Serious dating site: how to tell the difference

When you look for a serious dating site, you are really looking for one thing: a place where the other people mean it as seriously as you do. The good news is that you can tell before you sign up. Four questions are enough.

Does it check profiles?

This is the first and most important sign. If a profile can be created in thirty seconds and nobody ever looks at it, you will find exactly what you did not come for — borrowed photos, dead profiles and people who are simply bored. A serious site checks who comes in, and does not mind that checking takes time.

Does it give you a list, or a suggestion?

An endless list of faces looks like freedom, but it works the other way round. The more options you see, the less attention any single one of them gets. A site that means it would rather choose fewer and better. One considered suggestion is worth more than six hundred strangers' photos.

Does it ask about more than age and a photo?

A serious relationship does not stand on age, height or whether you like dogs. It stands on how you live, what closeness means to you, and what you could not put up with at home. If a site never asks about any of that, it cannot take it into account. And if it does not, it is choosing by photo — exactly like you are.

Does it cost something?

This sounds uncomfortable, but it holds. When entry is free, nobody has anything to lose, so the people who do not mean it stay too. A fee is not a price for better profiles. It is a fence that keeps out those for whom this is just an evening's entertainment.

Why there are so few sites like that

It is not an accident. Most sites make money from the time you spend inside them, not from you finding someone. If they matched you with the right person straight away, they would lose a user. So they are built to bring you back. If none of them has moved you forward so far, that was not your failing.

How SilviaDate does it

SilviaDate meets all four points, because it was built on them. Every profile is checked by hand. There is nothing to swipe and there is no list. During sign-up we also ask about things other sites ignore — what matters to you in life and what closeness means to you. And yes, it costs something, for exactly the reason described above.

When Silvia finds someone she believes in, she sends you one suggestion. Until you answer it, no other one arrives.

The first step is small

You do not have to decide right now. Signing up takes a few minutes, you confirm your e-mail, and Silvia starts looking. You do not have to scroll through anyone or rate anyone — you just wait until she comes back with a suggestion that makes sense.