Dating Services

As discussed in our forum topic here, True.com has for a while now, been auto generating winks for their members. When signing up for True you can disable this feature but it is enabled by default. The selection box is located near the Terms of Service check box on True's sign up page.

Is this a good idea? Does it help get people interacting on the site or is it a ploy to just get non-paying members to sign up? I personally don't like it, and it definitely should not be enabled by default. This "feature" probably costs True more in bad press than it provides with new paying members.

While I was over at Chemistry checking out some review information I notice that they have revamped their home page. It looks like they have added a new dating blog called The Great Mate Debate where Chemistry relationship experts can blog away about online dating, relationships and of course Chemistry! After looking over the blog I found it to be well laid out, with some interesting articles. Most important their Experts actually have half decent resumes that deal with relationships and advice. A lot of so called relationship experts on other blogs are experts just because they put the word expert after there name.

Of course Chemistry isn't the first be any means to add a relationship blog. Relationship blogs has been popular for a while with other dating sites and some have taken the form of more a online magazine than a blog. What's the difference? The main difference really is the style of writing. Blogs usually have a more journal like feel to it's writing. Blogs also tend to allow users to comment on their articles more than the online magazines do.

Here is a list of some blogs and magazines from other popular dating sites:

• Date.info
• eHarmony Labs
• FriendFinder Magazine
• True U

I just received a notice from Lavalife to pass onto the users of Dating Sites Reviews. Over the next month Lavalife will be offering a free 7 Day full membership. This membership allows you to do everything a paid member can and is a great way to test run their dating service. Within the 7 days you will be able to send an unlimited number of emails, instant message and view fully 1000s of local singles profiles.

To try the free membership click the graphic below or for reviews by us and our users click here. Our Dating Coupons Page also has been updated with this information.

Here is an interesting article on CNNMoney.com about the founder (Andrew Conru) of the FriendFinder Network of dating sites. It talks about his failures and successes including AdultFriendFinder, his biggest success which generates more than 60% of his total revenue (over $200 million). This site rivals the likes of Match.com and Yahoo! Personals in total number of members. Last year AFF had more than 35 million visitors and on average 75,000 new user registering each day (not paid members).

What is Fraudnet Technology you ask, it is a patent-pending solution to provide a safer online dating environment for Perfectmatch.com members. It has several goals, from increase detection of fraudulent credit cards to identify suspicious online behavior. These behaviors include such dating scams as people pretending to foster a relationship to lure singles into sending them money, providing credit card information and/or other personal data. Perfectmatch.com is always looking to protect it's members from dating online scams that have run rampent on other dating services.

This is definitely a step in the right direction for dating sites in general. While I haven't heard of any complaints against Perfectmatch.com regarding scam artists you can never be too careful online. Fraudnet and Perfectmatch.com have just inked this deal so it's not in use yet but we expect it to go live within 6 months.

For more information read Fraudnet's Press Release.

Wow, I'm not sure how I missed this (and when it exactly happened) but Lavalife has switched from a credit base membership system to a subscription based membership. So instead of buying credits to send an email or instant message, etc. you now have unlimited use of these features for a low monthly price. Lavalife was the only large dating service I know of that had used the credit type system.

I'll update the Lavalife Review soon to include this new information.