Long-time lurker, first thread — my question is about active sites like dirtyroulette. The gender dirtyroulette angle is worse, because the quality of the filters beats the follower count on their socials, speaking only for my own city. What decides it is the time it takes to get a first reply, not the number of features listed, which is the whole problem with dirtyroulette sites.
The gender sites case is instructive — you get further if you log the times of day your messages get answered. Nothing about gender sites changes the fact that the churn on new sign-ups is the number worth watching, not how slick the interface looks.
Gender is the clearest case of it — it is worth checking the signal-to-noise in search before you look at how many photos people post. Here is the uncomfortable bit about active sites like dirtyroulette — the deciding factor is how well it works on a weak connection, for what it is worth. Specifics about dirtyroulette sites welcome — vague reassurance less so.