Summary:
Plentyoffish is the stand alone online dating hub for Plentyoffish Media Inc. Plentyoffish is a relatively run of the mill site, billing itself as a 100% free site. While this is not entirely true (which we’ll get to momentarily) Plentyoffish does cover the basics of online dating – good membership numbers, email and profile messaging, secondary personality tests and chemistry matchmaking. While the graphics and design of the site are uninspired, Plentyoffish does cover the basics that make it a fine place to meet daters online.
Pros:
- Good membership numbers
- Nice personality tests and matchmaking
- Free communication with other members
Cons:
- No A/V chat
- Nothing special to look at
- A touch unethical
Costs:
While Plentyoffish bills itself as 100% free, and while it does provide absolutely free communication with other members… it’s not a 100% free site. After “passing” the “Serious Member” test (a series of 25 multiple choice questions) members get the option of upgrading to the Serious Member status. Serious members show up on the top of searches, get 16 photo slots and additional profile options. To become a “Serious Member” you’re looking at £71.40 for one year, £46.80 for six months or £29.40 for three months.
Account Setup:
Creating an account is a minor headache on Plentyoffish. First, you’ll answer all of the regular questions (“How tall are you?” “Do you have kids?”) in addition to a 50 question eHarmony-style personality test. You are required to enter at least 4 sentences into your greeting and if you’d like to upgrade to a “Serious Member,” you’ll have to pass another test. Who knows if you can actually fail that test – but you’ll have to take it either way.
Photos:
Regular non-paying members receive 8 photo slots on their profile while paying “Serious Members” get 16.
Search:
Though there are interesting free matches that the site will make for you based on secondary personality tests, the search results are often duplicates of the same members for pages on end.
Special Features:
The fact that Plentyoffish will let you communicate with other members without paying a membership fee amounts to a special feature. The free matches and secondary personality tests can be fruitful, although most daters are much more comfortable searching out their own dates. There is also a “Hot or Not” style search you can go through… and/or subject your own photos to. No A/V chat.
Communication:
Free email and Facebook.com style messaging. While you can enter into a live chat with other members, there are no A/V chat options.
Support:
A thorough FAQs section is offset by a downright offensive qualifier in the Contact Us section: “This site is run by 1.5 people responses may take days! Nearly all questions can be answered by READING the Help above first.” Not only is that iffy English, that’s not good customer support. That’s passing the buck and frankly, not doing any favors for Plentyoffish. A site-generated email address is provided – we couldn’t find a phone number.
In their words:
My name is Markus and I created Plentyoffish so that online dating would finally be free for everyone. One of the things major paid sites had that Plentyoffish didn’t have was compability testing which they could charge $60+ a month for. I wanted to offer this feature as well for free, so I contacted the designers of these tests forked over 10′s of thousands. The result is you have pretty much the same test as paid sites, except its completely free! No $60/month membership here!
Our reviewer’s opinion:
I want to like Plentyoffish, as it is a nice change of pace to find a free site with a decent membership base. There are a number of interesting forum topics and the idea of the secondary personality tests is pleasant enough. But the whole passing a test to gain the right to pay to become a “Serious Member” thing does not sit well with me, particularly not when coupled with the rude FAQs section. I’d love to give Plentyoffish a ringing endorsement, but like anything else in the online dating world, sometimes our desire to love something is put at odds with the reality of what that something is. Plentyoffish has its good points, but in the end, it is a flawed site.
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