When dating sites were actually about your profile as much as your picture they were pretty good. Yes the audience was smaller but you could find someone you liked.

Now it's just a shit show. The women are inundated and the men are just trying to stand out as a needle in a haystack.

I think the biggest issue is so many people are disingenuous about why they're on dating sites in the first place anymore. As our society has become more and more disconnected and people experience bad relationships they become jaded, so anyone that would be a good person to date has a very small likelihood of being "matched" with someone that would suit them.

So everyone's just running around like chicken with their heads cut off hoping to bump into the partner of their dreams.

Something fundamentally needs to change IMO, but I'm not really sure what it is. I've thought about it a lot.

My initial thoughts would be, first, to be on a "good" dating site, you'd need to fill out an actual interview. Meaning, have a real profile. Have the site verify your identity and info. Then setup a pool of people based on their interests, goals, etc., in their own lives and their prospective partners.

The key is honesty, which means the whole thing wouldn't work anyway. Most people aren't even honest with themselves, much less dating sites or other people.

Sad world we've created. There are decent people out there, just hard to find in that sea of trash.