Finding myself single again, I’ve thrown my hat back into the circus ring of online dating. While this is a bit depressing, it does provide for good entertainment and blog fodder.
Plenty of Fish is a free site, so you’re not out any money if you don’t meet anyone. The tradeoff is that you lose some functionality and features. Indeed, while simplicity is Plenty of Fish’s strength, it’s also its biggest limitation.
The profiles are quick and simple; not many things to select or fill out. You can have multiple photos, but they’re very shrunken and sometimes oddly proportioned. The downside is that you don’t have much to search on, primarily age and location. You also can’t hide profiles you’ve already seen, so browsing involves a lot of repeats.
One unique feature Plenty of Fish does offer is an answer to the question, “Did they read my message?” For each sent message, it tells you whether it’s been read and/or deleted, so you at least get an idea of what happened.
In summary, Plenty of Fish is simple, which is good and bad, but it does the job as a free alternative to more sophisticated sites.
June 27th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
for anyone thinking about joining plenty of fish DON’T !! You will not meet anyone off there of any quality at all. That ’s only if you can pry the losers on there out from behing their computers long enough to date. If you are foolish enough to put up a profile there please for the love of god stay out of the forums.It is a completely worthless dating site .
October 8th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
As “maryrachelle” stated, there is a low percentage of decent people for decent people on the site. You won’t know the difference, generally, until you actually spend time with them.
No one I know, considers that site worth while for meeting potential partners. (I’m a fairly high end professional guy)
The forums are just nuts on several levels. Don’t even read them.
December 30th, 2008 at 5:56 am
Hi there,
I have just joined the POF website a week ago, and have had a few weird messages from strange guys, but also some nice ones from gentlemen
The majority don’t read my profile though and just send cut and pasted generic messages which is disappointing.
I’m rather shy with meeting people so that’s why I decided to join, but I have viewed the Forums and they are scary - guttertalking, opinionated, judgemental, cynical and unhelpful people who don’t really seem to offer the honest yet kind advice people genuinely seek.
I’m going to be brave and stay on for a little while longer
Great blog by the way xx
December 30th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Thanks for sharing your experiences, everyone. After rejoining recently, I do agree with your points:
I’m guessing there are people who are successful on the site and just aren’t as outspoken about it.
Also, the Plenty of Fish founder has a blog about dating sites in general for anyone who’s interested in the larger picture.