And to tag onto what Sandy was saying, I know the views on my profile skyrocketed when I started posting on the forums.
You don't just get to know people, people get to know you. There are a lot of "lurkers" who peruse the forums, read the posts, but never make a post themselves. I've had a few of them write to me.
I really didn't want to post this, but really did want to post it. I wanted to post it because I think we all want the input, but I didn't want to post it because it may come across as advertising the competition for CDFF. But, we all wanna know. here's my assessment of the ones I've tried, starting with the best to the worst.
Christiancafe.com LOTS of variety and users; had the most matches of any site I've been on, and the matches were really good. The search is excellent as well.
Also the cheapest pay-site I've been on, they let you communicate even on the free accounts, but if you're on the free account, email addresses are stripped from your emails if you try to send someone your email address. You also have a ten-day startup period where you can communicate for free, and you earn extra free days if you invite someone. Cost me I think $40 for three months. Obviously designed for christians by people who understand christians. Profiles and photos are all censored manually.
One neat feature: You can delete an email in someone else's inbox if you sent it. So if you realize you wrote something stupid, you can delete it before they see it. Live chats, but no forums.
CDFF Nowhere near as many users, lots of dead profiles of people who haven't been on here in months, sometimes years. The matching system and searches really don't work well. The forums have been a HUGE blessing, very active, good quality posts and fellowship. You are free to communicate with any members, and it's a free site. It is *MUCH* better than many paid sites for these reasons; I honestly wish it had more users because this is still one of the best sites out there. The live chats are very active and a real blessing. it is VERY well thought out for Christians, and obviously seeks to minister to Christians.
I made a donation via paypal, just to say "thanks" because it really is SUCH a good site.
Christianmingle Good search, lots of users. Their compass matching is *very* well done, and their "colour profile" is also very well done. A good christian site.
Smiles are very well thought out and fun, very active forums with good discussion, but also lots of utterly useless discussion. Also seemed to be an excess of (shall we say) less mature christians. I don't know why, but it caused some grief, division and strife in the discussions.
You must pay to send or receive emails or read what is written inside a card. This is *not* clearly spelled out and was frankly, disastrous in many ways for me. I got on CM first because of *one* lady's profile and paid my $30 for one month, JUST so I could email this one lady. I never heard back from her.
Then I found her on Christiancafe, took a chance, wrote to her - and she wrote back! She never got my email on CM, turns out SHE also had to pay $30 just to READ any emails sent to her!
I have now cancelled my subscription with CM for these and a few other reasons. It is a site obviously designed for christians by people who understand christians.
Also had lots of frustrations with my profile photo; they were VERY picky about what you could post for profile photos, and made it near impossible to allow you to pick the one you wanted.
Profiles and photos are all censored manually.
christianlifestyle was "okay" I didn't like the searches, the matches weren't the greatest, I didn't like the format of the entire website. Didn't try this site much for several reasons, many of which I've now forgotten. Didn't like the site very much.
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Now we get to the sites I really hated.
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Eharmony; it's a secular business that just understands that a person's faith is important to them. Unbelievably expensive ($55/month), THEY send you a match; couldn't do a search unless I paid membership, and *couldn't even see what they thought was a match for me unless I paid!* It was all-around stupid frankly. The profiling was obviously very exhaustive and well thought out, but I guess I'll never know how well it matched me because there was no way I was going to pay $55 JUST to see if their computer had half a brain! (which apparently it didn't, seeing as how I told it I was only interested in ladies from Canada, and the matches it sent were from like, California and such)
BIgchurch Again, a secular site trying to get money from christians. The searches weren't very good, the matches weren't very good, lots of scammers, lots of profiles but again, many from people who haven't been around for months or years. They did show you when the person was last on at least.
Obviously the website was built by secular people who had no inkling of what a christian was looking for. Lots of intimate questions about your sex life and stuff. You had to pay to send emails, and they did have one smart option: You could pay a little extra and the "free members" would be able to write you back, even if they hadn't paid their membership for the priviledges of writing to others. They also told you clearly who could not write you back because they were on the free account.
I hated the site, and deleted my profile - even though I paid for a month; I deleted it about two weeks in, I hated it that much.
Date.com and date.ca - again, secular site, found it totally useless as far as finding christians was concerned. Promptly deleted my profile.
There was one other site, no profile needed, LOTS of people on it, looked at about 1,500 profiles - only about 5 or 6 caught my attention, to give you an idea of the quality of profiles on there. Can't remember what site it was.
I leaf for Alberta tomorow, probably four days on the road up to Grand Prairie, where I'll start a whirlwind speaking tour at a wack of Bible camps.
I have NO idea when I'll be able to get back to CDFF - so y'all behave now! It may be days or literally months before I can get back (I'm assuming less than a week - I just can't be away from you guys that long!)
I'll try to get back on here and there and keep up with yas, and I'll post the link for that debate with the Arizona university professor as soon as it's on line (it'll be a couple of weeks still) - thanks for your prayers there, it helped a lot.
I'd appreciate your prayers for traveling mercies (some 8,000 miles of driving ahead of me), and for the Lord to prepare hearts; going to speaking to a lot of teens, and last year, at the teen camp I spoke at, I was going to start off with my testimony. I felt the Lord redirect me and say "No, start with the science", so I started off with a typical introduction to creation and evolution and the scientific proof that there's a God.
One teenage boy asked to go to the bathroom 15 minutes into the talk; and as he wandered out, he was muttering under his breath "This can't be true - there is no God!" We had teens get saved and baptized that week.
So now I'm booked into three different teen camps and a training camp, as well as two churches.
Would appreciate your prayers, we'll see you on the flip side.
Ha! Nice jjar - hey by the way; nice profile pic! (No, I'm not hitting on you, just thought it was a nice change)
Ya, I need to read the word more; in fact, stumbled on something really profound this morning, but it would take too long to write it out in the "Biblical discussion" segment - and I gotta leaf for Alberta tomorow.
I try to read it daily; it's especially difficult when I'm on the road, but I have it on MP3. I consider that an add-on to reading the word, not a replacement.
