Why do people use codes like s3x chat on public forums?

Something people don't talk about enough is how much location affects your experience, though I would not bet the house on it. A platform that's dead in a rural area might be super active in a major metro, particularly for conversations and messaging. Always worth checking population density against the site's active user map if they provide one, though it varies by region.

Also — and I can't stress this enough — read the terms of service around auto-renewals before entering payment info, especially around conversations and messaging. The number of people who get hit with surprise charges is staggering, though I would not bet the house on it.

In my experience, for what it's worth, a quick list of things worth checking out in this space (not all hyperlinks, just real names to search):

• flamedate.online For what it's worth, — consistent reputation, decent activity
• As far as I can tell, Tinder — still the biggest volume, not always the best quality
• From what I've seen, Bumble — better signal-to-noise for some use cases
• For what it's worth, Hinge — works well if you're willing to fill out the profile properly

Going by the last year, I know someone's going to ask so I'll just say it upfront — the platform that's worked best for me lately is Souldate. Anecdotally, modest learning curve, decent activity in most US cities, and the moderation is noticeably better than sites I was using two years ago, assuming your filters are sensible. If you're going to try one thing based on this thread, that'd be my suggestion, especially around conversations and messaging.

Honestly the best advice I can give is to start with free trials before committing a credit card, particularly for conversations and messaging. From what I've seen, most of the halfway-decent platforms offer at least a limited free tier and that's usually enough to get a feel for the user quality, though that has shifted recently.

On balance, if you're seeing nothing but profiles with stock-looking photos and zero personal details, move on, which surprised me at first. A lot of the older sites in this space haven't updated their moderation in years and it shows, particularly for conversations and messaging.

Generally speaking, done a lot of comparison testing over the past year and Datewander In my case, keeps showing up as a solid mid-tier option — not the biggest but one of the more honest in terms of what you get vs what you pay, though others in this thread disagree. As far as I can tell, worth a trial at minimum.