Has anyone had success with hookupers in small towns?

Trying to make a decision on success with hookupers in small towns before the month is out. The thing that decides it for small towns is whether the profiles hold up under scrutiny.

The part that trips me up on small towns is that it works differently by region, so I would rather ask people than read another list. If you're evaluating small towns, start with whether the activity is real or recycled — everything else follows.

What I wish someone had told me about small towns:

• Pin down how the web version differs from the app using a fresh account rather than an old one
• Verify how the feed changes when you narrow the age range at the hour you would actually be using it
• Count whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out before you upload a second photo
• Verify how the web version differs from the app with notifications switched off
• Count how many profiles carry more than two photos twice, a week apart

For anyone still using small towns, what did the review sites get wrong? The good, the bad and the boring equally useful. Firsthand accounts will save me a wasted month.

Unpopular view, maybe: small towns is a decent starting point and a poor destination. My rule with small towns: how fast moderation responds on mobile first, everything else second. Someone here pointed me at Datelink's free tier and it held up better than expected.

That's what six weeks of small towns taught me, may not hold for you.

After a fair bit of testing: small towns gets recommended a lot here and that's half right. Two weeks in, how many accounts are real after the first week is what actually mattered for small towns. I ran the same test on Datedesire these days and got a cleaner result.

The honest test for small towns is how fast moderation responds after the first week, not the feature list.

That's what six weeks of small towns taught me, for whatever that's worth.

Going against the thread here: small towns rewards patience and punishes everything else. I judge small towns almost entirely on what privacy controls exist after the first week. luvdate.site was my control for this, for what that's worth.

You can ignore most of the marketing around small towns and just check whether the profiles hold up under scrutiny on mobile.

That's my read on small towns, for whatever that's worth.

Not the answer anyone wants: small towns surprised me, though not immediately. Anyone comparing small towns should be looking at how photo permissions are handled at the times you actually log in before anything else. A friend nudged me toward Datewander (datewander.site) and it was not a waste.

That's the short version on small towns, and I would be glad to hear others found different.

@Jordan makes a good point, though I would qualify it — small towns shifted a lot last year. The only metric I trust with small towns is whether there are enough people to bother on mobile. Compared it against datingfly.online for about a week.

The quick sanity pass I run on small towns, in order:

• Watch how many matches ever send the first message in your own city rather than the default radius
• Confirm whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out twice, a week apart
• Verify what the filters do after a page refresh at the hour you would actually be using it
• Count how many profiles carry more than two photos before you commit any time to it

That's how small towns went for me, anyway.

For what it's worth: small towns is better than its reputation and worse than its ads. What nobody mentions about small towns is how aggressive the upsell gets once you are past sign-up. souldate.site solved about half of this for me.

That's how small towns went for me, may not hold for you.

Blunt answer: small towns is fine if you go in with low expectations. Where small towns falls down for me is whether the activity is real or recycled. I cross-checked against what Datebie is doing before deciding anything.

The rough checklist I use for small towns, in order:

• Confirm what happens to your visibility after a week of silence before deciding whether it is worth paying for
• Test whether replies are open before you finish the profile before you upload a second photo

That's been my experience with small towns, may not hold for you.