Free dating sites are usually useless.

I've run across those fake profiles on POF. Most are really obvious, as you mentioned. I get very few messages but when I do, it's the fake "hey there ". That gets my immediate deletion. Can't imagine everybody using the same phrase "hey there ". Figure it's probably one organization preying on people looking to connect with a member of the opposite sex. Must be scam-money to be made. Not from me if I can help it. Usually buxom young lasses just dying to connect with an old guy such as myself. "Her" profile shows a 20-something, "her" stated age is 60-something.

Sounds tedious.

Very complete report...thank you for taking your time to share with us.

POF is nothing but a way too put your money in their pocket!

Tinder is another complete joke!

Zoosk, Match, Our time, and do not forget E harmony all offering a fancy way to meet the one you are longing for by duping you into paying for trolls, frauds, fakes, and scammers to fleece you from the site you pay to belong too!

All these dating sites are good for us, by taking your money and wasting your time on what was never there in the first place!

I have met three girls on two different sites over three year period!

I would not call them ladies or women!

All of them have what most would consider manic depressive, bipolar, sociopath, and possibly psychotic tendencies or a combination of all the above!

There is no way of knowing who is real, if there photographs are really them or if they were even taken in the last year!

Huge amount of Prince Charming/ White Knight Hunters!

All most all are overtly needed, want 60 year old who has the body and stamina of 25 year old and the wealth of hedge fund manager!

It is a numbers game!

Only one problem the numbers are not increasing!

At our age were do you meet anyone sane that does not go to church, to a bar, or a twelve step program member?

It is a waste of time . . . . the time you put in to it could be used for many, much more productive things.
.
That is my take on the site in a nutshell.

@Paul4747;

I don't think you've discovered the "advanced search" (for POF).

You can specify -
-non-religious or "other" or "new-age"
-height
-distance
and many other choices.

This way you can avoid the absentees...or the non-responders ("on line now" are listed first).

But remember there's a very competitive, if not better "free" dating site.. right here.

Agnostic.com has many options - if you're "ready to be out there".

The problem with A.com is its newness - and thus it's low membership, and wide dispersal of members.

...but A.com is growing....

There is a search feature where you can choose religion categories if you go to advanced search. That's for searching profiles rather than searching through your messages. Messaging others makes it more likely that you will be communicating with a genuine person. You can also see when the person was last online. It's a waste of time to message people who aren't there anymore. I think they like the scammers because they make the site look more popular.

Looks like someone below was commenting the same thing at the same time.

As far as it being a waste of time: Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

More like Plenty of Ho's.

Yes POF is a pain.

I'm surprised they are not doing more to combat the fake profiles, it just hurts them.

I have mixed feelings on greetings, I don't mind simple hellos or hey there. Longer is nicer but how much effort do you expect me to put in if there is an unknown effort coming back.

I wonder if there is a way to make a dating site that would encourage replies and conversation, something like if you want only longer chats you have to respond back. I dunno

I don't think it has always been like this, I've had a profile on their site for quite some time, but i recently just started contacting some people, and had the same experience you had. I noticed that the fake and alternate website advertising profiles seem to generate responses back after you email them, which is unfortunate.

They've probably changed a bit since I was on. I got tired of getting alerts from women in my age group who needed a "God fearing man." Replying and stating that I was an atheist was a great way to weed out future conflict. I deleted my profile 7 yrs ago and haven't looked back.

Sounds like a fishing expedition (sorry, i couldn't resist!). I hit the jackpot with my first contact on another dating app. I have 2 suggestions. The first suggestion is from my personal experience. Seek out answers to specific questions on your initial messages. Like, would you date an atheist? I received a message from a turned-out-to-be scammer here on agnositc that was very general. I read his profile and asked him a direct question about his career field. He wouldn't/couldn't answer it. He tried again a couple of weeks later stating he was busy working. I restated the question. End of conversation. I think the scammers are trying to get you talk about yourself and forget that you are not getting any insight about them. Sometimes i think its a way for them to perfect their coversational english algorithm. The second suggestion is from a comment I read here on agnostic. Be one of the first persons to initiate contact. And make your message informed and specific. Like, I too like [concerts, camping, scubadiving], when was the last time you did it? My last time was [the best, worst] and I want to do it again.

I think your whole message can get compressed to just one word.... scam (Not you but POF service, seems like it's notthing but a scam)

Thanks for sharing. I am looking to get back into the dating arena after taking some time away, and it can be intimidating trying to figure out where to start.

It’s a scam. Didn’t find even one fish or even a mermaid on the site

I gave it up several months ago. I'm looking for love, not a hookup

I received a message from a guy yesterday.... in response to him hearing about my recently broken heart...That I should..."Cut bait and Keep fishing".... I think the best advise I have ever received.

I have been very clear on my profile that I am an athiest, a socialist and an environmental activist. I get very few hits, and when I do, it is clear they didn't read my profile. I am also a fitness enthusiast a la Jack LaLanne and most of the hits don't have a pulse. In spite of this, I always thank the person for their interest. When I contact someone, I virtually never get a thank you. The general rudeness of the women is striking. I see the fake profiles;usually say 65 years old, but the pictures are unmistakably of a 30 year old.

Its clumsy for sure and daunting at times and sometimes just plain sucks, but I met my husband on there. We’ve been married for 5 years in October and together for 7 now so don’t disregard it. We did have to fish through the masses though to finally find each other. Nice thing though is it was easier to find the assholes before I ever accepted a date with anyone.

Did you say subscription? It's a free site. No different than any other dating site but they get hacked a lot so you get a lot of spam from supposedly gorgeous 20 year olds. You'll learn that anything with a number at the end of it isn't a legitimate profile. You can set your preferences as to what you're looking for and the distance from your location.

P. S. If the religion thing is something that your keying on you might try OkCupid which delves into many questions and details more than most sites do.

I met a lot of women using POF and four long term relationships. It's not a great site and it has a lot of problems but so does every site that's out there. You won't find anything different on sites that you pay subscription fees for honestly.
You just need to be smart and patient enough to separate wheat from chaff.

It was to problematic for me to sort out the chaff. And, the fact that I was stalked twice from men on there while they did nothing to help me didn't help. The only thing they would do is refund my money and allow me to leave. This was after I blocked one over ten times and he would just create a new profile to find me and taunt me again. Thankfully, I am intelligent enough to never allow anyone to know my address unless I am very comfortable with them or he'd be at my door. It's different experiences between men and women for certain.

After my divorce, about 9 and a half years ago, I tried both POF and Match. All told I think I had 3 dates, none of which was a second date. Women I was interested in online were generally not interested in me, pretty much like in real life. So I stopped. I did get a date recently on Tinder. Sweet woman, very cute and intelligent, but way too young for me and we both knew it. I've had much better results the old fashioned way. I'm not breaking any records, but it passes the time every so often. It's a crap shoot no matter how you do it.