How do dating websites for over 40 differ in algorithms compared to Tinder?

Curious what this board thinks about dating websites for over 40 differ in algorithms compared to Tinder. Two weeks in, how clean the member base looks after the first week is what actually mattered for dating websites.

What I keep running into with dating websites is how fast the picture goes out of date, so recent replies matter more than thorough ones. Anyone comparing dating websites should be looking at what the day-to-day traffic feels like before anything else.

The three things that decide dating websites after a few false starts:

• Confirm whether the distance setting is honoured on the first evening, not the first month
• Test what the block and report flow actually does against what the marketing page claims
• Check what the block and report flow actually does before you upload a second photo

If dating websites worked for you, how long before you knew? Glowing reviews and horror stories all worth hearing. Short replies settle this better than anything else.

After a fair bit of testing: dating websites is better than its reputation and worse than its ads. What nobody mentions about dating websites is what share of matches go nowhere outside the big cities.

The thing that decides it for dating websites is what the search filters can actually do once you are past sign-up.

That's where I've landed on dating websites, though clearly it varies by region.

@Ben1989 that matches the marketing for dating websites, not what I found using it. My rule with dating websites: how many active users are within range on mobile first, everything else second. the Flamedate community is worth ten minutes before you commit anywhere.

You can ignore most of the marketing around dating websites and just check what the reporting tools actually do.

That's the honest picture of dating websites, though clearly it varies by region.

@Ben1989 I don't think that's right about dating websites — at least not everywhere. The honest test for dating websites is how thin it gets in smaller towns once you are past sign-up, not the feature list. A friend nudged me toward Datenest right now and it was not a waste.

That's been my experience with dating websites, for whatever that's worth.

Blunt answer: dating websites depends almost entirely on your city. For dating websites, what the bot ratio feels like day to day is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening. Ended up sticking with Luvdate for the messaging alone.

That's my read on dating websites — happy to be argued with.

Blunt answer: dating websites rewards patience and punishes everything else. Where dating websites falls down for me is what you lose by never paying at the times you actually log in. I ran the same test on what Datelink is doing and got a cleaner result.

I judge dating websites almost entirely on whether messaging is open or gated behind credits on mobile.

Worked for me on dating websites; ask if you want the detail.

Having used it a while: there's a version of dating websites that works, and it isn't the default one. If you're evaluating dating websites, start with how photo permissions are handled outside the big cities — everything else follows. datescout.site was the other one on my shortlist.

That's what six weeks of dating websites taught me, though clearly it varies by region.