Members receive a "guaranteed monthly renewal rate," which is lower depending on how many months are purchased at once. For instance, if you purchase one month at $24.95, you get no discount on your next month--it's still $24.95. But if you purchase three months at once ($59.95), every month after that period is only $19.99.
Signup is lightning-fast. All they need is a username, password, email address, birthdate, and you’re good to go. Then you can write a one-sentence introduction and upload a photo. I was thrilled that there was a “green-gray” option for eye color! Finally I can stop checking "hazel!" I also enjoyed the fun and creative check-box profile questions.
Chatrooms include Lobby, 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s.
I interviewed T.L., a 43-year-old hetero female in CA. She says, “Last February 14th, my neighbor talked me into doing the five-day freebie thing. She thought I needed it, I guess, just coming out of a marriage. I was actually not into using the internet for meeting people. I thought it actually sounded scary and a little dangerous! So I did the five days, and during that time I was so darn entertained that I joined!! I had no intention of actually dating anyone.”
What changed her mind? “Well the emails I got were, ‘Oh, you have pretty eyes,’ etc. How can you turn that down?!” [Take notes, guys.]
“Then I started talking on line to a few and I ‘teased’ a few of the cute ones. [Teasing is one way of breaking the ice on this site.] I ended up going out with a total of five. The first three were nothing like their photos but extremely nice people. (DD: How were they nothing like their photos?) One looked handsome from straight on in the photo, but had a huge nose to the side... One was blurry. The fourth one was absolutely gorgeous and the nicest guy!! I’m in heavy ‘like!!’ He's successful, drop dead gorgeous, kind, has manners, and oh my gosh, I couldn’t stop smiling on our first meeting. We met for one drink that turned into a six-hour date.”
“There are actually all walks of life here. Whatever you are looking for, you will find. The members I request are usually very nice and great quality. The ones I have actually met or gone on a date with have been a 7 to 10.”
One caution she has for you all is to keep in mind that that non-members can’t respond to emails, and people's profiles don't tell you whether they're members or not. "With Mr. Wonderful, I teased him and didn’t hear back for over two months, because he wasn’t actually a member, but it doesn’t tell you he's not a member. You just think he doesn’t like you, but really, he can’t respond.” (DD: How did you eventually hook up?) “The little red envelope kept flashing that he had messages, but he could only read them if he joined, so curiosity killed the cat and he joined, read my message and contacted me. Some guys are smart enough to say they aren’t members and put their
emails in code.” [Doing this is against site policy, however.]
Then I interviewed J.F., a 39-year-old hetero man from WA, who has been a member for a couple of months. He says, “I'm very busy, and don't do bars, so I thought this would be good way to meet people across the world. My favorite thing about the site is the worldwide friendships and the files of people. My least favorite is that there is no ‘how-to,’ and IMs get missed when you’re on; they come in as missed IMs, and the system blanks out the IM screen before you can read the message.” I have adjusted the “ease of use” stars accordingly (J.F. gave it a 1), but in conversation with him I’ve ascertained that he is much less computer-literate than the majority of users are likely to be. I haven’t found the site difficult to use at all.
J.F’s advice is, “Never lie, be honest and open, and never judge. I think this could work, but you have to be open to all things. If someone doesn't click with you, you should be told, so people don't waste each other’s time.” He says he would recommend the site to others. “It’s been fun.”
