Malinda S.

POF is now HOTEL CALIFORNIA for internet dating: You can check in any time you like... but you can never leave. POF used to be mostly free. All that changed recently--if you want to deactivate your profile, you have to PAY now. This is one of the new features. So what that means is now POF will have numerous accounts/profiles that are from members who simply refuse to pay to have their profile deactivated---which creates its own self-perpetuating issue for the website just like Match.com has---thousands upon thousands of profiles that are "dead" profiles. At least OkCupid allows the users to see the last time a person was "on" the site and/or logged in. Such a feature allows users to see if the profile person is active online and looking or not---allowing one to gauge whether they are real or fake and not a waste of their time.

I recently created a new profile on POF. My old account was inactive for almost two years because I never chatted with any man on there who wanted anything more than sex, even though I was blocking all "intimate encounters" profiles, which was an option back then. When I signed up this time, I was smart enough to use a new email address and I created the site from my office computer while on a work break---so when I registered the url and other information gathered by their site was new to them and unique---so I did not get deleted. But what I have found in my recent experience on there, is that many men in my age group----the OVER 40s group----have obviously figured out the new age rules that the site creater has imposed that you need to be within a certain amount of years of whomever you contact so many men have obviously created brand new profiles that have ages that are clearly ten and fifteen years younger than they actually are---in order to bypass the site rules. So now, when I do a search for a man who is 40-48, in actuality, most of the profiles that show up are men who are clearly in their upper 50's and 60's----there is NO denying this. It is disgusting. I am not saying no man lied about his age when I was active on there three years ago, but it was not as bad then as it is now. So by creating an age limit on there, many men who prefer to date younger women, have been forced to create new profiles and many of them are lying about their age in the new profiles.

I hate POF now. It is awful. I have tried most all the other sites, and I have found that OkCupid (ironically owned by the Match.com parent company) is currently the best free site that is free for MOST features and they do not prohibit you or charge you for deactivating your account or taking a break and hiding your account without totally deactivating it. Also, OkCupid allows one to date anyone you want, and they do not judge anyone for expressing themselves in any sexual way either as far as contacting others goes-----they figure that is what the "block" feature does and that the users are all adults and the members have the block feature to block unwanted messages that may be overtly sexual or disturbing. One can "report" someone if they get a message that is overly offensive, threatening or harassing---so the site masters have a way of policing if asked to do so. But unlike POF---they do not take it on themselves to become the dating Nazis of the internet.