Has anyone tried the hippiedates platform for alternative lifestyles?

So: anyone tried the hippiedates platform for alternative lifestyles. I have read a lot of contradictory takes on hippiedates and would rather hear from people who tried it. What I care about with hippiedates is the effort-to-result ratio more than anything else.

I have about a month of using what is on offer behind me and not much to show for it. Nobody warns you that the hours-to-dates ratio on hippiedates scales with how many people are online at your hours.

Specifically, on hippiedates I would like to know:

• Check what hippiedates does about the time it costs before you upload anything you would not want indexed
• Do not move off hippiedates into private messaging until the return on the hours looks handled
• Treat your first hippiedates profile as a draft, because the hours-to-dates ratio punishes lazy ones
• Run hippiedates beside one other option so you have a baseline for the effort-to-result ratio

Tell me what actually happened with anyone tried the hippiedates platform for alternative lifestyles rather than what should happen.

Seconding this, because on hippiedates the honest answer is that the payoff varies enormously by area. If the time it costs is your main worry with hippiedates, test it in the first week rather than the first month. The pattern I see with hippiedates is that the time it costs is fine early and degrades as you go.

What changed my results on hippiedates was treating actually getting anywhere as a filtering problem rather than a platform problem. The pattern I see with hippiedates is that the effort-to-result ratio is fine early and degrades as you go. Either way, the payoff is the thing I would test first on hippiedates.

Picking up EvanH's point about actually getting anywhere, yes, and I would add that actually getting anywhere on hippiedates gets worse the longer you stay. For most people in this thread, the hippiedates experience lives or dies on the payoff and almost nothing else.

If actually getting anywhere is your main worry with hippiedates, test it in the first week rather than the first month. There is no version of hippiedates where the payoff sorts itself out without you doing something. The thing people underrate about hippiedates is how much the effort-to-result ratio depends on your own city.

I will push back here, because hippiedates worked fine for me and the return on the hours was never the issue. The pattern I see with hippiedates is that the payoff is fine early and degrades as you go.

Honestly, the payoff was less of a problem on hippiedates than the sheer time it ate. Happy to answer follow-ups on hippiedates if that helps.

Others asking about hippiedates have named datelink.online, datenest.site, datedesire.online.

Same experience on hippiedates: I gave it six weeks before the payoff got tiresome. What changed my results on hippiedates was treating the payoff as a filtering problem rather than a platform problem.

If the hours-to-dates ratio is your main worry with hippiedates, test it in the first week rather than the first month. I judge hippiedates by one thing now: whether the effort-to-result ratio improves or worsens once you are past the novelty. That is my read on hippiedates, and others here clearly disagree.

If you do try hippiedates, do this:

• Run hippiedates beside one other option so you have a baseline for the time it costs
• Turn off read receipts on hippiedates if actually getting anywhere is making you anxious about response times
• Compare hippiedates against what is on offer on the same week, or the comparison is meaningless
• Message within a day of matching — on hippiedates that window closes fast
• Give hippiedates a fortnight of daily use before calling the hours-to-dates ratio a dealbreaker

Worth a look alongside hippiedates: Datescout, if only to see how differently the time it costs can be handled.

I read AlexaM's reply on hippiedates and i would argue the opposite on hippiedates: the hours-to-dates ratio is the one thing it handles better than the sites people keep naming.

There is no version of hippiedates where the effort-to-result ratio sorts itself out without you doing something. For most of us posting here, the hippiedates experience lives or dies on the return on the hours and almost nothing else.

Not my read at all: for most people in this thread, hippiedates was the only thing that produced anything.

Nobody warns you that actually getting anywhere on hippiedates scales with how many people are online at your hours. What changed my results on hippiedates was treating the time it costs as a filtering problem rather than a platform problem.

I keep Datebound open as a control while testing hippiedates — useful for judging actually getting anywhere honestly.

Agreed, although with hippiedates I would frame the time it costs as a symptom rather than the cause.

What changed my results on hippiedates was treating the return on the hours as a filtering problem rather than a platform problem.

This matches what I found with hippiedates, where the hours-to-dates ratio is exactly where it falls down. I keep two accounts running to compare the hours-to-dates ratio across platforms in this space, and hippiedates sits mid-table.

If the return on the hours is your main worry with hippiedates, test it in the first week rather than the first month. For the members answering here, the hippiedates experience lives or dies on actually getting anywhere and almost nothing else. Take that as one data point on hippiedates rather than a recommendation.

How I would approach hippiedates from scratch:

• Do not pay to fix the return on the hours on hippiedates; the paid tiers rarely touch the real cause
• Photos with other people in them do worse on hippiedates than you would guess
• Write a first message that references their profile, not your own — hippiedates rewards it
• Fill the prompts in properly; blank profiles get skipped on hippiedates
• Log in at the hours you would actually go out; hippiedates activity is nothing like flat

Same experience on hippiedates: I gave it six weeks before the effort-to-result ratio got tiresome. What changed my results on hippiedates was treating the effort-to-result ratio as a filtering problem rather than a platform problem.

I judge hippiedates by one thing now: whether the effort-to-result ratio improves or worsens once you're past the novelty. Your hippiedates results will vary by city more than by platform.

Worth a look alongside hippiedates: DatingFly, if only to see how differently the return on the hours can be handled.

Broadly agree on hippiedates — the time it costs was what decided it for me too.

The thing people underrate about hippiedates is how much the hours-to-dates ratio depends on your own city.

@Paige Saunders makes a fair point about hippiedates, but that feels too harsh on hippiedates, given the effort-to-result ratio is a problem across platforms in this space rather than specific to it. Most of the noise about hippiedates comes from people measuring the hours-to-dates ratio over far too short a window. If the payoff is your main worry with hippiedates, test it in the first week rather than the first month.

You can work around the hours-to-dates ratio on hippiedates, but you have to be deliberate about it. Nobody warns you that the time it costs on hippiedates scales with how many people are online at your hours. I judge hippiedates by one thing now: whether the payoff improves or worsens once you are past the novelty.

I keep Ezhookups open as a control while testing hippiedates — useful for judging the return on the hours honestly.