Ok - I made my own weird secret dating rules. Make of them what you will. Don't judge.
This is for commitment - not for random sex.
Limit yourself to conversing with 2 people a day - the conversations will be much better and move faster. Delete 90% of the messages you get - they're just wasting space in your inbox and making it harder to converse with the people you're actually interested in. (Yes it feels nice to see all those messages in there - and they all might be wonderful guys- but be practical and delete them - because you want ONE great guy, not 100s of great -and not so great- guys)
1) Go into a date with no expectations. The guy is smart, kind, and handsome? Great. He still might not be "the one" for you, so don't stress over it.
2) No kissing until date 3, but if we get to date 3, then I either HAVE to kiss them by the end, or I have to end it. This way I force myself to decide if I like someone or not without further wasting my time/their time. It also shows them that I like them (the guy could be shy and not want to kiss me first - and that's ok!)
3) No sex until we're "dating." I wouldn't TELL a guy this - we could make out like highschoolers - but if it got too far I would say, "Listen, I'm not comfortable having sex with you yet, sorry." Don't mention wanting to be a girlfriend or being exclusive or anything - just say you're not comfortable...yet. Show some restraint.
What happens is a month will pass, and they'll be begging for commitment - "I want you to be my girlfriend!"
My success rate: *My only Tinder Date: neither of us messaged each other ever again *OKCupid 1: Terrible date, he asked me out again (I was really surprised because the whole thing was terrible), but I said no. *OKCupid 2: We actually started dating for about a month. Got really into eachother! talked about marriage (looking back on it...wtf?) I broke it off because...to be honest he was SO BAD IN BED (we didn't even have sex, this was just "making out") there was no salvaging it. *OkCupid3: Dated for 2 months before becoming bf/gf. This is the relationship I'm in right now (5 months in).