Romantic Planet Reviews

Editor's Star Ratings:

Chances of Getting a Date:
Features:
Quality / Size of Members' Photos:
Help Files / Technical Support:
Ease of Use / Navigation:
Ease of Joining / Registration:
Value for Money:	N/A
Overall Star Rating:

Costs:

• Free for members!
• Although the site never comes out and says it,  by all appearances RomanticPlanet.com is free to use. We found no upgrades available and were able to access all the sites features without restriction.

 

Features:

• Create your own profile and upload your pictures
• Search for other members within your local area
• Browse other members' profiles and look at their pictures
• MatchMind: "The brains behind Romantic Planet," MatchMind uses sophisticated artificial intelligence technology to "learn" about members' preferences as they use the service, and continuously adjusts compatibility scores to provide more accurate matches.
• Permissions: Permissions offers Romantic Planet members greater security by allowing them to control access to their photographs and profiles by other members. Permissions can be set to limit access to specific members, or open access to all members and visitors.
• Album Notification: Frustrated by seeing profiles without photos. This feature enables you to simply check a box to be notified when a person has created an album.
• PlanetTalk: Exclusive Instant Messenger. Interact with other members using text, video, or voice.
• Community Center: Join an existing topic or start your own. Meet people for friendship, activities, romance, encounters, or simply share your experiences, ideas and advice. This is also a great place to give and receive support.
• Fun, Email Postcards: Lots of cool images to choose from when introducing yourself to someone.
• Photo Album: Create a photo album with up to four photos with captions.
• Super Organization: Keeps track of who you've written to, who you're in contact with, who your possibilities are, and who you've decided to pass up.

 

Performing a Search:

• A full search facility is available, allowing members to search by:
  
  • A computerized matching compatibility score generated from member inputs available in the registration process.
  • And  these typical search engine parameters of:
    • gender
    • age range
    • relationship status
    • relationship type
    • location to within 5 miles of where you live
    • education
    • occupation
    • income
    • body type
    • children
    • whether the member has pictures posted
    • religion
    • appearance
    • type of interest
    • ethnicity
    • smoking
    • drinking
    • height

 

Editor's Verdict:

Romantic Planet's site technology is first-rate.  It has invested a lot of time and resources to create a site that reflects a vision of high end technology combined with a sense of modern aesthetics.  The application of such a concept is difficult and demanding to design into computerized media. RomanticPlanet has achieved  results that are beautiful to the eye.  We appreciate the innovative standard RomanticPlanet has set. The functionality of the site was sligtly less impressive.

We presume that RomanticPlanet's creators staked their approach and reputation on the latest innovation in mainstream dating: personality-based and preference-based compatibility factors. RomanticPlanet.com's approach is information intense, well intended and technically logical.  But, it  puts the new member in a position of filling out fields and checking boxes to a point of overdoing it.   We know from observing  literally hundreds of sites' approaches, that getting members to give enough info for making matching meaningful is difficult to achieve, without members growing weary of that process.  Burdening  a new member with submitting an abundance of  information at the outset seems great in theory but doesn't endear the members to the site.

There is a balance that must be struck between getting enough info and how it is collected.  The sites that succeed get the members engaged in a sense of belonging rather than a task of just informing. (We know, as we join and go through everything a member must deal with). It's experienced by a user / member  from the beginning of the registration process and is felt throughout. Sites that win committed members have learned the art of keeping them engaged. Sites that fall short of that level also fall short in their membership roles.

RomanticPlanet at one time had a typical mainstream website approach with premium memberships and all that went with it.  It changed its mode and is now a free site, generating income by carrying ads for other dating sites and a telecom. They've done what they need to survive in a very competitive market.   However, the basic problem of overloading new members with information submission still  lingers, unfortunately.

When we performed  our benchmark search the results were disappointing: just 2 results using our fairly liberal parameters. That's not acceptable for playing by the numbers. When we opened all the limits to everyone within 150 miles we got  96 results but could only scroll through the first 10 before we encountered a software glitch that prevented us from looking any further. Of the10 we browsed, just one had been to the site within the past two weeks.  The others hadn't been there for more than two months.  

RomanticPlanet.com doesn't have chat rooms or instant messengers for live or on-line contact.  They use the older method of sending messages through to members own e-mail accounts. This is fine to use and effective if you aren't  into instant gratification.  It works and we have no complaints.  Most smaller sites determined to survive have transitioned into being combinations of dating with social networking aspects added in (chat rooms etc).  They do this to keep up and get members involved in some sort of on-site activities.  It helps them in numerous ways to  maintain an engaged membership and sell to eyes that return to the site repeatedly.  (It makes good business sense too).

RomanticPlanet.com is a beautifully designed site and brings in many innovative touches. So it's a shame the membership is just not there to support  it. We are an enthusiastic fan of aesthetics mingling with technology. We admire the innovation and creative concepts applied here, but can't give a hearty endorsement of it as a dating site where realistic results are paramount.  It's free and that is a plus.  It can't hurt to join (if you can take the duration of submitting your info.) and see what happens.  Frankly, we perused some profiles and found the members thoughtful and genuine.  (We surmise the process eliminates the faint of heart)

How about value? Well, it's free so that's makes it a no lose situation - except for time spent exploring a site with a very small membership base.  But, when push comes to shove this is a dating site and must be judged by how well it can perform in that regard. We like what the site is trying to do, but we don't think you will find enough matches to make the site productive from a dating perspective. If you think that RomanticPlanet may not be worth investing your time in, check out our top 10 dating sites for alternative sites which are well-designed, well-populated, and well-worth investing some time and money in.

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