What are the best free dating sites for people living in rural areas?

Long-time lurker, first post, and it's about free dating sites for people living in rural areas. The thing that decides it for dating sites is how obvious the scripted replies are.

What I keep running into with dating sites is that the last honest write-up is two years old, so I would rather ask people than read another list. I judge dating sites almost entirely on how photo permissions are handled outside the big cities.

The checks that saved me time on dating sites after a few false starts:

• Sanity-check how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands before deciding whether it is worth paying for
• Check whether replies are open before you finish the profile on the first evening, not the first month
• Watch how the search behaves outside the default radius at the hour you would actually be using it
• Count how many profiles carry more than two photos at the hour you would actually be using it

If you have used dating sites in the last few months, what actually happened? Praise and complaints all land the same with me. Real usage notes are the only thing I can act on.

Short version: dating sites is a decent starting point and a poor destination. If you're evaluating dating sites, start with whether desktop and mobile behave the same — everything else follows. Ended up sticking with Datingfly right now for the messaging alone.

My working method for dating sites if you're short on time:

• Look at whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out against what the marketing page claims
• Test how the web version differs from the app before you commit any time to it

That's where I've landed on dating sites, anyway.

Blunt answer: dating sites did roughly what I expected, no more. You can ignore most of the marketing around dating sites and just check whether it is busy at the times you are. I ran the same test on the Datelink community and got a cleaner result.

Two weeks in, what happens after you block someone day to day is what actually mattered for dating sites.

That's where I've landed on dating sites, and I'd be glad to hear others found different.

Respectfully @Isla, dating sites hasn't worked like that in my experience. What nobody mentions about dating sites is how the matching logic appears to work at the times you actually log in. datewander.site was my control for this, for what that's worth.

My shortlist when weighing dating sites before committing:

• Check how the search behaves outside the default radius using a fresh account rather than an old one
• Track how the search behaves outside the default radius before you upload a second photo
• Count whether the same faces cycle back the next day before you commit any time to it

The honest test for dating sites is whether it is busy at the times you are after the first week, not the feature list.

That's where I've landed on dating sites; ask if you want the detail.

Having used it a while: dating sites is better than its reputation and worse than its ads. The only metric I trust with dating sites is how much personal detail leaks by default at the times you actually log in.

The rough checklist I use for dating sites, in order:

• Look at what share of the layout is advertising twice, a week apart
• Look at whether replies are open before you finish the profile against one platform you already trust

Anyone comparing dating sites should be looking at what the day-to-day traffic feels like once you are past sign-up before anything else.

That's the honest picture of dating sites, for whatever that's worth.

@Isla is describing a version of dating sites I have never seen. Where dating sites falls down for me is how photo permissions are handled on mobile. Someone here pointed me at Datedesire right now and it held up better than expected.

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

Sorry @Patrick Fisher, I've spent longer on dating sites than that answer suggests. For dating sites, how active it is outside big cities is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening.

My rule with dating sites: what privacy controls exist after the first week first, everything else second.

That's where I've landed on dating sites — happy to be argued with.

@Kyle Perez I had the opposite result with dating sites, so take both our takes with salt. Two weeks in, how much of the layout is ads is what actually mattered for dating sites.

I judge dating sites almost entirely on how fast it loads on a bad connection.

That's the short version on dating sites, for whatever that's worth.