Online alternative?

[James0978 18]

I have been using sls for the last 2+ years and have hand some wonderful experiences through it. I have never felt the need to pay, as the free membership gave me all i really needed. However i logged on last night to see the changes they made for free members. Would anyone like to suggest any alternative websites that give free members the benefits sls have us?

[PSULioness 856]

I have been using sls for the last 2+ years and have hand some wonderful experiences through it. I have never felt the need to pay, as the free membership gave me all i really needed. However i logged on last night to see the changes they made for free members. Would anyone like to suggest any alternative websites that give free members the benefits sls have us?

 

If it worked for you just become a paid member. It’s not an outrageous price. A drink at a club is more.

[padoc 1,703]

Oh ffs! Are you really that cheap? Some sites give couples the option to prohibit non paying members from viewing their profile. While we have, we generally do not meet s/ms from SLS but if we did, we'd never even look at a free members profile. If you refuse to pay for full access to a really good sight, we'd fully expect that you wouldn't spring for a drink or split the cost of a room.

[two4youinswva 3,068]

We bought a lifetime membership on SLS a lifetime ago, so I'm not sure what their prices are these days, but I'd guess it ain't that damn much.

 

If you had success as a free member, then throw the site owners a bone and buy a membership. You'll help them and you'll probably be even more successful.

[mphil17 35]

Oh ffs! Are you really that cheap? Some sites give couples the option to prohibit non paying members from viewing their profile. While we have, we generally do not meet s/ms from SLS but if we did, we'd never even look at a free members profile. If you refuse to pay for full access to a really good sight, we'd fully expect that you wouldn't spring for a drink or split the cost of a room.

 

SLS isn’t a really good site, the platform is archaic and the owners don’t even try to weed out fakes. They aren’t changing benefits to free members for the greater good. It is only a reaction to SESTA/FOSTA. They’ve never before taken benefits from free members because they know the site is severely lacking in many ways.

[njbm 2,871]

SLS is archaic, but SDC is not much more modern. I am unaware of a modern LS site with a lot of members.

I do agree with the principle that if you benefit from the site, you should contribute to it with a membership fee.

[padoc 1,703]

There are a lot of couples on both sites from around the country. The sites are a target rich environment for swingers. Of course there are a lot of flakes and fake profiles. That is what YOUR selection process is supposed to weed out. We do that and find a couple a year which we report to the sites. They promptly remove the offending profiles. My entire point was not directed at the site, it was directed at the OP who seemed to be determined to get a service of relative value for nothing. That seems indicative of a cheap, probably inconsiderate, and possibly dishonest individual and NOT someone to whom I'd introduce my wife.

[Guest]

We were with LifeStyle Lounge. It was nice, we were paid members. It’s not any better for freebie members. I suggest that you simply become a paid member. Personally, we pretty much ignore the freebie singles, even freebie couples. It’s kind of like those who don’t post pictures, you invest no part of yourself in the site, there is no reason for us to invest our time in you.

[njbm 2,871]

I think Lifestyle Lounge works best in the Midwest. I don’t think that they have much “penetration” in the Northeast. Anyone use Kasidie?

[GoldCoCouple 4,066]

We hardly visit SLS that often but we also bought a lifetime membership shortly after finding out that we wanted to pursue this for awhile. We joined all of the swinging sites, but SLS is the only one that had a respectable amount of people in our area (west coast). If there was a better option, we would have gone with it. Yes, the platform is old and the search could (should) be much better, and they should police it better, but it's where the people were in our area (if you want to go fishing in a lake, first find out if the lake has any fish). I haven't seen what changes have been made for free members (and we are impartial about having free members: while it gives them a chance to see what it there, it also gives fakes a way to 'get off' by pretending and wasting others time) I would have rather seen them address some of the platform issues before shutting out the free members. I wouldn't pay for a website unless I knew it had what we were looking for (swingers or anything else for that mater).

[mphil17 35]

My entire point was not directed at the site, it was directed at the OP who seemed to be determined to get a service of relative value for nothing. That seems indicative of a cheap, probably inconsiderate, and possibly dishonest individual and NOT someone to whom I'd introduce my wife.

 

I understand that point, I do. I haven’t paid, not because I’m cheap, but because I refuse to pay for a site the owners show so little interest in. I want to pay for quality. If they can’t be bothered to make it better and more user friendly, why would I bother to pay?

[njbm 2,871]

If you don’t like it, don’t use it. If you use it, pay for it to support it and let the owners make it better. There is no free ride. They are a business, not a personal benefit for users.

[SW_PA_Couple 4,024]

. . . why would I bother to pay?

Maybe owing to the fact that there are very few practical alternatives.

[padoc 1,703]

Can't help with the west coast although I do see a fair number of west coast profiles on SDC. When we lived in the Philly area we used APG and had a lot of fun times with people from that site. Sadly, they failed to penetrate the SFLa market.

[SJBluebirds 195]

 

If you had success as a free member, then throw the site owners a bone and buy a membership. You'll help them and you'll probably be even more successful.

 

Define "Success"!?!

[Judy39 145]

If you don’t like it, don’t use it. If you use it, pay for it to support it and let the owners make it better. There is no free ride. They are a business, not a personal benefit for users.

In the UK we've got fabswingers website which is free by default but you can support the website by paying a small fee and get some minor extra features for that. I use the free version and would stop using it if it became a paid website because I have such little faith in their ability to provide a good service.

 

On the other hand I use SDC as a lifetime member and like it precisely because it is paid for!

[Judy39 145]

fetlife is a really good website, from the point of view of how it's built and maintained. Everything. Just. Works.

 

It's not quite for swingers (although there is some overlap) but the site itself is just great. I certainly wish that there was something like that for swingers too.

[njbm 2,871]

Wish Fetlife would branch into swingers.

[cplnuswing 4,713]

If you don’t like it, don’t use it. If you use it, pay for it to support it and let the owners make it better. There is no free ride. They are a business, not a personal benefit for users.

 

This is true. Even this site, which is the closest thing to free public service you will find in swinging sites, is certainly not free to run. So, we run ads, because, there is no free ride on the internet. Yeah, you can get one of those $4.95 shared server hosting plans and use some pocket change to put up a little site, and then watch that thing melt down when all your hard work pays off and you finally do start attracting a little traffic, which will then promptly disappear when the site loads at a snail's pace or not at all.

 

There have been several new nice modern personals sites come along over the last several years. About half of them are still around, and those that are seem to be barely hanging on. "Build it and they will come" just doesn't work as a short term strategy. To have any hope of success at all, you've got to build it and then have the patience and resources to hang on for a long very slow climb. The analogy I use is would you rather go grocery shopping at a nice new shiny store with nearly empty shelves, or an older store with shelves full of good food? I'll take the second, which is why the older sites are still at the top of the heap - they've got the swingers, and they know it.

[bryonboru 60]

We use Swinger Zone Central, it seems to have a good amount of profiles from the mid-west.

[Guest]

Fab Swingers is free and covers the UK and USA.

[Jane1902 476]

I signed up for a paid membership a few months before the changes. I met one man once who blocks free members, since the changes I have met one other man I still see. I understand my selection process is what weeds out the fakes and flakes but after the changes my in basket seemed to fill up even more from young men that couldn't read or blatent cheats. I couldn't understand what I was paying for and let it go. I've enjoyed group sex in the right setting, would love to meet a fun couple (I ignore only pictures of her and none together), but am fine just having multiple single male partners. So previously being free vs paid (men) was a way to weed it seems and since now you have to be paid to communicate there are plenty willing to pay just to troll. I've stepped back.

[seb345 17]

Lol sure I mean we should know by now that free cheese is only in a mouse trap so you can't get a free experience without adds or high traffic or payed members. I don't think that paying for a membership is that freaking bad I mean you do pay for apple music or spotify or stuff like that. I actually think that buying internet traffic is a good way of boosting your stats and getting new people to watch and know your content. I've used that type of web promotion when I was developing my own website.

[Jane1902 476]

Single women have a very different experience than single men. I am not out to promote myself like a website. I don’t mind the ads but a membership is not worth my time to sort out the messages treating me like a piece of meat. A lot of my interest, desire, and trust just diminished. I pay for music, not apple, because I am getting what I want.

[adamgunn 1,460]

Jane, I'm an Apple guy. Why? Because they are able to give me the services I need, seamlessly, through their hardware. I hear exactly what you're saying.

[GoldCoCouple 4,066]

Personally, if there was some way to guarantee that the person is actually a unicorn (not a man pretending to be a woman), then I would let them have full access for free to a swingers website. Kind of like ladies night at a bar (back in the day), they let the ladies in for free because they knew the men would pay knowing that there were an abundance of women there. Then again Jane, we're from Cali too. Feel free to stop by the house whenever you would like...no cover charge for unicorns