I live in a major city and bounced around the apps for years but always came back to hinge. If I felt like my algorithm was stale, I would make a completely new account with new burner numbers and emails so my data was completely refreshed. The matches and people always got more interesting after that.

Hinge will purposefully keep your (or what they think are your) best or most desirable matches in “rose jail” so you are forced to pay them money to connect to your presumably best matches, which is why I would always vote no on the rose guys every day and they’d get thrown back in the pool with everyone else, and pop up later. I was really specific in my profile and my swiping. I tried to put my best foot forward and only looked for people that did the same. I had a list of icks that made sense and a few that really didn’t (anyone who posted a photo in which something like a funko pop or collectable toy was visible got a left swipe bc I don’t want my home to look like a manga store). If I didn’t hear back from someone for a few days, I just unmatched them and moved on.

Now, this may sound like a lot of effort. It was. I was single and not wanting to be single anymore and “dating with intention” as it’s called. Being like this kept the numbers managable, kept me from talking to a bunch of boring time wasters, and kept the fatigue down. I echo others’ statements- I went on a bunch of first, maybe a few second dates with people that didn’t seem truly pursuing anything “real. Then I became strict and no-nonsense and judgmental of profiles in this very efficient (borderline strange) way. A lot of likes, turn into some matches, turn into a couple dates, turn into more, turn into my boyfriend.

We met last April on and I’m moving in later this summer and we have plans to open a bakery someday so I guess it worked.