Lor’s Blog

Critique of Free Online Dating Sites
by Zonedate

There are many free online dating or free internet dating sites out there these days, and though I hate to say it, I think you get what you pay for.

Plenty of Fish (“POF”) is the most successful of all the ad-supported dating sites. Not quite what I’d call an elegant design, but it is simple. The in-you-face adultfriendfinder.com advertisements really bother me, I don’t have fun using the site, and I don’t mean to sound so negative, but I just don’t like the way the website looks. I am inspired by its one-man business model, but most affected by its appearance. Because of Plentyoffish.com, ZoneDate.com is designed to be visually appealing and fun to use.

OKCupid.com is a very interesting website, but I don’t see the point of joining a dating website like OKC when many of the members say they are “Only here for the fun tests”. And though there are literally thousands of tests to take and questions to answer in order to build up your profile and increase your compatibility with other users, the site was ruined for me when I found out how little that compatibility score really meant and realized how few of my “matches” were actually dating other OKC members. Because of that site, Zonedate.com will focus less on tests and focus more on encouraging people to communicate with other members in order to get to know them. If you’re in a rush, we might even implement “Online Speed Dating” at a later, ahem, DATE.

To me, Mingle2 is a better looking version of Plenty-O-Fish. It is also simpler, with just a plain-vanilla “search members” or “advanced search” function. You can “nudge” people just like on most other dating websites, and the creator seems to be a down to earth, genuine nice guy (like me!). His blog also says that he has been spending the past few months optimizing the site so that it is easy to find on search engines. Maybe that is why Mingle2 does not have the same high-tech features that ZoneDate.com has.

ZoneDate.com’s technology blows away all of the other sites with built in instant messaging and internet-based voice chat, webcam-based video chat, 3-D chatrooms, fun match making, free multiplayer games, photo-rating, blogs/online journals, friend lists like on MySpace or Facebook, the ability to invite your real-world friends to join, and of course you can search for other people using our powerful search engine.

In my opinion, the only advantage that these websites have over ZoneDate.com is the number of members, and will not be an issue for very long. I am working hard to ensure that ZoneDate.com will launch with a large number of amazing female members who I hope will invite their male friends to join. ZoneDate.com will be free for women to join, and men can only join if they are invited by women that they know. The cost for men to join will be less than joining other fee-based websites because ZoneDate.com has a lower overhead.

Lor’s comment:

I’ve been to those other sites.
I think I still have profiles up on them getting dusty, most of those places force you rate and make choices before moving on to the next profile.
One didnt acknowledge the gay/bi community at all.
I thought Okcupid was fun for a little while, but Im not sure I ever thought it was a dating site.
It was more like a hang out with some fun tests site, which was perfect for entertainment but not for anyone who thought they might actually meet someone.

One thing I didnt understand from the writer of this article was that they were looking at the newness of the site as a con rather than a pro-
The fact that everyone joining will be freshly interesting in the dating scene instead of some site that keeps old profiles up even when that person hasnt been active in a year is way appealing.

YAY, I get to be one of the first chickies up there!

But Im looking forward to this new place, It sounds like the equivalent of your comfy hometown bar coupled with the idea that if you want more excitement, the hot club scene is the next building over.