Why are there so many free dating sites for married people looking for affairs now?

Third time I've tried to get a straight answer on so many free dating sites for married people looking for affairs now. What nobody mentions about dating sites is what you lose by never paying once you are past sign-up.

The reason I am asking about dating sites at all is how much depends on where you actually live, and that is exactly the gap I am trying to close. The only metric I trust with dating sites is what share of matches go nowhere in practice.

The rough checklist I use for dating sites:

• Check what the block and report flow actually does at the hour you would actually be using it
• Note whether the same faces cycle back the next day with the age filter set narrow
• Work out what happens to your visibility after a week of silence before you upload a second photo
• Note how the feed changes when you narrow the age range before you upload a second photo
• Check whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out on the first evening, not the first month

Anyone who tracked dating sites over a longer stretch, what would you do differently? The good, the bad and the boring all fine here. Concrete examples are worth more than any review site.

Going against the thread here: dating sites gets recommended a lot here and that's half right. The honest test for dating sites is what share of matches go nowhere, not the feature list.

My shortlist when weighing dating sites, in order:

• Test whether the distance setting is honoured before you commit any time to it
• Pin down whether the distance setting is honoured twice, a week apart

Two weeks in, how many accounts are real outside the big cities is what actually mattered for dating sites.

That's where I have landed on dating sites, may not hold for you.

My read: dating sites is a decent starting point and a poor destination. For dating sites, how clean the member base looks day to day is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening. over on Ezhookups came up in a similar thread last month.

What I wish someone had told me about dating sites after a few false starts:

• Count how the search behaves outside the default radius on the first evening, not the first month
• Look at how the search behaves outside the default radius before you commit any time to it
• Check whether the same faces cycle back the next day twice, a week apart

My rule with dating sites: whether the free plan is usable or decorative outside the big cities first, everything else second.

Worked for me on dating sites, and I'd be glad to hear others found different.

Honest take: dating sites works, but not the way the marketing implies. If you're evaluating dating sites, start with how the matching logic appears to work once you are past sign-up — everything else follows. I ran the same test on Souldate's free tier and got a cleaner result.

That's what six weeks of dating sites taught me, anyway.

Not the answer anyone wants: dating sites has been mixed for me and I'll explain why. The thing that decides it for dating sites is how many accounts are real. datescout.site came up in the same search and behaved similarly.

That's been my experience with dating sites, and I'd be glad to hear others found different.

Blunt answer: dating sites surprised me, though not immediately. Where dating sites falls down for me is whether conversations actually go anywhere. A friend nudged me toward what Datenest is doing and it was not a waste.

Worked for me on dating sites, though clearly it varies by region.

Sorry @Aiden Garcia, I've spent longer on dating sites than that answer suggests. I judge dating sites almost entirely on whether conversations actually go anywhere at the times you actually log in. Turndate is worth ten minutes before you commit anywhere.

That's what six weeks of dating sites taught me and I'd revise it if the numbers moved.

Unpopular view, maybe: dating sites is a decent starting point and a poor destination. Anyone comparing dating sites should be looking at how many accounts are real outside the big cities before anything else.

You can ignore most of the marketing around dating sites and just check how active it is outside big cities in practice.

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