Lots of people, guys and girls, recommend Plenty of Fish online dating (which I dub Plenty-Of-Flesh) because it’s free. I’ve been a member there twice now, and I haven’t been impressed either time.
The site places a lot of emphasis on photos, which has led to people judging one another not by their messages, but solely by looks. I’m not impressed with the forum moderator either, who has a firm yet obnoxious and stuck-up attitude to posts that raise questionable suggestions issues, even with the site.
Many of the people there have been rude and/or full of hot air, both in the forums and through messaging. Even the friendliest of messages went ignored - the sent messages list proved extremely helpful in finding out just where they were going.
Plenty of Fish advertises itself as a dating site, which is my biggest disappointment: the only people who’d enjoy Plenty of Fish are the average loud, outgoing people who already have “great” lives and have no intention of being serious.
As with most other places I’d suggest someone experience it for themselves, if only for them to reach their own conclusion. I’ve had much better results with Match and Perfect Match.
Hi, I've been a matchmaker for many years and have experience with just about every dating site out there. I have thoroughly reviewed and rated the best
A big kudos goes out to reviewer #183. He’s pretty accurate with what he said about POF and the type of women that are on there.
Here are some of the things that I’ve learned when I was on POF:
-The view me scene is a joke. I’ve had a lot of attractive woman browse me over and over again. But when you try to talk to one, they either don’t respond or reply with some insincere, half assed, disrespectful response. IMO they’re just playing games and playing with your head. They’re only pretending to take an interest in you. A lot of women of there are either insincere, rude, and disrespectful.
- The favorites thing is overrated and a joke. A lot of men who are morons abuse it like there’s no tomorrow. Women see this site as more of a beauty pageant and a popularity contest. It seems like the more men that has listed her as a favorite. The more big headed, egotistic and narcissistic they become. In other words they’ve become all about themselves and full of themselves.
- A lot of the more attractive women have unrealistic, illogical, and irrational expectations. They’re basically looking for their long shot. Most are still playing the field. Serial daters essentially. Most of them don’t always say what they mean to begin with.
- A lot fo woman on there can be categorized as
A.) Hostile man haters
B.) Needy, desperate chicks
C.) The ones that not serious about dating or having a LTR are only about themselves.
- The majority of the men on there are sex crazed perverts. Looking to get laid, booty calls, or a one night stand. But you also have your stalkers, psychos, creeps, clowns, and social misfits on there too. People you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley.
- The forums are a joke and a waste of time. It’s populated by cyber cliques, cyber bullies, and trolls. People that have no social life and are basically miserable and pathetic. They single out, fight with and zero out anyone who doesn’t rapport with their narrow world view. These people are combative and cantankerous and have no qualms about leaving you an emotional train wreck.
- I’ve seen the moderators commit some of the most blatant and egregious abuses of power. They will delete anyone off of POF because they simply doen’t like them, didn’t like their subject material, trying to defend themselves from these assorted cliques, bullies, and trolls. I’ve seen it happen because of that. Wield their power so unevenly and they’re anything but unbiased.
- IMing on POF is a joke and a waste of time. People hardly use it.
Given the gross disparity of the men to women ratio on POF. It seems the site is all about and for the women. After all, they have the upperhand. They have the power to select to chat and date with. But, you also have a lot of chauvinistic men on there that think they can impose their will and have their way with the women. With all that the nicer, decent guys on POF are usually ignored, lost in the shuffle, undervalued, underappreciated and swept under the rug. You know the old adage, “Nice guys always finish last.”
I’ve been on the site for roughly two months and I would like to make the following observations. This is my list of grievances concerning the site.
1. The females will always have the advantage over the guys on the site. In general, girls get favorited more than guys by astronomical amounts. Girls get 100’s of hits a day on their page, they get 20-40, sometimes 100’s of e-mails a day. Do you think guys are getting that much attention? Nope. Basically the guys are doing all the viewing and e-mailing and the females are relishing in it until they find someone suitable. A woman can pick and choose. The guy is the loser on POF.
2. The view page is all about member retention, but it’s also member retardation. The View Me page is horrible. First, the View Page does not mean if a girl views you she likes you. I had many views, but when I wrote back to some of them they deleted my e-mail or ignored me! Many girls view and they don’t like. Beware of the view page because you get alot of haters and fakers.
3. POF is like Myspace. The girls are there for popularity purposes. They like to see their favorite list increase. Some girls went from 170 to 225 in less than 12 hours. The guys are stupid enough to do this. Many like to view you just to get you to favorite them. It’s a lead-on game.
This has to be fixed or else POF will fall apart.
4. The girls are looking for their longshot guy and have unrealistic expectations on the site. Many should seek a counselor.
5. Many also play IM tag with you. They IM you and then log off just to be stupid. Avoid this trick as well.
6. I had the liberty to talk to one girl on the site. Nice girl, very pretty, but she tells me sometime later she was seeing someone and then a few weeks later she tells me she has other dates lined up. These girls are fakers and haters. It happens but guys you deserve better and the haters will get theirs in the end-and I mean the end!
Solutions: I’d say create as syetem where the girl can say “no thanks” or set up a time limit when after an e-mail is opened, she has the option of letting it go and then you get a “no thanks” by default. The View option should also have a safeguard dividing the serious ones from the fakers. A button or something, or perhaps eliminate the view page totally. IMs should not be allowed until e-mail communication is established. IMing is not the way to go on POF-girls hate it.
“give me liberty or give me death!”
Patrick Henry.
Boy am I glad I found this site. PoF is just about the biggest waste of time I’ve ever come across and heaven forbid you even dream of mentioning that on the site. I’m in a new town and it’s not too easy to get out into the singles scene when you don’t know anybody so I gave it a shot. Nobody, and I mean nobody responds to any e-mails I send out and the handful of women who could even be bothered to view my page were across the board overweight, pregnant, unemployed or any other aspect of yuck. I’m no Brad Pitt, to be sure, but I’m a decent guy with a good job and a good head on my shoulders and you’d think I shower in battery acid the way my page gets overlooked.
I ventured out to the forums to ask what it is I’m doing wrong and like some of the folks here have said, what a cesspool. Some of those people absolutely deserve to be single, the way they perch behind their computers and tear down anyone who asks a question. The most common complaint: repeating topics, as if everyone should have a completely unique relationship/dating problem that no one else has ever, at any time, had before in the history of mankind.
So in my estimation, PoF is basically a big zoo populated by lonely schmoes in the wrong place like me and the kind of women who’ve spent their entire lives on the sidelines and have themselves convinced it’s because they’re the ones being selective. Even though it’s free, buyer strongly beware.