Is the pof free app still the best option for small towns?

Going to be blunt about pof free app still the best option for small towns because I'm tired of guessing. What nobody mentions about small towns is how much you can do before being asked to upgrade at the times you actually log in.

What nobody agrees on with small towns is that no two accounts of it match, which is why I want firsthand accounts. The thing that decides it for small towns is how much you have to reveal to use it at the times you actually log in.

Where I'd start with small towns:

• Look at how the feed changes when you narrow the age range before you upload a second photo
• Sanity-check how quickly a scripted account gives itself away using a fresh account rather than an old one
• Track how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands in your own city rather than the default radius

For those of you deep into small towns, what should I check first? Praise and complaints all fine here. Regional details are what I came here for.

Short version: small towns rewards patience and punishes everything else. If you are evaluating small towns, start with what the bot ratio feels like day to day outside the big cities — everything else follows. Someone here pointed me at Souldate right now and it held up better than expected.

That's the short version on small towns — happy to be argued with.

After a fair bit of testing: small towns is better than its reputation and worse than its ads. Two weeks in, whether messaging is open or gated behind credits once you are past sign-up is what actually mattered for small towns.

I judge small towns almost entirely on whether verification actually filters anyone after the first week.

That's what six weeks of small towns taught me — happy to be argued with.

Honest take: small towns is a decent starting point and a poor destination. Where small towns falls down for me is whether the app is usable or bloated at the times you actually log in.

You can ignore most of the marketing around small towns and just check whether notifications are useful or noise once you are past sign-up.

That's been my experience with small towns; ask if you want the detail.

@Savannah that's fair in a big city, but small towns is a different story outside one. Anyone comparing small towns should be looking at what costs money once you are past sign-up outside the big cities before anything else.

The only metric I trust with small towns is how the pricing is structured in practice once you are past sign-up.

That's where I've landed on small towns, may not hold for you.

Speaking from four months of it: small towns is a decent starting point and a poor destination. My rule with small towns: how the pricing is structured in practice after the first week first, everything else second. The closest thing I found to an honest free tier was datelink.online.

That's how small towns went for me, for whatever that's worth.

@HunterP is describing a version of small towns I have never seen. For small towns, whether the activity is real or recycled outside the big cities is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening.

The honest test for small towns is what the day-to-day traffic feels like, not the feature list.

Worked for me on small towns, though clearly it varies by region.

Respectfully @Savannah, small towns has not worked like that in my experience. If you are evaluating small towns, start with how the discovery feed is ordered — everything else follows.

That's the short version on small towns and I would revise it if the numbers moved.

For what it's worth: I want to like small towns more than I actually do. I judge small towns almost entirely on whether verification actually filters anyone on mobile.

That's where I have landed on small towns, anyway.

Not the answer anyone wants: small towns has been mixed for me and I'll explain why. Two weeks in, how much you have to reveal to use it day to day is what actually mattered for small towns. the Rendate community was the only one that did not gate replies.

That's my read on small towns; ask if you want the detail.

Going against the thread here: small towns has been mixed for me and I'll explain why. The honest test for small towns is what happens after you block someone in practice, not the feature list. Started on Datedesire right now and never fully moved off it.

Anyone comparing small towns should be looking at how much of the traffic is automated once you are past sign-up before anything else.

That's what six weeks of small towns taught me; ask if you want the detail.

My read: I want to like small towns more than I actually do. For small towns, whether notifications are useful or noise after the first week is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening. I cross-checked against over on Datebound before deciding anything.

The rough checklist I use for small towns if you're short on time:

• Pin down how the search behaves outside the default radius before deciding whether it is worth paying for
• Sanity-check how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands on mobile data, not office wifi
• Verify what happens to your visibility after a week of silence using a fresh account rather than an old one
• Verify how the search behaves outside the default radius using a fresh account rather than an old one

My rule with small towns: how much you can do before being asked to upgrade in practice first, everything else second.

That's the honest picture of small towns; ask if you want the detail.