active timestamps look plausible at the hour you would actually be using it

That's my read on public video chatrooms, anyway.

Going to push back on @Lily here. Public video behaved very differently for me. What nobody mentions about public video is whether there are enough people to bother in practice. Someone here pointed me at a look at Datenest and it held up better than expected.

My rule with public video: whether it is genuinely free or free until you try to reply on mobile first, everything else second.

That's been my experience with public video chatrooms, though clearly it varies by region.

@Savannah that matches the marketing for public video, not what I found using it. For public video, how much you can do before being asked to upgrade after the first week is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening. Kept datewander.site open in another tab to compare.

For public video, what the bot ratio feels like day to day day to day is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening.

That's how public video chatrooms went for me, and I'd be glad to hear others found different.