Reviews of JDate

for a real idea of what jdate can be like check out my blog for my review http://phillyjdate.blogspot.com it tells of the various successes and misadventures that I have had on Jdate over the past year or so.

JDate was highly recommended to me by many female friends. It doesn't seem to carry the stigma with it that other dating sites do, possibly because it doesn't necessarily seem desperate to be on JDate. It seems that most JDaters are either normal, attractive people who have just had a difficult time finding someone Jewish (not someone, period) or are financially successful and have been too busy pursuing careers and hobbies to have time to search extensively for mates in the real world. In my area, saying that you met someone on JDate is 100 percent acceptable, and actually less of a stigma than if you had met a goy in real life.

To describe me (because people's experiences seem to depend on who they are, for the most part), I am 23 and female. I have a pretty face, but am overweight. Not big enough for the plus-sized sections, but I could definitely stand to lose a few pounds. I'm college educated, come from a nice family, and am culturally Jewish, though define myself as an athiest in terms of religion. I decided to try JDate because I prefer Jewish men.

I met six or seven guys from JDate in the space of one month. Some of them were nice, but not my type. Others were less nice and less my type. Only one was an internet troll looking for sex alone. The others seemed to want relationships. I personally did not click with them, although they seemed to think that they clicked with me.

I actually found that the best part of JDate was the message boards; ironically, the people I ended up connecting with were not the men I was emailing and dating, but older women on the message boards who were filled with advice, support, and kind words. It was a great community; I would post on the boards and chat with women around the age of my mom and grandma, and they would connect me to their JDating daughters/nieces/granddaughters who were my age and experiencing similar issues, and it became a network of encouragement and support. I have not seen that on ANY other site. I found that the women on JDate were much kinder and more encouraging and even more intelligent then women on other sites. For that reason alone, I would recommend JDate to women of all ages. We talk to one another, pass along guys that weren't right for us (but could be right for you), and even direct other women to the JDate profiles of our brothers, sons, nephews, and even ex-husbands in some cases. One girl was even recommending her father to some women.

I don't think the male community on JDate is as closely knit for some reason, but I do know that many women on JDate either found someone or decided to stop dating entirely for awhile--but still went to JDate for the message boards alone. Many women I met talked about finding their best friends on the site, and go on vacations with their JDate friends.

Obviously, the site isn't necessarily intended for this purpose, but what a great perk it is. That being said, I would recommend JDate with some limitations. If you're an older man, you should have some luck on JDate; there is no shortage of friendly, attractive, financially stable, and intelligent older women on that site.

If you're a younger guy, it might be harder. The younger women tended to be a little more fickle and some seemed to have high expectations or weren't really sure of what they wanted at all.

For women, it's a mixed bag; certainly, men do outnumber women of all ages, but it's about the quality, not the quantity. Most of the messages I got were from men that were ten years older than I was, and I wanted someone in my own age group.

If you're in your early twenties, try Match. I've had MUCH better luck finding an attractive and educated guy my own age on Match. And there are plenty of other Jews on Match as well. For me, a guy being Jewish is a plus, but is not a requirement.

If you're in your thirties, JDate looks pretty good--most people I noticed seemed to be thirtysomethings who had been involved with their careers and never got around to getting married and settling down.

Forty-plus, I'd recommend it too. The community is great, and if you live in a JDate "Hot Spot" (ie, New York), there are plenty of events to attend that seem to mostly be populated with older people.

If you live somewhere like Tennessee, where there are extremely few Jews, you might try JDate, but are not likely to meet anyone that lives close-ish to you. JDate seems to be a good fit for people who are over thirty and live in an area that has plenty of Jewish mates to choose from (the coasts, Chicago, Florida to an extent).

The site itself is okay. The fees are high-average, the setup is easy to navigate. So that's what I have to say. I canceled my JDate membership and went over to Match, but if I was older, I'd probably have had more luck meeting someone I liked on JDate. Match is much better for the younger crowd.

I'd rate it 0 stars if I could.

Jdate is as worthless as any other dating site. The women are obviously outnumbered by men by a large ratio. I've been there a week (without paying) -- put up a clever, interesting profile and a good photo (age 56), and have been viewed by just 13 women. Meanwhile, I've viewed 55 and checked the "yes" matching feature for about a dozen. I've received no email and not a single yes, no or maybe. The women must be getting so many hits that they only deign to respond to what they feel are the top 10% or so.

Additionally, I questioned customer service re what percentage of profiles (and which profiles) are those of actual paying members, and was told that there's no way to tell -- and they do it that way intentionally so people (women, I suppose) can accumulate mail in their in-boxes and then sign up when it's worthwhile. To me, this is bull, and just a scam.

No way I'll pay $40 for a month of this worthless service. Maybe $10 for a week would be worth a shot, but that's all it'll take you to realize that Jdate is pure crapola.

JDate used to be 3+ stars. But it's humdrum at this point. I've suspended my subscription indefinitely, maybe forever. I've had better luck with Match, and that's not saying a whole lot. JDate seems to provoke the most boorish behavior of the many dating sites I've frequented. JDate costs too much for what it offers. The field of likely candidates never seems to expand by much at all, nor does the site technology. It's a successful site because its target niche is very motivated. But it's time Spark Networks comes up with something new. I suggest the folks who run it check out a new site, FlirtySomething.com. Spark Network should acquire FlirtySomething and use its mailing lists and infrastructure to properly brand and develop it into the next big thing in online dating.

My jdate experience has been one adventure after another.I haven't had any bad experiences so far and I have met some pretty decent guys.The bad side is that it is highly addictive and most people can't help it but to log on catching other fellow daters online.The real way to find out if you've met the one is if the person cancels their account ,Oh how romantic!I would definitely recommend this site for singles out there even if it only leads to a fling or booty call.Get out there people and have coffee with a stranger!

I have been on Jdate for almost two months now. So far, I have nothing bad to report about Jdate itself. I have had excellent communication with both the phone and e-mail support lines with questions that I have had.

However, as far as dates go...

When I first put my profile up, I instantly got instant messaged by a 47-year-old male even before my essay was approved. That really scared me and urked me, so I ignored it and blocked my "online" status permanently. Nothing against 40-year-olds, but I am only looking for someone between 30 and 42 right now. I did not like that he IM'd me before my profile went up. It shows a lack of judgment and consideration on his part.

I continued to get several e-mails from men who were in their late 40's. Again, nothing against them personally, but they obviously didn't read my profil preferences. Now, if they said, "I see that you're interested in 30 to 40 year olds, but would you consider a 46-year-old man?" I might consider them.

That being said, a few weeks later I received an e-mail from a 45-year-old man whose profile I really liked and was really funny. I told him that I liked his profile,and then he sent back an e-mail in all caps, "WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO OUT WITH ME THIS WEEKEND?"

This, quite frankly, freaked me out. I refused him, and he sent me two nasty e-mails stating that I was too fat for him and to not contact him again, even though he contacted me first.

That being said, to the "poster" who stated that not listing your weight is dishonest: My exact weight, poundage wise, is no one's business. Try walking in my shoes and being rejected and not asked out and discriminated against because of my weight. Not right. Shallow, too. I am a person, not a weight.

I also had my eye on a couple of guys, and I "hot listed" them. One wrote me back. We e-mailed each other several times and talked on the phone. We had two wonderful dates, one of which ended up being quite affectionate.

Then he "dumped" me. I was heartbroken. He said that he was afraid of being hurt later and hurting me later due to his previous divorce and another previous relationship. Absolutely broke my heart. Everything was there, romantically and intellectually. We corresponded for a week afterwards, and then he wouldn't talk with me.

Broke my heart...

Every guy whose profile I found remotely interesting or even somewhat appropriate for me, I later ran into at a Jewish social event, temple, in a running group or a local Starbucks. So Jdate was a waste of time. That being said, I did e-mail with a few guys who lived across the country who were really kind and interesting, but I'm not for a long distance relationship so that didn't go anywhere. I suppose for Jews who only go to temple twice a year, or for people willing to date long distance, this could be a great site. If not, well outside of NYC, LA, Miami, San Diego, etc the Jewish community is sooo small, Jdate is unnecessary. And, in cities where there are lots of Jews walking around, why bother with an on-line site when you can just ask your friends to set you up? I've met lots of Jewish moms as well in synagogue who wanted to set me up with their sons, so I think even though not many young people actually attend temple/synagogue, that a lot of parents do. So if you don't mind being set up on a date with a guy by his mom/aunt/grandma, well then attending religious services is a great way to meet a Jewish guy.

Online dating is practically useless if you are over 30 or so. You're dealing with divorced people with lots of baggage, or those so screwed up they can't even get married and divorced in order to pick up the baggage. The really smart thing to do is study the websites and start your own dating website that is free to members. Charging for your services is old hat, and you instead should go free to members and pass the cost to advertisers once you pass a certain level of members. JDate is about making money for the owners. Every dating website has as its first priority the payment of funds to the founders. Hardly any service is provided, as the cost is too low. Most interest revolves around getting to charge your credit card for another month. It's certain free websites that have seen the most growth in the past couple of years. Much higher percentages are active on the free websites. Match.com and others are mostly people who put up a profile and never paid member dues, so they can't contact you. This fact is rarely reported by the websites, and they never say what percentage can contact you. That brings the actual number of active members who can contact you to a very low level. If JDate could only post the recently active profiles that can actually contact you, it would not be worth fooling with from your viewpoint. ALL the paid websites have this problem. You will see profiles of people who haven't been active in years. I've had enough experiences to stay away from online dating websites, and don't think that this site being Jewish changes things a whole lot for you. It may instill more false hope, and that's about it. Somebody needs to do a serious news story on this online dating scam world. The totally free sites are the most honest, as there you actually got what you paid for. The chat forums on the free websites may be your best thing on the free websites, because that's about all you will get out of it most likely. Atractive women can get dates in the online websites, but they didn't need the websites anyway to get a date and are basically cherry picking and not worth wasting your time on. Online dating may work better for lesbians and such as they have trouble finding mates in the real world. They may be more likely to be seriously looking. The vast majority of hetero profiles are people that are just looking around and never bother to buy a membership.

So, if you are a very attractive woman and want to do some cherry picking behind your guy's (or gal's) back while dating in the real world (which is a common class on woman in the online world), online dating might be for you. Men have been known to do it also, but in the online world it's more of a female thing. Men tend to do it more in the real world, so are more common in bars and such. Nobody should rely on the internet as their primary way of meeting people, or you are bound for disappointment. Mainly, it's for what doesn't go over too well in the real world, and you are therefore allowed to explore your freaky side or whatever. Most people are fakes, flakes and players in the online world, or worse, so get used to that fact.

As of last week, JDate raised their one month rate. They justify it by stating what you can do on the site and all of the events they plan, etc... A great alternative is JewishAmericanSingles.com where you only have to pay (and it's relatively cheap {$7-10/ mo}) to SEND emails/ ims. Reading/ replying is free, so if someone is interested, they CAN reply to you. The only problem with the site is that there are not many profiles. Hopefully that will change soon!

If you are the kind of man that a UK Jewish woman like you want to meet would consider dating, then you can obviously afford a high class hooker that will blow the UK J-bitch away in every imaginable way. Therefore, go straight to the high class hooker websites and leave the snotty J-bitch to herself. I think I will start a website for Panda dating. It will probably have more active users than J-dating in the UK. Consider building a fence around the UK, declare it the world's largest insane asylum, then maybe somebody Jewish will figure out a way to charge admission and make some money off the spectacle.