How do I start meeting women online safely?

about four months of trying to work out how to start meeting women online safely? — safety & verification | da, because a friend talked me into it, and the useful part surprised me.

The part nobody warns you about is that the reporting tool shows the same faces on a loop — and nobody mentions it when they talk about safety and verification.

Specifically, on verification | da, what I would like input on:

• Has anyone found the opposite in wherever you happen to live?
• Is anyone getting different results when safety and verification is the main worry?
• Would that apply in a smaller town in wherever you happen to live?

Direct experience of recent accounts of how to start meeting women online safely? — safety & verification is what I am after.

Broadly, the effort in the opening line does more for the odds of a second date than the total registered user count for people in the middle of the pack where safety and verification is concerned.

Flurrydate is the other one I would put on a shortlist.

My working theory is that for the typical user, whether the photos look like the same person tends to decide response rate where safety and verification is concerned.

The part nobody warns you about is that the distance filter makes it impossible to tell live accounts from dead ones, which is the real problem with the apps.

Has anyone got numbers rather than impressions for anyone weighing up this whole area?

My experience was almost the opposite. @CrystalB, the note on the apps may have been better luck than most get.

The detail that ruins it is that on the apps, the onboarding boost resets every time the app updates.

On balance, when safety and verification is the issue, how consistently you show up makes more difference than how long you have had the account for the typical user.

For the typical user, the shortlist:

• Check when the account was last active, because the alternative wastes weeks.
• Read the profile before you send anything if safety and verification is your main concern.
• Write the bio for one person, not everyone — the alternative wastes weeks.
• Keep the first meeting short and public, and doubly so for people in the middle of the pack.

Worth running EZHookups in parallel for a couple of weeks.

Something worth knowing: the size of the pool within ten miles is a better predictor of how satisfied you're after a month than the number of photos you upload on the apps.

On the apps, shortening the bio by half cut the wasted time by more than half for the typical user.

My rules for safety and verification, such as they are:

• Turn the notifications off, because it saves you the conversation that was never going anywhere.
• Stop apologising for wanting something specific, which matters most on the apps.
• Keep work and socials out of it early on, especially for people in the middle of the pack.
• Set a daily time limit — with this this is the difference-maker.