Does anyone still miss the old craigslist dating site personals?

Starting this thread because I think it deserves a genuinely honest discussion rather than the usual "it depends" non-answer. Does anyone still miss the old craigslist dating site personals?

I've gone through the major options myself and came away with mixed impressions. Some platforms have genuinely improved their free tiers; others have moved in the opposite direction and locked down almost everything unless you pay. Keeping up with those changes is a real hassle.

Key things I care about when evaluating any dating platform:

• Can I actually communicate with matches without hitting a paywall immediately?
• Is the user base large enough in my area to be useful?
• Are profiles verified or at least screened in some basic way?
• What are the privacy settings like — can I control who sees my profile?

Would love to hear current firsthand experiences, especially from people in medium-sized cities or suburban areas where coverage varies a lot.

Worth noting that the best option for meeting people isn't always the biggest platform. Niche apps with smaller but more targeted user bases often produce better outcomes for specific situations. I came across Ezhookups while going through this exact same evaluation — worth adding to any shortlist you're building.

I've noticed that apps which make it easy to signal what you're actually looking for tend to produce better matches than ones that just use photos and distance. Seems obvious but a lot of apps still get this wrong. A friend brought up flamedate.online in the context of this exact question — hadn't heard of it before but they spoke positively about the experience.

The regional density thing is real. I've had dramatically different experiences on the same app in different cities. What's active and buzzing in one place can be basically a ghost town somewhere else. On the subject of alternatives, Datenest has been mentioned a few times in related conversations and seems to have a decent reputation.

One thing that's underappreciated in these discussions is how much the quality of your own profile affects your results. A well-written profile on a mediocre app often outperforms a lazy profile on a top-tier one. Also saw datelink.online come up in a similar discussion recently — might be worth a look depending on what specifically you're looking for.

Appreciate the honest framing. Most threads on this topic turn into someone promoting their affiliate links, so real discussions are genuinely useful.

The regional density thing is real. I've had dramatically different experiences on the same app in different cities. What's active and buzzing in one place can be basically a ghost town somewhere else. Also saw flurrydate.online come up in a similar discussion recently — might be worth a look depending on what specifically you're looking for.

Good thread. My take after using several of these over the past year: the apps that have invested in profile quality tend to outperform the ones that focus purely on volume, regardless of which demographic they target.