RapiDating OnLine Dating

MegaFriends.com definitely has a homespun spirit. Although I wasn’t exactly dazzled by the presentation on this site, I definitely had the feeling that one could meet genuine people here—individuals more serious about meeting someone and less concerned about merely garnering attention from being all flash and no substance. If you’ve dated as long as I have, both off and on the Internet, you always risk becoming slightly jaded and sounding bitter. This relatively plain personals page was exactly what the doctor ordered to cure me of my worn out perspective.

Now, when it comes to members, I have to say Mega Friends is doing pretty well, boasting over 600,000 members. What I think is more impressive is that from what I can see, the profiles seem to be of much higher quality than I’ve seen on other sites. Like I said before, it’s not glitz and glamour here, so it seems like you find only “real” profiles compared to other places where I have more than a mere suspicion they’re peppering the membership quotas with fake model pictures. Everyone is welcome here, whether they’re straight, gay, bisexual or a couple. Your profile can include a voice/video introduction, although I didn’t find many subscribers taking advantage of either.

“Browsing is free for anyone but if you go gold then free members are able to respond back to you…”

Getting to know people first is always important to making a successful connection. Mega Friends let’s you use several ways to do just that. Login to chat, video chat, instant messaging, e-mail or send a “gift” to someone. The gift service is really more like a system for sending electronic greeting cards. The graphics are pretty amateurish; they remind me of the Valentine’s Day cards we used to exchange in elementary school. You remember the ones – came in a box of 100 and you sent one to everyone in the school whether you liked that person or not. It’s a cute idea and a simple way of sending a simple message when maybe you’re no Shakespeare. I appreciated the ones telling someone I’m not interested, mostly illustrations of people running away—very subtle and sensitive. There are also forums where you can post advice or read stories from other subscribers.

The biggest plus with this site is that you can do a lot without paying. You can take part in group discussions, read and reply to mail from gold members and search for people really close to your home, as opposed to having to search by some broad and unrealistic distance. You can even see when members last logged in, which is important when trying to determine how many people come on frequently in your area.

If you want unlimited access to sending and responding to messages then you need to upgrade to Gold. You’ll also gain access to subscriber photo albums. Chat and instant messaging, which times out after 10 minutes as a free member, will no longer be an issue. Browsing is free for anyone but if you go gold then free members are able to respond back to you, otherwise they can only send messages or gifts. To increase your contacts and allow for total freedom on the site, it’s definitely worthwhile becoming a premium subscriber.

True, this dating site is certainly not as popular as others on the market, but it’s certainly a great choice for people new to online dating and those seeking a littel extra exposure. Visit Mega Friends if you prefer true value to simply superficial style.

Since going to church is already a great way to make friends, find a future husband or wife and become active in your community, it might explain why Catholic Cupid doesn’t do so well for traffic. It simply doesn’t garner enough visitors, despite having a professional and inviting place to make safe online connections. Still, building a thriving online community is never easy at first, and this site certainly has provided a base for future success.

The CatholicCupid profile process is ultra quick. That said, you do have to include a written essay describing yourself and your potential match. These are carefully screened for appropriate language and just general quality overall. That means that at least one is spared from the usual curiosity seekers that simply type gibberish into the description field so they can start browsing profiles straightaway.

Nevertheless, one issue that quickly becomes apparent is that the searches cover too broad an area. Free searches are limited to a wide 200 miles and even paid members can only narrow down result to within 50 miles. If one lives in an urban center, that could prove rather impractical, and it might be a bit far to travel even in rural settings.

When you do find your possible matches on Catholic Cupid, you’ll only be able to see their last login date if you’re a premium subscriber. You can send a free wink or add the member to your favorites. If said subscriber has gold membership status, he or she will be able to see that you added the profile to your list of preferred members.

Other benefits of upgrading on CatholicCupid include seeing who in general viewed your profile, while conversely preventing others from seeing when you’ve looked at theirs. It also allows you to initiate rather than only reply to emails or online messages in the chat rooms.

Premium profiles are also displayed first within search results, which could prove quite beneficial considering the size of the minimum search radius. As a premium gold member, you can also communicate with free members that can’t contact you but may reply in turn.

However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t still a few interesting features open to everyone regardless of membership status. The blog section and the forums seem surprisingly active despite the limited traffic overall. I only glimpsed a few of the latest postings on each, but found that what I read was insightful and well written.

It might not be the most popular as of yet and that could make limit your potential to meet “the one” since he or she might be hard to find if you’re looking for someone right next door. However, the community aspect of Catholic Cupid seems appealing since the chance to meet other Catholics outside your home parish is a valuable way to expand your circle of friends.

SingleC.com is a place for single Christians to meet online. I find that although the name is pretty hip sounding, the site is a little less slick in its presentation. Whoever designed it appears to have a less than a healthy attraction to the color blue in all its many subtle shades and hues. Thankfully, the blue is offset occasionally by magenta, which is a color I personally think should be banned entirely as it’s clearly offensive in any form. Despite feeling agitated from the overexposure to the amateurish looking interface, the site itself had lots of good qualities. Before going further, I must state clearly that this site is dedicated exclusively to sincerely Christian people. The content is regularly monitored and anything deemed offensive will be removed and the contributing member suspended or even permanently banned. I gave the presentation a 6/10.

You can start your visit by signing up for a free ten-day trial. The creation of a profile doesn’t take very long, but it will be a few hours before it is actually posted since each one is carefully reviewed first. Until your profile is online, you can’t sign into the site. That also means that your trial period hasn’t started until your first login. One thing I found surprising in the information you’re asked to give is that the categories for which church you belong to are fairly general. Other sites are very specific about not only denominations, but even the branches within them. Having grown up in a small town where the Red Lutherans (their church was red brick) never spoke to the White Lutherans (their church was sandstone), it seems odd to treat such a distinction lightly, but you could always write more specifics in your bio.

There is instant messaging available simply by clicking on the profile of someone else online at the same time as you. The online members are divided into users with slow and fast modems, which is a feature I really haven’t seen anywhere else, so far. Every day you can find the people who are having a birthday right on a special link on the homepage and even send them an e-greeting card. The search feature is not overly detailed but that’s mostly because the profiles themselves don’t ask for specific information. I found while I was visiting that a good majority of the people online had pictures, though, so that’s worth a thousand words right there.

Some Christian sites seem less about Christ and more about just being safer and cleaner than regular dating sites. I get the distinct impression that from the profiles I read, most members seemed to be very concerned that they connect with other true believers. I appreciate the fact that they give you ten days to completely try out the service and once your trial is over, the membership works out to only about 66¢ a day.

Visit Single C if you are sincere in your love of Christ and are looking for someone with whom to share that devotion.

CatholicMingle.com is a site meant exclusively for Catholics to meet online. Despite ever changing times, the issue of interfaith marriages has always remained the same, if your future spouse isn’t Catholic than he/she would need to convert to Catholicism if you want a church wedding. Wouldn’t it be easier to just meet people with the same religious beliefs and traditions? It’s as good a premise as any for finding someone with like values and spiritual experiences resembling your own. I must emphasize that unlike some sites that are similarly targeted to one group of interest more than another, this site does not have options for non-believers to indicate that they’re aren’t Catholic. Here, you can only be Catholic who is unsure of the future direction their devotion is taking.

The profile process is quick and easy. No one is “forced” to provide too many details. You always have the option of filling out extra questionnaires providing more illuminating information, but they are 100% optional. You can also participate in a personality test that will colour code your description to aid in finding a more compatible match based upon more than arbitrary physical attributes or interests. Respecting the church’s ideology you can only be looking to meet someone of the opposite sex. The overall tone of the experience is conservatively safe and secure. Many of the members appear to be marriage-minded and generally people are looking for more meaningful connections.

Always free on this company’s network of sites, you can send a smile or an e-card to show your interest in someone’s profile. Beyond those basic ways of getting in touch with someone, you’re going to need to sign up for a premium membership. Once you’ve upgraded you can send/receive e-mail, participate in a live chat or go one-on-one with someone special using instant messaging. It’s also free to read the message boards, but of you want to post any of your own thoughts you’re going to need to pay for your subscription first.

There is another compatibility feature separate from the personality testing. It’s called “Ideal Match” and consists of filling out a list of criteria for what you’re looking for in a potential mate. Besides simply selecting characteristics of your perfect person, you rate the relative value of each chosen detail on an overall scale of importance to make your matches description that much more personalized and precise. Once you’re done explaining what you need and want in a match, the system will go through the database and e-mail you profiles that correspond with the information you provided.

It is not obvious as near as I can tell, how many members actually belong to Catholic Mingle. It costs just under $20 US to become a member and definitely provides a super safe and clean online experience. Since before committing you can always look at the profiles online, I suggest doing a localized search to find out if there are members of interest in your area. The site loses points on it members’ stats (6/10) since every search returns a maximum of 1000 members making it impossible to even estimate true membership levels.

Visit Catholic Mingle if being Catholic is important to you or if you simply want to meet good people with traditional values.