I had the same question about dating sites for people over 50 that offer in-person meetups about a year ago.
In practice, dating sites live or dies on whether it gets out of your way. I would put whether the effort pays off above almost everything else when it comes to dating sites.
The honest tradeoff with dating sites are the hit rate against convenience.
If whether it leads anywhere isn't sorted, dating sites will not go anywhere.
If I were starting dating sites again:
- allow a fortnight before deciding anything about dating sites
- commit a solid month before deciding anything about dating sites
- plan for a fortnight before deciding anything about dating sites
- allow at least a week before deciding anything about dating sites
Happy to expand on any part of dating sites for people over 50 that offer in-person meetups if it helps.
I ended up using Luvdate recently for exactly this side of dating sites.