 |
 |
| |
Our Favorite Dating Sites |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
 |
 |
| |
Top Dating Categories |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
 |
 |
Seniors Circle: Full Review |
 |
|
|
| |
|
|
Pro Rating :
|
|
|
User Ratings :
|
|
|
Avg. Rating :
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
About Seniors Circle |
| |
|
URL
|
: |
|
|
Year Started
|
: |
2003
|
|
Location
|
: |
United States of America
|
|
Languages
|
: |
English
Spanish
|
|
Short Description
|
: |
is a very typical dating website that's theoretically designed for seniors, but seems to contain fun for all ages. As is run by SocialPlus, a company that operates a number of dating sites, I suspect that perhaps it circulates the members from more than one site here, since there are a whole lotta young whippersnappers with profiles here. Still, there is a huge amount of potential friends and lovers on that you can sift through for free. It only starts costing when you want to make contact. You can QuickSearch by sex, age and location, do an AdvancedSearch with much more specific requests (eye color, religion, smoking, drinking) and also has a CyberCupid feature that runs automatically twice a week and finds you new matches according to what you're looking for. One nice extra at is an Instant Message feature that also allows you to talk - yes, with your voice, provided you have a mike on your computer, one-to-one with other members. Beyond the standard dating site meat-and-potatoes, however, is pretty bare bones - no forums, no advice or articles for seniors in love, and, worst of all, no free Viagra offers.
|
|
Overall Rating
|
: |
rates as a three and a half stars on a scale of one to five.
|
|
| |
Seniors Circle Categories & Features |
| |
|
Relationships
|
: |
Friendship
Marriage
Pen Pals
Romance
|
|
Religions
|
: |
All
|
|
Ethnicities
|
: |
All
|
|
Finding Your Match
|
: |
Automated Matching
Photo Gallery
Search (Advanced)
Search by location
Search (Quick)
|
|
Contacting Members
|
: |
E-mail
Instant messaging
Online Chat
Voice Communication
|
|
| |
Seniors Circle Dating Service Review |
| |
|
The Company
|
: |
is managed by SocialPlus, based in New York City. They operate many dating sites such as ChristianMate, JewishMatch, AfroConnections, SocialOut and others.
|
|
Site Navigation
|
: |
Easy to use.
|
|
Site Response Speed
|
: |
Fast
|
|
Sign-Up Process
|
: |
Simple registration - a brief questionnaire
profile includes one personal essay, 100 to 1,000 characters, and the rest are multiple choice questions
Photo is optional
Your name and email is anonymous in contacts
|
|
Breadth of Services
|
: |
Wide variety of members
Wide variety of criteria to do matches
Email
Instant Messaging
Live, one-on-one voice chats
CyberCupid matching feature
|
|
User Base
|
: |
caters to the forty and older set, but more twenty and thirty-somethings than you'd expect populate this senior dating site.
|
|
User Experience
|
: |
I was immediately impressed by the number of people signed up to , until I began to suspect that many of them were piped in from elsewhere. If you set your age preference on the Match feature to between 20 and 30, you'll think you were at a younger dating site. doesn't seem geared enough to just the Senior dating group, even though there are plenty of Seniors here. Overall, feels like the Over-Forty Department of a giant Dating Wal-Mart. Also, I was frustrated on not being able to enter the chat room, and having the "Trouble entering Chat?" link not work either.
|
|
Customer Service
|
: |
Email support via webpage
Barebones FAQ help section
|
|
Customer Service Hours
|
: |
FAQ help section
Email support
|
|
Long Description
|
: |
If you're older and bolder, is a decent enough senior dating site to give a try. As is operated by SocialPlus, which seems to be the McDonalds of online dating; there's not a lot of individual personality to the site, but there is a large pool of graying guys and gals waiting to give love another go. It appears that some of these members are "shared" from other dating sites, as there are many profiles here that do not seem to belong on a Seniors-only dating service. But don't worry your pacemaker. still has plenty of suitable dates for the forty-plus crowd.
Free membership offers few dating features
's sign-up is the usual free window-shopping only deal. Believe it or not, the only information you have to provide for your membership, beyond your name, email, age and location, is whether you're looking for a man or woman, what kind of relationship you're looking for and whether you're willing to relocate for the right person (and of course you are! Time is running out! Go! GO!). The remaining list of questions, about your physical appearance, education, religious bent, smoking and drinking habits, kids, etc., you can just respond to with "I'll tell you later." You will have to create a headline for your Profile (please avoid "Snow on top, but there's still fire inside!") as well as a 100 to 1,000 character personal essay, which, for some reason, many people use to describe their pets and not themselves. The underlying message seems to be, "You'd be better off dating my cat." Uploading a photo to is optional and you can also choose to hide your Profile from others if you want to.
provides a great way to find other active dating seniors
Finding a match for yourself is pretty simple. There's a QuickSearch, where you can narrow down profiles by age and location and there's also an AdvancedSearch, where you can select a mate's qualities by basically filling out the same questionnaire you filled out when you registered. So don't be surprised if you end up dating yourself. also has an automatic CyberCupid feature that runs twice a week and scans the current Profile pile by your selected criteria to see who else might be right for you.
membership can be paid through through various means
To actually make contact with other members, pull out the plastic because you'll have to pay for either a one month, three month, six month or year-long membership. You can also mail a check or money order for all but the one month deal.
Chat, wink and email to add to your
Once you've got a Full Membership, you can begin your reign as the Casanova of the Crow's-feet set. You can send a "WINK" to a member to indicate interest, you can just be a grown-up and send an email or you can IM online members who are open to a live chat. also features the SocialMessenger software that's easily installed that allows you to actually have a live voice chat, if your computer's equipped with a mike.
sticks to basics
Beyond the dating site essentials, doesn't provide a great deal of extras. There's a fairly barebones FAQ/Help section that seems copied and pasted from this company's other sites (not a hard conclusion to come to when, in one place, is called by the wrong name) and no other resources, links or articles relating to romance and seniors. There is a chat room indicated, but I couldn't make it work when I tried to enter it. And when I clicked on the "Trouble entering Chat?" link, THAT didn't work either. And didn't seem to have a "Trouble entering Trouble entering Chat?" link, so I gave up.
offers a huge membership base for the over-55 niche
The main thing has going for it is the sheer numbers of fish in their senior dating sea. As this is probably the result of the company's management of a number of dating sites, this leads to the main thing it doesn't have going for it - any sense of individuality or community. is like a prefabricated housing development somebody just slapped together to make a profit, without any thought or care beyond the basics. But, hey, all you probably really want to do is connect with the right person, and for that, you need volume, volume, volume. So don't be afraid to try .
|
|
| |
Seniors Circle Pros & Cons |
| |
|
Pros
|
: |
has a large pool of members
Quick and Advanced Match features
Can do live voice chat one-on-one with others
|
|
Cons
|
: |
is a franchise website that lacks a lot of information and extras
Chat room did not seem to be operational
"members" are not all seniors or senior-oriented
|
|
| |
Seniors Circle Plans Offered |
| |
|
Pricing
|
: |
1 month, $19.95
3 months, $44.95
6 months, $64.95
12 months, $94.95
Email
Instant messaging
Live, one-on-one voice chat
|
|
Site Freebies
|
: |
Unlimited browsing of profiles
Unlimited use of match features
Can create own profile with photo
Can send "Wink" icebreakers to members
Hot List of members you're attracted to
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|