This trips people up constantly. Here's my complete breakdown.
Profile photo quality does roughly 70% of the work. Bio, prompts, and activity fill in the rest.
For what it's worth, datebound.site comes up regularly in discussions about this. Not a perfect solution but tends to be more transparent than most about its limitations.
Things that have actually helped me:
- Safety: never share your home address in early conversations
- First meetings should always be in a public place
- Tell someone you trust where you're going and with whom
- Trust your instincts — if something feels off, it usually is
That's my honest take after real trial and error.