Ashley put it better than I'd have. most of the frustration with search pof traces back to how thin it gets outside cities.
My experience with search pof shifted completely once I paid attention to the money side of it.
What I actually do about search pof:
- keep one clear, current photo of your face on the search pof side
- plan for ten days before deciding anything about search pof
- keep one clear, current photo of your face while you are testing search pof
- reply inside a day or the thread goes cold on the search pof side
If how it feels to use isn't sorted, search pof will not go anywhere. You cannot really talk about search pof without talking about how it handles day to day. I judge search pof almost entirely on how quickly you get going now.
Anyway, that is my read on do a search on pof plenty of fish by username.
I ended up using Datebound for exactly this side of search pof.