@Lauren Mitchell put it better than I would. The only thing I would add about most popular tags is that where the paywall actually sits matters more than the feature list.
My experience with most popular tags over the first few days: how the volume moved was noticeably thinner than in a big city.
If anyone has tested most popular tags properly, I want to know how much of it's bots recycling the same lines.
The question underneath all of this is what gets throttled once you stop paying, at least with popular tags.
Nobody writing about popular tags seems willing to say what the ads cost you in attention.
Where popular tags either works or falls apart is what happens the moment you stop typing.
A friend pointed me at ezhookups.online when I asked about most popular tags; the sign-up was free and quick.
My working notes on most popular tags, for what they are worth:
- The failure mode with most popular tags is when you send the same opener to everyone
- If most popular tags is your only option, at least read the profile properly before replying
- The detail that took longest to learn is what decides whether most popular tags is worth it