No sign of lockdown ending anytime soon - so online dating it is! What are the recommendations? Tinder? Bumble? Anything else?
Asking for a friend. Obvs!

You are spoiled for choice
Parship, OKCupid, Hinge, Bumble, Match etc.....
But, be prepared to pay good money for the same and be prepared for some crazy online behaviour.....YMMV.....

Many thanks.

Spoilt for choice? Interesting.... ratio of men to women ... and what about actual experiences of them? Anyone had any luck?

Have heard terrible reports of Parship! Sites like Tinder and Bumble offer a free option - is it worth paying to upgrade membership on either of these, asks my friend!

I know nothing but according to my eldest son Tinder is for lust not love. Apparently its as easy as ordering a take away!

Facebook tells me that there's facebook dating too. With Tinder it seems that many on there are not necessarily "dtf" but clearly some of them are, for a price, of course. Don't forget to add 10 years to the photos and the ages you see :-)

...or deduct any amount. When I was making some data science for a dating service, we discovered a surprisingly high amount of guys between 14 and 21 claiming to be 25+ [to look mature] and girls from 12 to 17 claiming to be adults for the obvious reason.

Only if you want more exposure and more conversations.

If your goal is not a spotlight, but the actual dating, then no, absolutely not, never get any paid option from the service. Rumor goes, that paid members are looking at those sites and their inhabitants from, ehmm... trade perspectives. But that's not the main reason not to pay them. The main reason, is that as soon as you are starting paying, you are getting into their sales pipeline. And valued customers must be retained, must be led to stay on the platform for as long as possible and pay as much as possible. Unlike in many other services, here the provider is not interested in your goal (to get a perfect match, to go to a successful date and, likely, ultimately go into relations). On the contrary, they are interested in you NOT getting any lasting relations, since it is when the user usually is lost for the sales team.

On the other note: for real dating perspectives I'd recommend online learning groups on some hobbies more popular with your preferred sex. E.g. being one of the few guys in the yoga group puts you in a spotlight and helps you to be in shape. Same, unfortunately, still statistically works with being a girl at a hackathon.

If you are a girl, use any app because there are far more guys online than girls and many are desperate. If you are a guy (and im assuming you are but who knows) tell "your friend" to be patient a little longer until Summer when restrictions ease and everyone is going to be back outside and suffering from pandemic-induced sexual frustration. Use the next 3-4 months to (assuming you're not already in great shape) work out at home and outdoors and improve your health and physique. Even the awkward introverts will likely get some action.

Getting laid on Tinder is as easy as ordering a takeaway if you are either:

1) A girl.
2) A genuinely good looking guy who doesn't have to make much effort.
3) A not-so-good-looking guy who doesn't mind sacrificing every shred of dignity he has to get laid.

Hi.... well I'm a woman actually! And have kept myself in great shape despite lockdown - running, walking, swimming.... As has my friend!
Thanks for all the advice - duly noted!

I had assumed "MsUK" was "Ms. UK" i.e. a woman.

Forget on line dating and borrow a friends dog and take it for a walk. I know 2 people who have met their partners whilst walking their dogs! It is a great ice-breaker!!

How do you know?

My brain saw it as Musk.

The gyms re-open real soon, so I'd wait.

Actually, with a little to no effort. Simply by tracking cookies matching their social networks and crossing them with age-related social patterns (like regular hits from a middle school website and getting age assesments from advertisement trackers). And some other techniques, which are sort of a trade secret of a company I was working for back then (everyone can find one or two of them described in a public domain, but few can build a reliable system to utilize a combination of them with proper statistical significance and an adequate precision).

Even 4 years ago there were a lot of editing on the photos (about 75% were retouched in one way or another, more than 25% were heavily edited). Today, alternation of photos is even more accessible and convenient, and age changing filters are quite popular AFAIK.

The fact, that dating services do not fend off minors, but allow them to lie about their age, on their own is actually pretty suss. A smart person will find a way to cheat a system, but this system currently lets it to be done too easily.

Is there an eHarmony in CH?

I'm all for internet dating. There are many, many oddbods though. But at least a paid-subscription site tends to weed out the ones who just want a shag.

You said it as if it's a bad thing

Here's what's missing
https://youtu.be/Isrd7E5nzIQ

haha, I used to think how this is the way things should be but now I've changed my mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFrk...l=ChadA.Willis

Love it! Dog napping it is!

Myself and several of my friends met our partners online.

I think its where to go if you're serious about a long term relationship

I met mine before Tinder, on OkCupid. Although I do know at least one person who met her husband on Tinder

Likewise.

My daughter got a date with Jorge Lorenzo online, but she found him boring.

Tom