@Christina Powell put it better than I'd. The only thing I'd add about dating sites is that what the common scam opener looks like matters more than the feature list.
Used dating sites for a couple of evenings. What people reported was clearly ahead on this one point.
The trap with dating sites is that it's easy to pay before you have tested the free side.
For me the detail that took longest to learn with dating sites is how to spot a recycled photo.
The question underneath all of this is how to spot a recycled photo, at least with dating sites.
turndate.site is the other one people mention whenever dating sites comes up.
What I would check before committing to dating sites:
- Say what you are looking for in plain words — it is the one habit that moved dating sites for me
- If dating sites is your only option, at least treat the first message as a filter
- On dating sites, what I saw was clearly ahead on this one point compared with the alternatives
- The piece people skip on dating sites turned out to be about what you would guess