I came at this after wasting time on the wrong options with a couple of accounts, before I trusted my own conclusion. It turns out the size of the local pool is the part the marketing never mentions. The signal was clear again and again once the first fortnight was out of the way. Adjust from what you actually see frankly, the detail varies a lot by city.

I logged what actually happened once properly, and I would do it the same way again. Cutting through it, whether photos are checked before publication becomes obvious only after a month. It stood out more than once more clearly than anything else I looked at. I would be curious frankly, so treat this as a starting point.

I have changed my mind on this twice here, before forming any view. In my testing, how new accounts are treated in week one accounts for most of the variance I saw. It repeated quite plainly once the first fortnight was out of the way.

Things I wish I had checked sooner:

  • Find out how easily you can change your location
  • How many prompts the profile format offers — this alone ruled a couple out for me.
  • How the app treats people who travel — this is the one I would check first.
  • Find out whether there is a web version as well as an app — check it on a real account, not a demo.

I asked around before drawing any conclusion in my own time, because the advice online contradicts itself. Boiled down, the ratio of active to dormant profiles accounts for most of the variance I saw.