Dating Websites Review

Recently an acquaintance asked me for my opinion on various dating websites, since I had tried a number of them over the years.

So I thought I'd write up my answer to her question.

eHarmony (used during 2009-2012) - In my opinion eHarmony's best feature is the fact it A) costs money and B) takes a lot of effort to use eHarmony.

The fact it costs money is a deterrent to many people, which limits some of the riffraff you get on some other (i.e. free) dating websites.

The fact it has a ton of questions and a long process to communicate with someone is just another barrier to remove people who aren't too serious.

So in other words, eHarmony requires you to put some more effort into it.  Subsequently, most people on there are putting more effort into it.  So when you hear in eHarmony's commercials that they lead to more marriages than any other dating website, it's not surprising.  It's sort of a self fulfilling prophecy.

Not counting the above, one of the good things about eHarmony (atleast when I was on it) is they match you with people they think you'd get a long with.  You don't just get a giant page of tons of people to sort through like on other sites.  Going through people's profiles can be tiring, so limiting it to just the few that they think you'd like makes it easier.

OkCupid (used during 2013-2014) - In my opinion the best site.  The fact it's free is a plus, but the question & answer portion of the website and its matching algorithm limits the potential of meeting weirdos.   Unlike eHarmony, you can search and see every profile, so it can can be daunting.  You'll want to limit the number of profiles you look through via their matching algorithm.  Unlike eHarmony, anyone can message anyone.  So along with the fact that OkCupid is free, there can be a lot of weirdos on there and you may get weird messages.

HowAboutWe (used 2014) - I like the principle of HowAboutWe but it didn't quite work out for me.  On the website you propose "date ideas", which are hopefully fun hobbies/activities of yours or just interested in, and hopefully there are other like minded people out there that want to participate.

For me, I initially listed baseball games, but I didn't like the idea of spending 3 hours sitting next to someone on a first date at a ballgame.  I thought of listing various foodie adventure ideas, but the cost seemed prohibitive (i.e. what if I only see them only once and they want me to pick up the tab on a $400 dollar dinner bill).

I think the website is a great idea and could work out for other people's hobbies/activities, but I think I didn't quite work out for me.

Craigslist (tried a few times pre 2009) - I never met anyone on Craigslist, but as you can see from my comments above, anything that doesn't have a barrier to entry (via money or the website itself) is just asking for trouble.  I'm sure people on Craigslist get flooded with responses.  Skip this at all costs.

Comment on Tinder - I never used Tinder, but I did try OkCupid's Tinder-like swipe right/left feature.  While I am "a guy", I found the feature to be too superficial.  I like to read atleast something about the person and not base it solely on the picture.  So I don't think Tinder would have been for me.  I imagine it won't be for many others.