Blog & Series

Articles on personal ads, swipe app fatigue, and text-first dating, plus a four-part investigative series on the return of the personal ad.

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Four-Part Investigative Series
The Return of the Personal Ad
What disappeared when Craigslist shut Personals in 2018, how the format rebuilt itself across queer apps, newsletters, and newspaper holdouts, and why the mainstream press started noticing in 2024.

Editorial

Essays

Cultural and practical pieces on personal ads, dating apps, and what the current moment in dating looks like.

Personal Ad Post Stats: Views, Replies & Audience
See how your personal ad is performing: your views, messages, reply rate, and who you are reaching, by age, distance, and gender.
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The Best Craigslist Personals Alternatives in 2026
Craigslist Personals shut down in 2018. Here’s what made it work, what it didn’t do well, and what the best alternatives look like now.
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How to Get More Replies to Your Personal Ad
Posted and heard nothing? See whether anyone is actually viewing your ad, and how to write one that gets answered.
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Personal Ads Are Back, and Everyone Is Noticing
The New York Times, Today, and New York Magazine have all covered the same story. Here’s what they found and why it makes sense.
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Casual Encounters: Where to Post One Online
Craigslist Casual Encounters is gone. What a casual encounter is, where to post one now, and how to stay safe.
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Missed Connections: How to Post One Online
Craigslist Missed Connections is gone. What a missed connection is, where to post one now, and how to write one that gets found.
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Personal Ads vs. Swipe Dating Apps: What’s the Difference?
They’re not stylistic variations on the same product. They’re fundamentally different formats with different strengths and different assumptions about how people should find each other.
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Free Personal Ads: Post One Online
How personal ads work, how to write one, and where to post a free, text-first ad where you choose who sees it.
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A Series

Notes from the Road
Personals, City by City
Sam is working through one city at a time, across the United States and then overseas, looking at how personals actually work in each place. Start with the introduction, then follow along city by city.

Community

For the Community

Personal ads for kink, ENM, and poly, and how AseeksB fits alongside the communities people already belong to.

Personal Ads for Kink, ENM, and Poly
Write what you want in your own words, use role tags, and browse with intent in a moderated, text-first app.
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FetLife and AseeksB
FetLife is where much of the kink community already lives. AseeksB is the focused personals piece: post clearly, connect one to one. Use both.
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Coming From Another Site

Sites You May Have Known

If a personals site you used has shut down or stopped feeling like itself, here is what a modern version looks like.

Sites Like Doublelist
The personal ad, rebuilt: text-first, mobile, moderated, and free to start on iOS and Android.
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After the Old Classifieds
What the old classified personals got right, what they got wrong, and what a safer, moderated, text-first version looks like now.
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Apps Like Feeld
A text-first, kink-friendly alternative to swipe apps: write what you want, skip the swiping, and start free on iOS and Android.
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AseeksB is free on iOS and Android.