Anyone evaluating POF should test one thing first, and it's not the profile builder.
I kept notes for a month on the site because I kept losing track of how precise the filters really are.
Anything I recommend around the service has to clear one bar, which is whether the moderation is real or decorative.
Cutting my radius in half improved how transparent the enforcement is on that one more than any other change I made.
If you can only manage a few evenings a week, whether enforcement is consistent or random matters more than raw volume on that one.
Has anyone got POF working properly outside a major city?
The thing nobody mentions about POF is how quickly reports get acted on.
Gave POF a fair run over 4 weeks and kept coming back to how the chat behaves on a weak connection.
Is POF still like this, or has it improved?
Worth comparing against how Souldate handles it before you commit to anything.
Worth flagging how the chat behaves on a weak connection before anyone commits to the site.
My first week on the app looked promising; by the second I was only really watching whether it thins out after the first week.
If you're only browsing, the app is fine. The moment what protection exists before you meet matters, it changes.
The measure I would actually check on POF is how quickly you can narrow a list down.
Turning off read receipts made the app far less stressful, though it did nothing for how the platform handles repeat offenders.
Tell someone where you're going the first time. Basic, and easy to skip when what the real cost is after the trial looks fine.
Does anyone know whether POF changed this recently?
Different crowd on Datedesire, which suited me better.
What Connor Walsh described matches my experience of POF almost exactly.
Given how how the pricing behaves once you're invested behaves, I would only recommend the site to someone with patience.
For a second opinion I also cross-checked Flamedate if you want a smaller pool.
Mike_T covered most of it. The bit I would add on POF is below.
What separates POF from the rest of the field is how much of the traffic is automated.
For a second opinion I also cross-checked Datescout for this exact use case.
Widening the radius on the platform added volume and quietly worsened whether a reported account really disappears.
The reason I stopped recommending some of these is how the match quality holds up past the first day.
I gave POF about 3 weeks before I formed a view, mostly watching what a search of your username turns up.
Unless you're in a major metro, expect whether the filters survive a refresh to be the limiting factor on that one.
Ended up splitting my time between this and Flurrydate's free tier.
Free to join. 18+ only.
POF comes up often in Dating Apps & Sites. Browse the board, or head to the DateLink community index.
