The net is chock full of dating sites, but some are definitely more famous than others. One of these is Ashley Madison, a dating site with an international reach. of which there is also a local version: Ashley Madison USA.
After reading the numerous reviews and opinions of Ashley Madison present on the web, we wanted to try the portal firsthand, testing it for a week and verifying its functions, internal dynamics and the issue related to security and anonymity.
Therefore, we will discuss:
- What is Ashley Madison
- Portal membership
- How it works
- Prices and costs
- Payment types of Ashley Madison
- How to unsubscribe
- What people are saying about this site, reviews of Ashley Madison online
- Our final opinions
What is Ashley Madison?
It is a platform that started in 2001 in Canada but soon landed in the United States and then Europe. Its primary goal was to bring together people interested in a extramarital affair: in fact, therefore, it was. a dating site for arranging a fling or finding a lover more or less fixed.
Today, however, it contemplates the enrollment of so many users not only interested in cheating, but also singles looking for new friendships, users looking for love and one-night stands.
In short, now the goals have changed a bit from the beginning, while maintaining the principles of confidentiality and anonymity that have characterized the portal from the very beginning.
Ashley Madison scandal: what are we talking about?
If you do a web search, it is very easy to come across the news of the 2015 Ashley Madison scandal. Basically, a hacker group called the Impact Team broke into the dating site’s system, breaching its security, this p something that has happened to many websites unfortunately.
Names, dates of birth, email addresses, sexual preferences and credit card details of the 32 million registered users were published on the deep web, making a veritable map of Ashley Madison’s cheaters, thus as also reported by Nytimes in one of its in-depth articles
The case has had an international resonance, even counting distinguished names of subscribers, including government officials and various institutions from both the United States and Europe. Fortunately, the site immediately took action Making the site ultra-secure so these issues are definitely resolved ne may occur in the future.
Portal registration
You can use the this platform either from a pc and then using the browser, or by downloading the app for tablets and smartphones, available for both Android, and iOS.
Signing up for Ashley Madison is very simple, it takes but a few minutes to do it and off you go, you are in in no time. However, some details need to be specified, namely:
- Personal details: only date of birth and zip code of residence.
- Physical appearance data: height, weight, eye and hair color, build type
- Data on one’s status: committed woman/man, single, etc.
- Sexual preferences and/or encounter: long-term relationship, virtual relationship, erotic chat, etc.
To this must be added one’s nickname and registration email. The site encourages you to create an e-mail other than the personal one or one used for work, so as to guarantee even more privaci.
Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email, just as with any other portal, on which to click to confirm the trustworthiness of your address.
First steps within the site
At this point, it is necessary to set the options available for your profile. The first recommended step is, of course, to include personal photos, so that the profile has more visibility and attention from users. If you do not have a good photo right away, you can also upload it later.
Among the various options, you can also define a personal quick response message or accept the default one.
Still, you can choose to automatically share private photos the moment another user shares them with you, as well as endorse the internal match system, which connects users related to you.
At this point, you are ready for an initial roundup of profiles that are residents of your area or in the immediate vicinity, and that the system has deemed potentially in line with your tastes.
All these options can be set during an initial wizard or at a later time, providing maximum flexibility.
How this dating site works
Let’s get into something that all Ashley Madison reviews should include: how the site works from the inside, as a registered user.
We have to admit. the graphics are very simple and intuitive, one understands right away how to get around and even the categories are stripped down to the bone just to cater to anyone, even those less familiar with the Internet.
At the top right of the panel you find three main categories:
- Profile
- Discover
- Posts
1# Profile
Before you even begin, it is very helpful to better define your personal profile so that you can increase your match chances. Specifically, you can add:
- Miscellaneous photos for a personalized, private or public gallery
- Edit the personalized greeting entered during registration
- Tell a little more yes about yourself, your life, and your sexual and dating preferences
- Set various interests and desires from the proposed list
You can of course decide to make photos private at any time and grant access only when and to whom you want.
2# Discover
Here you find profiles of users who are in line with you and/or live in the same area as you.
However, you can change your search filters at any time based on age, area of residence (or distance from it), height, body type, languages, newly registered profiles only, etc.
In short, you can really refine your search very easily, but change your mind as often as you like without stress and depending on what you’d like to experience that day.
Also from this page you can enter suggested profiles, put a little heart or start a conversation via chat.
3# Messages
Here you will find everything related to received and sent messages. Remember that even when you click on the little heart of the profile you like, the user will receive a notification, which you can obviously find in the outbox section.
Very interesting is the possibility to send a message asking to receive a private key to access private and/or blurry filtered photos.
Also from this page you can also directly send your Flirt-type messages, i.e., the first “throw of the hook” towards a member who teases you.
Miscellaneous settings
Staying in the vein of graphic essentiality, the ability to access various settings and pluses is also quite simple and straightforward.
Certainly, this is a point in its own favor, as it allows you to range from profile to personal data settings in one click. Also valuable is the experience with Ashley Madison’s technical support, although we expected this considering that we are talking about a real giant in the industry (although this is not necessarily always a guarantee).
Another setting is that of being able to choose whether or not to see explicit photos, certainly not essential considering that the goal of those who sign up is to find people to sleep with, but the delicacy towards the more sensitive is to be appreciated.
Prices and costs
We now come to all the details about prices on Ashley Madison.
Accessing the site and creating your profile is free, but everything else requires Purchase credits, which can be spent on various actions to be performed. Only for women looking for a man is everything free. All other types of couples have to pay: the system itself will notify you of how much you have to pay, the moment you are ready to send your first message.
More specifically, Ashley Madison proposes. 3 types of packages: Introductory Offer (100 credits), Élite (500 credits) and Ultimate (1000 credits). Costs range from 20 to about 50/55 cents per credit, depending on the package.
Alternatively, you can buy 30 minutes of chat for 30 credits or 60 minutes for 50 credits, avoiding the subscription, but having to use all the cartridges in the time needed.
The credit system is definitely functional so that you can spend only as much as you use the site!
Of course it has its cost, consider that to contact a woman by message you need 8 credits, 13 if you want to send her a priority highlighted message. 5 to open a charged message. Good thing is that having had a reply from the woman, you no longer pay for sending messages and you can chat without limits.
In short, a bit obnoxious as a thing, especially if you are not one of those precise people who check every detail: the risk is to spend quickly But just adjust with the chat requests (make them are to those you really care about).
Subscriptions
In addition to credits, there is also the possibility of purchasing subscriptions, namely:
- VIP man: allows you to have your profile highlighted in searches
- Business man or woman: is designed for business or leisure travelers looking for people for a fleeting relationship in another city or abroad
- Woman First: allows you to read all messages sent by women for free, without touch credits. You pay in credits only when you reply
In addition, some subscriptions include add-ons such as Message+, which allows you to read or reply to charged messages without spending credits.
Or like Priority Mail, where you can send a priority message at an increased cost of credits.
Types of payment on Ashley Madison
To be an Effective Member you must have a positive number of credits on your account. These credits can either be purchased on a time-by-time basis or renewed automatically by simply setting the settings. We strongly recommend the first option.
Major payment systems are accepted on Ashley Madison. namely: credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, etc.), debit cards (including PostePay) and PayPal.
Regarding charges, the wording is completely anonymous, so no explicit reference to the dating site.
How to unsubscribe from Ashley Madison
The dating site is very clear about this and there are no emails to send or anything else to do it.
There are, however, two possible options: Deactivate the account or cancel altogether. In the former case, you can reactivate it whenever you wish; in the latter it will be removed completely.
Whichever you choose, to unsubscribe from Ashely Madison temporarily or permanently you need to go to the Configuration section and choose “Deactivate Account” or “Delete Account.”
What people are saying about this site, Ashley Madison reviews on the net.
Before turning to our opinions on Ashley Madison, we read a little bit online among the various Ashley Madison reviews available.
The dating site is loved by many, appreciating its usability and the ability to easily find many people in one’s area. Big negative criticism has received, however, the credit system and the cost system in general, which are too problematic to manage and too high, which we partially agree with.
On the app there is not unanimity of opinion, because for many there are bugs and some technical problems of varying degrees for others everything works perfectly, it must be said that we had no problems whatsoever using it.
Our final opinions on Ashley Madison
Here, on the other hand, are what are our final opinions about Ashley Madison Italy.
The site literally teems with members, although many seem parked there and in a week have not even activated for 10 minutes. We did, however, find several contacts within a week, which we still feel is a good result.
Although the 2015 scandal is now well known, we must say that the focus on security and privacy seemed substantial and “substantial,” which can only be a plus point.
For us as well, as we noted from the various reviews of Ashley Madison on the web, costs are relatively high and the credit system is penalizing for men or for women seeking women. Certainly, between buying credits and a subscription, the latter is preferable.
In short, for us Ashley Madison is a yes, recommended, though with some strong reservations about the credit system, but worth a try!
