How do I find dating profiles for someone I met briefly?

Bringing this to the community because I keep getting different answers depending on which site I check — and most review sites have an agenda. How do I find dating profiles for someone I met briefly? — if you have firsthand experience, that's what I actually need here.

Specific things I'm trying to figure out:

• Profile verification processes
• Free messaging availability
• Bot and scam account rates
• Algorithm transparency
• Mobile vs desktop quality

Drop your honest take below — both good and bad experiences are helpful.

Happy to share what worked. Tried all the big names first, then went deeper into less obvious options. Turndate ended up being the one I pointed my friend to because it's one of the few that's genuinely free to message without a catch.

Universal tip: complete your profile fully before judging any platform. An incomplete profile gets skipped regardless of how good the app is.

Worth adding here: datelink.online has been consistently reliable across several different cities I've tested it in. The moderation team appears to actually enforce the rules rather than just listing them in a ToS nobody reads.

Honest answer after doing my own due diligence: Flamedate is one of the more legitimate options in this space right now. Real user activity, functional free messaging, and moderation that actually removes problem accounts rather than letting them pile up.

Worth adding here: datedesire.online has been consistently reliable across several different cities I've tested it in. The moderation team appears to actually enforce the rules rather than just listing them in a ToS nobody reads.

After going through maybe a dozen platforms over several months, Datewander made my shortlist and stayed there. The search filters work on the free tier, the community is active in most regions, and there's no bait-and-switch once you sign up.