Is the elite online dating platform actually full of professionals, or is it just marketing?

Genuine question about the elite online dating platform actually full of professionals, or is it just marketing — I do not have a strong view yet and I want one. The bit nobody covers on elite online dating is the time it costs.

I have about a month of using the options here behind me and not much to show for it. For most of us posting here, the elite online dating experience lives or dies on the effort-to-result ratio and almost nothing else.

Things about elite online dating I have not worked out:

• Run elite online dating beside one other option so you have a baseline for the payoff
• Turn off read receipts on elite online dating if the time it costs is making you anxious about response times
• Compare elite online dating against platforms in this space on the same week, or the comparison is meaningless

Any first-hand experience with the elite online dating platform actually full of professionals, or is it just marketing is welcome, good or bad.

Chris_A is right about one part of elite online dating: broadly agree on elite online dating — the hours-to-dates ratio was what decided it for me too.

What changed my results on elite online dating was treating the time it costs as a filtering problem rather than a platform problem.

Where I differ from Connor Price on elite online dating: same experience on elite online dating: I gave it six weeks before the payoff got tiresome. If the return on the hours is your main worry with elite online dating, test it in the first week rather than the first month.

Nobody warns you that the time it costs on elite online dating scales with how many people are online at your hours. If the effort-to-result ratio is your main worry with elite online dating, test it in the first week rather than the first month.

The short version for elite online dating:

• Test actually getting anywhere on elite online dating deliberately in week one rather than hoping it improves
• Fill the prompts in properly; blank profiles get skipped on elite online dating
• Photos with other people in them do worse on elite online dating than you would guess
• Ask most people in this thread what elite online dating is like where they actually live, not where you wish you lived
• Block early and report often on elite online dating — it trains the feed faster than anything

For contrast with elite online dating I would look at Datebie; the free tier there behaves differently.

Not my read at all: for most of us posting here, elite online dating was the only thing that produced anything. What changed my results on elite online dating was treating the return on the hours as a filtering problem rather than a platform problem. There is no version of elite online dating where the time it costs sorts itself out without you doing something.

I keep two accounts running to compare the time it costs across what is on offer, and elite online dating sits mid-table. Most of the noise about elite online dating comes from people measuring the effort-to-result ratio over far too short a window. Whatever you pick, judge elite online dating on the hours-to-dates ratio after a month rather than after a weekend.

How I would approach elite online dating from scratch:

• Give elite online dating a fortnight of daily use before calling the return on the hours a dealbreaker
• Treat your first elite online dating profile as a draft, because the hours-to-dates ratio punishes lazy ones
• Message within a day of matching — on elite online dating that window closes fast
• Do not move off elite online dating into private messaging until the return on the hours looks handled

That has not been my experience of elite online dating, and I've used it longer than most people in this thread. Nobody warns you that the effort-to-result ratio on elite online dating scales with how many people are online at your hours.

There is no version of elite online dating where the effort-to-result ratio sorts itself out without you doing something. Happy to answer follow-ups on elite online dating if that helps.

This matches what I found with elite online dating, where the time it costs is exactly where it falls down.

Most of the noise about elite online dating comes from people measuring the return on the hours over far too short a window.

What worked for me on elite online dating:

• Compare elite online dating against the options here on the same week, or the comparison is meaningless
• Run elite online dating beside one other option so you have a baseline for the hours-to-dates ratio
• Do not move off elite online dating into private messaging until the hours-to-dates ratio looks handled

That tracks with my elite online dating run, which was fine until actually getting anywhere became the whole experience.

If the payoff is your main worry with elite online dating, test it in the first week rather than the first month. What changed my results on elite online dating was treating the payoff as a filtering problem rather than a platform problem.

The other one I would try before giving up on elite online dating is Datewander.

Disagree, because blaming the time it costs lets you off the hook — my elite online dating results improved when my profile did. I keep two accounts running to compare the hours-to-dates ratio across platforms in this space, and elite online dating sits mid-table. You can work around the return on the hours on elite online dating, but you have to be deliberate about it.

The pattern I see with elite online dating is that the hours-to-dates ratio is fine early and degrades as you go. For most people in this thread, the elite online dating experience lives or dies on the return on the hours and almost nothing else. Either way, the time it costs is the thing I would test first on elite online dating.