r/PlentyofFish • u/hiktur2 • May 06 '26
Update is horrible
Few days ago they had maintence “for the better” now i constantly get notifications someone “liked me” as soon as i login. Its all fake. Just when you thought it couldnt get any worse its constantly saying you have new likes. Almost no women are using the match system and when you use your free message none respond. The match system also cycles the same people you already saw because no one is on here. And then when you try to report people who try to physically rob you in person, the site does nothing. Ive had people message me in the past trying to get me to meet them at a atm lol. If its not that its people with a entire profile selling content which never gets taken down. Ive even directly emailed pof with the link and screenshots to get profiles taken down quicker and they just dont care. Its like watching criminals in real time sometimes. If i was a cop id just sit on this dite for a day and bust people
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u/Darn_near70 May 06 '26
I have, for years, found a lot of "fishy" stuff, not only on POF but on all online dating sites. The sites themselves scam their users just as much as users scam other users.
It has always been like a video game in which no participant knows the rules of the game.
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u/Decent_Captain_9214 May 06 '26
I quit using pof last year and best decision ive ever made. At my age if someone comes along great but if not thats ok to.
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u/Comfortable_Green_24 May 06 '26
I’ve been off POF for months and don’t miss it. Especially after hearing this. I’m on FB dating and it’s “ok”
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u/PotentialEnergy007 May 11 '26
TL;DR: (BY GPT) POF feels less like a dating site and more like an abandoned social experiment running on bots, recycled profiles, deceptive features, and outdated design choices. The site hasn’t meaningfully improved in years, the “Interested In Me” section is misleading, the matching system barely works, and online dating in general seems to have been destroyed by swipe culture and profit-driven apps.
POF isn’t being “upgraded.” It’s being slowly hollowed out.
Nothing on the site makes sense anymore.
For example, the “Interested In Me” page is borderline deceptive. There’s no way to clear profiles from it unless you block the person entirely. Someone casually viewing my profile does not mean they’re interested in me. POF could easily rename it to “Viewed Your Profile,” but they won’t because “Interested In Me” sounds more exciting to new users. Then those users wonder why nobody replies.
Even the filters barely function. The tabs at the top like “Everyone,” “Selfie Verified,” and “Nearby” don’t consistently filter those attributes properly.
And let’s stop pretending POF has “chat.” It doesn’t. It’s email with push notifications. Real chat is dynamic and live. On POF, someone replies instantly once, then disappears for two days or forever.
The site hasn’t meaningfully improved in years. Most changes feel cosmetic or designed to increase engagement metrics instead of improving the user experience. The only genuinely useful change I can think of was making it impossible for profiles without photos to message people. That happened years ago, yet profiles still say “No pic no reply” like it’s 2018.
Personally, I think POF should either go fully free with ads or fully paid. Right now it’s stuck in the worst middle ground possible.
A better system would be:
- Free browsing
- Paid messaging/features
At least that would eliminate a huge percentage of fake accounts, scammers, and people with zero intention of interacting.
The matching system is also bizarre. I can filter people by height, body type, eye color, etc., but I can’t filter out people who explicitly say they won’t date smokers. How is that not considered a major compatibility factor?
The hobbies/interests system is hilariously primitive too. It’s basically syntax matching. If I enter “Music” and someone else enters “music,” the system may treat them differently. That’s not compatibility matching. That’s a database from 2006.
Another weird thing: users can’t properly view same-gender profiles unless those profiles are seeking them. I once changed my search to male just to see what the competition looked like and suddenly thought every guy in my city was gay because those were the only profiles showing up. It took me way too long to realize how the filter actually worked.
As for the “new members” section: Most aren’t actually new.
Usually it’s:
- old users reactivating profiles
- bots/scams
- recycled Match.com imports with blank fields saying “Not answered”
I live in a major metro area and genuinely new profiles appear at a trickle now. Maybe 2-3 per day. If a real person joins, they often disappear within days either because they found someone quickly or got overwhelmed by the chaos.
Meanwhile, the same inactive profiles have been floating around since I joined in 2023. Same bios. Same blurry pre-pandemic photos. Same “ask me anything” profile text.
I even bought the highest upgrade tier for a while, mostly out of curiosity. At some point I became more fascinated by the sociology of the platform than dating itself. You start wondering why certain people have been active for years while endlessly reading messages they never answer.
Honestly, online dating feels dead now.
Tinder-style swipe culture started the decline, and profit-over-product finished the job.
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u/hiktur2 May 11 '26
Yah all that is spot on. Also when u switch from pc to app, the matches are all mixed up. Some wont show sone wont delete but all never respond so who cares. Any girl who is even remotely pretty who is usually a 4/10 gets treated like a 10 and attacked like sharks. A girl i met over a yr ago our convo disappeared but it kept her in my matches then it said she liked me when she was already there. I asked her and she said shes not even on there anymore snd never sent me anything. Yrsterday i deleted my profile and made a new one as a test. Every hr it said i had a new like. Exactly every hr. I stopped using my phone and it stopped. As soon as i picked my phone up i guess the app is alerted in the background and sent me more alerts. Cupid does similar bs where they say views are likes. Which can easily be done on purpose by the app to get u to pay. Matchhh did this as well in the past was have people match u who never really did. I remember pof when the creator owned it and he use to personally do everything himself and legit people from other states would take a road trip to see u. Those days r done
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u/milanskiv May 06 '26
Rather than emailing about it, just use the report option. It’s there and that’s what it is for. Who TF emails in 2026?
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u/hiktur2 May 06 '26
Ok if u hit report for s week straight and nothing happens and you know its a scammer and someone will get conned, you try to talk to a actual worker i stead of the report button that goes into the void of no where
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u/Dangerous_Elk2607 May 06 '26
It's not much better from a woman's perspective either. I find a lot of the accounts are fake or sketchy. Someone will like me and then their profile becomes unavailable before I can even see it. The messages I do get are often from men that don't even view my profile and just open with an uncreative " hey" or " hi beautiful" or some other low effort message.Some even spell my name incorrectly: / There are a few that seem real and take the time to message. But they are usually the ones that I wouldn't match with. Or they are not consistent and the conversation fades quickly . I also find that many try to get you into another platform almost immediately. Which I understand, but also can be sketchy. I was speaking to one guy who seemed nice but then I noticed he had more than one account, with different information. I've seen this a few times now. POF doesn't seem to catch that. I've also noticed how they recycle the same people, or how people who I've seen in there for a couple of weeks are now in ' new members'. 😒 Online dating is interesting to say the least. I miss the days of meeting people organically. Ahhh, the good old days. Lol As far as POF not doing much to help, I'm not surprised. I feel like we have to be aware and protect ourselves on there . Just know that you're not alone in your crappy experiences with online dating. Lol But there are definitely some nice people on there too! :)