RapiDating OnLine Dating

RomanticPlanet.com offers a quirky appearance. It reminds me of store-bought greeting cards that try to pass themselves off as homemade and hand drawn — a folksy gesture sold to the artistically challenged. Its simple design bordering on “too cute for kittens” could mislead you to think that the site is equally simplistic.

In actuality, it’s full service all the way, just like any other major online personals site. I appreciate when still waters run deep and that despite not being bombarded by advertising and quick links, I can discover a website that has as much to offer as louder, more aggressive competitors.

“RomanticPlanet.com is a surprisingly down-to-earth example of what an online dating site should be.”

Romantic Planet has six pages of info to fill out for your free profile, but you can skip a fair amount of the questions. However, it cautions that its patent-pending compatibility system, Match Mind, will be most effective if details are as complete as possible. They claim that their proprietary matchmaking software took three years to develop and beats out one rival’s famously advertised duo-two-way matching system.

Free searches are extensive with loads of detailed criteria to select, as well as narrowing the locality down to within five miles. There’s isn’t a live chat room, but there is instant messaging, which even includes a video option. Emails are sent to your offsite email account, but the real email addresses are always masked in communications between members to protect their privacy.

Before starting to message someone, first you need to send a prewritten introduction epostcard or greeting. Once the other person says that he or she is interested in talking more, his or her profile is moved into network of connections. At least one of you will need to be premium RomanticPlanet member though for open communication to be possible.

If you want to be able to send personalized communication to a member that interests you, you do need to upgrade to a paid membership. I find it refreshingly honest of the site to have made it clear that to initiate customized messages requires only one of the two members to become a paid subscriber.

Beyond the one-on-one stuff, there is a community section meant to bring together members to discuss all kinds of topics, as well as online dating, too. For example, there are sections devoted for men only to discuss diverse topics with other guys, as well as the same sort of private board just for women. Some members give online dating tips, even specific to RomanticPlanet.com.

Overall, by requiring that the introduction step be completed before allowing open-ended communication between two members ensures more quality connections are made and less time is wasting on disinterested prospects. RomanticPlanet.com is a surprisingly down-to-earth example of what an online dating site should be.

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.

Big Church is one of the most popular dating sites that specialize in catering to people of faith. Some may recognize the look and feel from the Friend Finder family of sites. Friend Finder has a very big-name and they have the resources at their command to reach a broad body of people. We took a look inside Big Church to see what it was all about…

Dating sites are usually made or broken by the size of their membership base — or just about. The more people you see online, the more people you can reach. Big Church scores well when it comes to popularity. This has a lot to do with the marketing network that they have in place, and the fact that they’ve been around for years. This means that no matter what follows, this dating site is probably worth a look.

Having said that, the worst notch against BigChurch.com is that they won’t let you see full profiles until you’ve paid for a membership. How can you tell if a dating site is worth the price of membership if you can’t see the members? Big Church is asking for a big leap of faith in this regard. We recommend that you proceed with caution but keep in mind that even though you can’t see profiles, Friend Finder is a large company with the resources to put a decent dating site on the market.

“…if you’re looking to meet people who share your beliefs, this isn’t such a bad place to start.”

Being able to see the date that a given member last logged in is equally as important as being able to read a profile. On this point, the site delivers. The last login date is easily visible in search results. Even if you can’t read profiles, at least you’ll be able to see how many people logged in during the past day. That’s usually a good indication of how popular a site is in your area.

When it comes to conducting searches, Big Church gives new users a few options. The first two, allowing you to search by country or state, aren’t really all that helpful if you’re looking to rate this site on the amount of members in your area. The third option is to search by zip code, which is a little more useful – but only for US residents. The site could clearly do more for new users in this regard.

If you wish to communicate with other members, there are a number of options available to you. There is a chat board where you can take part in various discussions and an instant messaging client for those who prefer the immediate connection. The site also allows users to create their own blogs and take part in groups. One of the other nice features on this Christian site is that it allows users to search by denomination so you can make sure to connect with people that share your beliefs.

Pricing starts at about $16 a month or you can buy three months for $30. This is less than the average cost of a dating site and there are a lot of features that you get for that price. They do offer a premium membership that gives you preferred placement in search results and gives you extra storage for your mail folder. This will run you about $20 a month.

Overall, BigChurch could be more user-friendly for those who have never seen or experienced one of the Friend Finder sites before. I’m always skeptical when I can’t see members’ profiles. It’s easier for dating sites to pad the database. However, as I’ve said before, BigChurch.com has a big name, so if you’re looking to meet people who share your beliefs, this isn’t such a bad place to start.

Ebony Friends is a dating site that looks to create a community where black friends and singles feel at home. They’ve put together a total-package site that seems to suit the needs of anyone looking for love online. We took a closer look to see if it was worth the price of admission.

The profile quality on Ebony Friends is decent. They don’t ask for much information when you first sign up so you can get in and start your tour of the site quickly and easily. The vast majority of the questions are multiple choice. There aren’t any extensive essays to fill out or complicated matching systems to contend with. Once in, you’ll find that most of the members are black but Ebony Friends isn’t a completely ethnic-specific site. There are lots of profiles with pictures, too, so feel free to window shop all you want. You will find people of other races online and many who are looking for interracial relationships.

“Ebony Friends won’t let free members run searches for people closer than 100 miles.”

Search options can make or break a site for new users. This is where you get to find out who’s online in your area and that can determine if you want to go ahead with a full membership or not. EbonyFriends.com lets you search for love but puts limits on your ability to filter results. You can search by country or by distance from your zip code. Searches by zip code are pretty standard these days. The farther you’re willing to travel, the more people you can possibly meet. However, closer is always better, but Ebony Friends won’t let free members run searches for people closer than 100 miles. If you want to pay, you can search within 50 miles, but until you do, you’re stuck sorting through the throng of ads that will undoubtedly be returned. One of the nice features is that you can search for men and women, no matter what your sexual preference may be. If you pay for membership, you can tailor your searches to a wider range of criteria. You can then sort by ethnicity, body type, religion, marital status and many other options. Some of these would be very helpful for free members but it’s just a case of Ebony Friends using a big carrot at the end of the stick. They want you to pay and they plan on making it worth your while.

Most dating site will let you try before you buy – at least to a certain extent. Sending smiles to members is a commonly feature and Ebony Friends certainly allows you to do this. You can send a smile with a number of canned text messages that allows you to indicate your degree of interest. You are encouraged to post messages on profiles such as general comments about person. You can do this for free, too, as well as take part in message board discussions. That’s about where your free access runs out. If you want to send a message to someone, you have to pay for at least a months worth of access.

EbonyFriends.com seems to be a site that’s gaining popularity but it doesn’t have nearly the numbers that more general dating sites have. The inability to search within a small geographic radius is one of the biggest drawbacks. That, coupled with the fact that it won’t tell you when a specific profile last logged on, makes it difficult to be sure of how busy the site is for any area. We recommend caution, but it never hurts to browse!

SoulSingles.com advertises itself as a cool, hip place to meet Black singles. Its somewhat corny catch phrase is “keepin’ it real.” I’ll start off right away with a criticism about some missing features that I think of as being crucial to any site that decides to specifically target a cultural group. It is imperative that there be some sense of community when you are aiming your service to just one group of people. On this site there are no message boards or live chat and I think those types of options make members feel like they’re participating in a real cultural exchange. Unfortunately, connections are limited to one-on-one conversations here.

Soul Singles requires you enter a decent amount of information to complete your profile. I was impressed with the number of truly high quality profiles I saw that included photos, so I have to give it a 9/10 for profile quality. Another great thing about the profile process is that you can add a video introduction to really personalize your description in a more effective way than just words.

A free profile doesn’t give you too many options. You can send the ever-popular free flirt to show interest like you can find on pretty well every other online dating site. For any more options, you’re going to need to spring for the premium membership. Once you become a paid subscriber then you can send and receive email, initiate instant messaging conversations and see who has checked out your profile in the last two weeks. The only feature that’s really special on this site is instant messaging. You can do more than just send a simple text message. Soul Singles lets you create voice and video instant messages, too.

“There is no way to verify the total number of profiles since search results to not display the total number of matches found, so it only gets 6/10 for members’ stats.”

The search options earn a solid 10/10 on Soul Singles since they include a close proximity option based on postal/zip code and even a keyword search feature. You can display your results as a photo gallery and you can also save your searches for quick reference as new members join. There is a simple My Matches section that looks up subscribers real time based on the answers from your profile about your ideal partner. Your matches aren’t emailed to you, so you have to be sure to check back on a regular basis.

There is no way to verify the total number of profiles since search results to not display the total number of matches found, so it only gets 6/10 for members’ stats. However, the membership fee is under $15 US so even trying it out for a month to see if you can make enough connections doesn’t represent much of gamble money-wise.

Soul Singles is the place for people of soul to meet one-on-one. It’s inexpensive and easy to use.

If dating is more of a gray area when it comes to gender then BiCupid.com might just be the type of niche dating site you’re looking for. In a world where dating sites are fragmentized by any and every possible niche market you can imagine, some appear rather redundant. For example, if you’re looking for an Asian man or woman, you can tailor your searches on most of the major dating sites so that they only show Asian members. However, none of the sites that we’ve reviewed up to this point offer options for bisexual men and women. It’s with this in mind that we begin our review of BiCupid.

Off the top, there are a number of substantial down sides to what BiCupid has to offer. First off is a lack of traffic compared with more major dating sites. This is to be expected considering that it is catering to a smaller area of interest than other general dating sites, but it still deserves mention. Localized searching is limited for non-paying members to a distance of 100 miles or greater. This means that if you’re really only looking to connect with people in your immediate vicinity, you will have to sort through those that live further away, too. The problem with large search radiuses, such as 100 miles, is that it makes sites look busier than they really are. However, the most disturbing aspect of this site is that it won’t show you the last login date of a member until you’ve paid for at least a one month membership. If you can’t tell when a user last logged in, then you can’t tell how many members in your area visit the site each day. You need to be able to see this stat in order to make an informed decision on what a site has to offer but BiCupid chooses to leave bisexual men and women in the dark.

“…bisexual men and women get poor service on the major dating sites so this may be a good choice…”

For as many down sides as this site has, it also has its good features. One of the best is that paid members can contact guests. This means that you can be browsing the site and find an email in your inbox from a member that you can respond to without having to pay for a membership. However, paying has its privileges. With the price of a membership, that runs at around $20 a month, or less if you purchase multiple months, you can access additional features. Off the bat, you will be able to see when a member last logged in and conduct searches within a radius of 50 miles. You will also be able to see who has viewed your profile, who has you on their favorites list and see a list of new members. And of course, you will be able to send unlimited emails and instant messages to members and free members and have them be able to respond to you.

Although a site really only has to let you conduct localized searches and provide you with the ability to contact members to serve its ultimate purpose, a dating portal should go the extra mile and create a place that is as tailored to the target market as much as possible. BiCupid seems to put forth a pretty solid site but could do more to address its niche. Nonetheless, when it comes to underserved markets, bisexual men and women get poor service on the major dating sites so this may be a good choice if you can’t find another site that suits your needs.

LargeFriends.com is a site that specializes in catering to the dating desires of heavyset men and women. Unlike some other sites that find a good name and publish a site to reach a market without really looking into the needs of those people, LargeFriends.com has clearly taken its time and made a site that’s as big and beautiful as the people it serves.

The profiles at Large Friends are well done. They contain a decent amount of information and give you space to write a few words about yourself. However, they lack the depth that some other sites are able to reach with more questions to fill out. Add to that the fact that even if you go through the trouble to fill out what they do ask, only paid members can search by more specific criteria.

Speaking of criteria when it comes to search options, Large Friends has a mediocre offering to base your selection on, most of which are only available to full members on the site. However, you can search for people within a 100 mile radius, which isn’t bad, but the 50 mile radius option is blocked until you’re ready to join. Photo-only searches are also limited to those who’ve paid for a membership. Bonus marks are given for a keyword search that helps balance out the fact that you’re not required to answer 100 questions before you can join.

Quick contact is only available for paid members and is limited to instant messaging. This isn’t so bad because if you’re just looking to get a conversation going, they do have a chat forum.

You should find free membership to be enough to get your feet wet at Large Friends. You can show interest in someone by sending a wink and members can email and send unlimited messages if you’ve caught their interest. You can also chat in the forum for free, so don’t be afraid to go in and yack it up! You will constantly be reminded of the features you’re missing out on with messages on the benefits of full membership, but that’s to be expected with any site that costs money to run.

You’ll also find quite a decent amount of people have joined this site. Searches turned up members from all over the globe, but North America has the largest amount of subscribers, by far.

LargeFriends.com offers a few nice extra features that members can benefit from. Once you join, you can post comments about others on the site and check to see who’s visited your profile. You can also read their selection of daily plus-sized news. Members also get priority placement in search results. In this case, joining does have its privileges.

If you’re BB woman or man, or even just an admirer, Large Friends does deliver the goods. Take the free tour and search for others in your area for the best measure if this site suits your needs!