I keep running into different answers on this and wanted to hear from people who've actually been there.
My main concern is fake profiles and bots. Even some of the paid platforms have gotten pretty bad about this.
Location matters a lot with this stuff and I feel like most advice doesn't account for smaller cities and rural areas at all.
- Check recent Reddit threads for unfiltered user reviews
- Look for 'last active' timestamps before investing time in a match
- Run a reverse image search on profile photos that look too professional
- Video call before any in-person meeting — it takes five minutes and saves a lot of trouble
- First meeting should always be somewhere public during daytime
Especially looking for 2025 or 2026 input since things change fast in this space.