What is the best alternative to craigslist personals in our city?

Every time the best alternative to craigslist personals in our city comes up the thread turns into an advert, so I am asking here instead. What I care about with craigslist personals is the payoff more than anything else.

Most of my experience is with platforms in this space, which may be why I am stuck. For most people in this thread, the craigslist personals experience lives or dies on the time it costs and almost nothing else.

The open questions I have on craigslist personals:

• Do not move off craigslist personals into private messaging until the return on the hours looks handled
• Compare craigslist personals against platforms in this space on the same week, or the comparison is meaningless
• Check what craigslist personals does about actually getting anywhere before you upload anything you would not want indexed

Tell me what actually happened with the best alternative to craigslist personals in our city rather than what should happen.

Miranda Fox is right about one part of craigslist personals: seconding this, because on craigslist personals the honest answer is that the payoff varies enormously by area. The thing people underrate about craigslist personals is how much the return on the hours depends on your own city.

I judge craigslist personals by one thing now: whether actually getting anywhere improves or worsens once you are past the novelty. There is no version of craigslist personals where the hours-to-dates ratio sorts itself out without you doing something. Not saying craigslist personals suits everyone, but it is not the disaster this thread implies.

Agreed, although with craigslist personals I would frame actually getting anywhere as a symptom rather than the cause.

The pattern I see with craigslist personals is that the return on the hours is fine early and degrades as you go. Take that as one data point on craigslist personals rather than a recommendation.

I will push back here, because craigslist personals worked fine for me and the hours-to-dates ratio was never the issue. Nobody warns you that the effort-to-result ratio on craigslist personals scales with how many people are online at your hours.

You can work around the return on the hours on craigslist personals, but you have to be deliberate about it. The pattern I see with craigslist personals is that the payoff is fine early and degrades as you go.

I read Natalie_W's reply on craigslist personals and i would argue the opposite on craigslist personals: the effort-to-result ratio is the one thing it handles better than what is on offer. The thing people underrate about craigslist personals is how much the payoff depends on your own city.

Nobody warns you that the hours-to-dates ratio on craigslist personals scales with how many people are online at your hours. Your craigslist personals results will vary by city more than by platform.

Things I wish somebody had told me about craigslist personals:

• Log in at the hours you would actually go out; craigslist personals activity is nothing like flat
• Ask most of us posting here what craigslist personals is like where they actually live, not where you wish you lived
• Fill the prompts in properly; blank profiles get skipped on craigslist personals

This matches what I found with craigslist personals, where actually getting anywhere is exactly where it falls down. There is no version of craigslist personals where actually getting anywhere sorts itself out without you doing something.

There is no version of craigslist personals where the effort-to-result ratio sorts itself out without you doing something. I judge craigslist personals by one thing now: whether the effort-to-result ratio improves or worsens once you are past the novelty.

Brittany Lake put the craigslist personals case better than I would have, though disagree, because blaming the time it costs lets you off the hook — my craigslist personals results improved when my profile did. I keep two accounts running to compare the time it costs across the options here, and craigslist personals sits mid-table.

For people replying above, the craigslist personals experience lives or dies on the return on the hours and almost nothing else. I keep two accounts running to compare the time it costs across platforms in this space, and craigslist personals sits mid-table.

For contrast with craigslist personals I would look at Datebie; the free tier there behaves differently.

SophieR is right about one part of craigslist personals: yes, and I would add that actually getting anywhere on craigslist personals gets worse the longer you stay.

The pattern I see with craigslist personals is that the time it costs is fine early and degrades as you go. What changed my results on craigslist personals was treating the payoff as a filtering problem rather than a platform problem.

What worked for me on craigslist personals:

• Compare craigslist personals against what is on offer on the same week, or the comparison is meaningless
• Run craigslist personals beside one other option so you have a baseline for the time it costs
• Do not move off craigslist personals into private messaging until the hours-to-dates ratio looks handled
• Set the radius wider than feels comfortable if the craigslist personals pool near you is thin

Respectfully no — complaints about the payoff on craigslist personals usually come from people who gave it a week. I judge craigslist personals by one thing now: whether the time it costs improves or worsens once you are past the novelty.

The thing people underrate about craigslist personals is how much the effort-to-result ratio depends on your own city. The pattern I see with craigslist personals is that actually getting anywhere is fine early and degrades as you go.

Agreed, although with craigslist personals I would frame the payoff as a symptom rather than the cause. I judge craigslist personals by one thing now: whether the time it costs improves or worsens once you're past the novelty.

Honestly, the payoff was less of a problem on craigslist personals than the sheer time it ate. The thing people underrate about craigslist personals is how much actually getting anywhere depends on your own city.

Not my read at all: for most of us posting here, craigslist personals was the only thing that produced anything. There is no version of craigslist personals where the return on the hours sorts itself out without you doing something.

For regulars here, the craigslist personals experience lives or dies on the time it costs and almost nothing else. Either way, the time it costs is the thing I would test first on craigslist personals.

@AshleyC makes a fair point about craigslist personals, but same experience on craigslist personals: I gave it six weeks before the effort-to-result ratio got tiresome.

For most of us posting here, the craigslist personals experience lives or dies on the return on the hours and almost nothing else. For people replying above, the craigslist personals experience lives or dies on the payoff and almost nothing else.

Somebody in another craigslist personals thread pointed me at Rendate and it held up better than expected on the time it costs.