The places I had the most luck meeting people have been athletic clubs and college alumni meetups. I'm an old OKCupid head, but managed to get out of the dating game before "superior" alternatives came out. I did meet some girls on there but we never really clicked. Going to actual events and meeting people socially was less stressful and got me in with whole social circles rather than one-offs. I joined a volleyball team with my roommate and ended up going out with a couple of different girls I met in the rec-leagues. They were all fun dates, and while they didn't stick we were on friendly terms for years after.
My sister met her current long-term SO on Tinder, but only after striking out on dozens of guys of varying creepiness. I've got a friend who does the works - Tinder / Bumble / etc - and gets laid regularly but rarely makes it past the third date. But there's definitely some enshitification thats made them worse over time.
Fwiw I found my wife of ~7 years who was my gf for ~3 years prior to that on OkCupid but that was ~10 years ago so maybe at this point it might as well be a different app idk
Went through a long series of bad, horrendous, and occasionally soul crushing dates before that so uh be prepared for it to suck a lot but like the IRA said to Margaret thatcher, we only have to be lucky once
The places I had the most luck meeting people have been athletic clubs and college alumni meetups. I'm an old OKCupid head, but managed to get out of the dating game before "superior" alternatives came out. I did meet some girls on there but we never really clicked. Going to actual events and meeting people socially was less stressful and got me in with whole social circles rather than one-offs. I joined a volleyball team with my roommate and ended up going out with a couple of different girls I met in the rec-leagues. They were all fun dates, and while they didn't stick we were on friendly terms for years after.
My sister met her current long-term SO on Tinder, but only after striking out on dozens of guys of varying creepiness. I've got a friend who does the works - Tinder / Bumble / etc - and gets laid regularly but rarely makes it past the third date. But there's definitely some enshitification thats made them worse over time.
Fwiw I found my wife of ~7 years who was my gf for ~3 years prior to that on OkCupid but that was ~10 years ago so maybe at this point it might as well be a different app idk
Went through a long series of bad, horrendous, and occasionally soul crushing dates before that so uh be prepared for it to suck a lot but like the IRA said to Margaret thatcher, we only have to be lucky once
I do a lot of mutual aid work, but thats never really led to anything. I'll just get ALL the apps, at least maybe I can have a bit of fun for a while.
In my experience, you really need the post mutual aid relaxation event to make that work.
Like, at the thing, its all business. But if everyone heads off to the bar together afterwards, you get to connect with people.