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

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)

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

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.

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.

Abandon all hope

Pof has definitely gone downhill hard.. when i was on it my first go around , it was pretty good.. now the scammers have taken it over so much its pretty useless.

That's why I've pretty much all but given up on looking for dates and casual dating. Too many fake people out there, variables, and what not which makes it complicated.

This site is by no means immune to scams. Most, but not all get pulled down fairly quickly.

I tried P.O.F. for over 2 years and found it was more like Plenty of Fishcrap.

You are correct on many points. It's the antithesis of being user friendly. It's overrun by fake accounts seeking money. Having said all that, I actually did meet my wife of for years next month, on that site... no joke.

Hi,

Absolutely agree with all you have said, I find it very frustrating and as soon as you log on the fake messages start. To be honest I won't be using it much anymore and I didn't know that Match.Com owns everything! There is no surprise there though as only a few major cooperates own everything.

Tinder not so bad but I never get the nude pics lol have chatted to a few and been ok although not gone too far as I am not looking for anything serious yet. So I took the plunge and joined Fabswingers as I am open sexually and it has been pretty good, I have even organised local socials.

Kind of works too, I get singles turn up and couples, just a big laugh a few drinks with like minded people bloody great atmosphere.

My experiences with POF is that the site gives up on me, thinks I have a fake profile or agenda, and they boot me out. This has happened twice as I go back to find I have no profile and cannot log in. My reaction is to say "Chuck You, Farley." I don't see how they have any fish?

I've been on POOF for a few months now. I was on Metch before that, for 2 years, and earlier about 2008-10, too. Yes, POOF is harder to use than Metch, and has more junk profiles, and is clunkier to use, but my experience has not been nearly as bad as yours. Even though POOF says that most women read your profile before writing, I haven't found that to be true. I get dozens of clicks on my photo alone, from people with no compatibility activity- or philosophy-wise. But the price is better than Metch, and anyway, after two years there, I felt I was only seeing re-runs on Metch. But Metch's key-word-search function is great. You can even search for their categories Agnostic or Atheist, much more specific that POOF's "non-religious".

And living in west lower Michigan, neiher POOF nor Metch recognizes Lake Michigan, so they both send me matches from Wisconsin, as if it was really 100 miles away. (To be thorough, Agnostic.com does this too.) One of the greatest advantages of Metch over POOF is that on Metch, if I click "Remove" on a profile, I never see it again. Whereas POOF will send me interesting profiles that have (unbeknownst to me) blocked me or otherwise prevented me from contacting them (too far, six month out of their age-limits, whatever) and then, after I have wasted time reading and writing, it tells me I cannot contact them. They should not offer me profiles if I cannot contact them. I complained to POOF about this and their reply made no sense, as if they hadn't understood my complaint. Despite all that, POOF is cheaper, indicating that we get what we pay for.

In general, Paul hit it well: You have to do a lot of sifting on interweb dating sites. And never give personal info, last name, phone number, real e-address, until you are confident in the person.