Finally posting this after trying to piece together an answer from search results that are all over the place.
The paywall situation has gotten frustrating. Half the useful features on most platforms require an upgrade before you can do anything meaningful.
Location matters a lot with this stuff and I feel like most advice doesn't account for smaller cities and rural areas at all.
- Use a dedicated email address for sign-ups — don't use your main one
- Look for 'last active' timestamps before investing time in a match
- Never share your real phone number in early conversations
Negative experiences are honestly just as useful as success stories.
One I've been seeing mentioned more lately is Ezhookups — anyone here have experience with it?