LDS Planet Review

LDS Planet is one of the LDS specific online dating sites I mentioned as worth a look in 7 Best Online Dating Sites for LDS Singles.  This article is designed to give you a broader overview of the site, provide a greater explanation of its features and offer my personal commentary.  Note: As with my review of other online dating sites, I may not always remember to make clear when a particular feature of the site is for subscribers verses guest members.  So, if it doesn’t work the way that I describe, you need to subscribe.

THE ONLINE PROFILE

This includes your basic personal information: age, height, body type, and hair and eye color.  Let potential suitors know your level of church activity, whether you served a mission and marital status.  (I reiterate, a site maintained by LDS individuals or those who understand the culture will not list “separated” as one of the choices.)  You indicate how many children that you have and how many currently live with you.  Other information in your profile includes occupation, temple status (worthy, recommend, prefer not to say), your level of education, and what kinds of pets you have. The other major parts of your basic profile on LDS Planet are “The Greeting” and “Personality” summary.  For “The Greeting” LDS Planet suggests you share with potential matches:

• “A little about me”: personality, what’s important to you and your career.
• “How I feel about the church”: a small testimony perhaps, whether you are a convert, what’s your favorite calling, which general authority you enjoy listening to, etc…
• “What I do for fun”: Do you like musical theatre?  Are you a snowboard fanatic?  Is underwater basket weaving your thing? What kind of music do you listen to? Do you like to ballroom dance?  What’s your favorite holiday?  Share these things in your own words.

For the “Personality” summary, you answer the following questions:
• Are you patient?
• Are you romantic?
• Do you enjoy cooking?
• Do you enjoy going to the movies?
• How much do you enjoy a walk in the park?
• How much do you enjoy live theatre?
• How much do you like reading?
• How often do you like to go out?
• When dining out what food do you enjoy?
• When you go anywhere are you usually on time?
• Which sports do you most enjoy watching?

I’m not sure why they say this is about your personality.  It seems to me more about your interests.  Plus this section provides some ideas as to what activities would be enjoyable to you (or your match) on a first date.

Your profile page on LDS Planet is customizable and says a lot about you.  You can change the wallpaper (my wallpaper is the Logan Temple) and you can change the icon from a heart to something else (I changed mine to a smiley face).  LDS Planet also allows you to customize your profile by uploading audio clips (via your phone or an audio file on your computer) and video.  These sections combined with your picture give people insight into the person you are. They can be edited easily.  Reread them often; change them regularly, until you are really happy with how you are portrayed. For greater success take advantage of all these ways of telling others who you are.  There is a section on your profile called “message ideas” that helps you to learn about those who contact you.  It is a set of four questions that you select from a list, which people who contact you can answer when they send you a message.  LDS Planet also helps get you noticed with the ability to permanently highlight your profile in bright yellow. (There is a one-time charge for this service.)

PHOTOS ON LDS PLANET

A profile on LDS Planet can include (and should if you are serious about meeting people) a profile photo and a photo album.  At minimum you should have a profile picture.  The picture should be of you (dare I say, DUH!? But there are people who for whatever reason ignore this rule).  You are best served with a shot that shows your entire body and/or face.  You can change these as often as you would like and remember the pictures you post says tons about you.  I’m not sure how many photos you can put in your photo album on LDS Planet, but I have seen as many as 36 pictures in a photo album. (If you do not have a digital file of your photos, there is the option of mailing photos to LDS Planet to have them scanned and added to your profile at no charge.  Given the importance of having a photo on your profile, I say find a friend with a scanner or go to Kinko’s. You will be better served and the lag time will be lessened.)

NAVIGATING LDS PLANET

The Dashboard on your home page makes LDS Planet simply, easy and fun to navigate.  From your homepage (or from anywhere on the site) you can quickly navigate to all the features of this site:

• Your Profile (for editing purposes)
• The Inbox: Messages, Who’s Viewed You, Who Bookmarked Me, Who Flirted With Me
• Search: Profiles, I’m Interested, Username Search, My Match
• Community: Live Chat, Who’s Online Now, Today’s Birthdays
• Who I Like: My Flirts, My Favorites/Bookmarks, Who I viewed
• What’s New: Dating Tips  and Member Deals

THE INBOX

You can easily see who has sent to a message, what the subject is and when they send it.  You can create folders to organize responses and an icon appears to show you the messages to which you have responded.  The “Who Viewed Me”, “Who Bookmarked Me”, and “Who flirted With Me” pages also show the profile picture of those who have performed those actions along with when they checked you out, when you may have flirted or sent a message to that person.  The features on these pages are easily performed and navigated because they work similar to many email programs and social media sites.

The inbox represents the ability of others to contact you.  There is also an instant messenger feature to LDS Planet that is easy and fun to use.  From the profile homepage of someone who is online you can click the “chat now” option and if they accept your request to chat– instant contact.  There is also a buddy list (of those you’ve bookmarked) that allows you to see if any of your “friends” are online and strike up a conversation with them.

SEARCHING LDS PLANET

The search tab on your homepage at LDS Planet allows you to perform 2 types of searches: A basic search and an advanced search.
The basic search enables you find singles within any distance from you by gender, age, and location.  You can specify if you want to be shown any profile or select whether the profile includes a greeting, video, photos, audio, or a complete personality test.

The advanced search feature allows you to include marital status, ethnicity, height, general build, temple status, mission service, church activity, occupation, and if they have children into the basic search.  With the advanced search options you can also dictate whether you see those who have recently logged in, who are new, or who have new photos. (A great argument for regularly changing your photos.)
From that same navigation bar on the left, you can see those currently online in an age range and perform a username search.  Also from there or the navigation button on the top right you can browse through profiles within an age range and location to indicate if they pique your interest or not.  Those that do will be sent a flirt that says, “I’m Interested in You”

FLIRTS

For Guest Members sending a flirt is the only way you can contact other singles in whom you are interested.  Flirts are sent from a member’s profile homepage.  (So they will also know that you checked them out.)  There is a button you click which gives you the list of flirts that you can send.  However, like other online dating sites, if that person flirts/emails you back, all you are going to know it that you received a message you won’t be able to know who sent it or even be able to read the email.  So, if there is someone you really like, you are going to have to join.  Otherwise spend eternity flirting back and forth like two 18 year-olds at their first Institute Dance; “forever [flirting] but never coming to a knowledge of the [other’s name.]” (I know I’ve said that before, but because it’s so clever, I’m saying it again!)

ANNOYANCES

There a several things that I don’t like about LDS Planet.  The biggest thing that irks me is that that if you are idle too long on LDS Planet, it will kick you off.  Admittedly there is a little note that tells you that in 5 minutes or so, you will be disconnected unless you click; but, you may have several pages open at a time and you get booted without knowing it.

Secondly, I admit to really enjoying the “who’s online now search” and use it almost exclusively, but I would very much like to have the option of seeing who is online in an age range that I select rather than the choices that they provide and the option of choosing a location or distance from me. (I’m just not up for long distance relationships.)

A third thing that can be tiresome is actually an opposite problem from of the other online dating sites we’ve discussed.  It has to do with the email notifications.  When someone sends a message, flirts with you, or bookmarks you LDS Planet indicates each of these things on your dashboard and will send you an email notification of each. (So if someone bookmarks you, you get two email notifications: a message and a bookmark). If they flirt, you get two. (You can see the problem.)  LDS Planet does tell you who the flirt is from, who has sent you a message, and who bookmarked you (but only if you are a paying member).  The options of what notifications are sent to you can be changed.  So I took care of that annoyance by only allowing message notifications to be sent.  (Also, if there is a user that won’t take the hint, you can block them too!)

And finally, I’ve brought this up before, but again, the third party advertisements (sponsored links they call them) that are placed throughout the site distract and annoy me.  I appreciate that by having those links, the site is able to offer memberships at a more reasonable price.  However, having the right column of the screen constantly enticing me with computer products, cell phone service, online safety services, television shows, anti-aging products, IQ Quizzes, muscle building remedies and sometimes even inviting me to visit another dating site gets on my nerves.

SIGNING UP FOR LDS PLANET

There are several subscription options to choose from.  You can choose to sign up on a month-by-month basis for $14.95 with a monthly renewal of the same price.  You can pre-pay 6 months in advance for $59.70 with a monthly renewal rate of $9.95; a 33% savings over the monthly rate.  You may also go for the gusto by paying for a full year for $119.95 (which translates to about $9.99/month).  There is a one-time processing fee of $3.95 added to all new orders.  (These rates are similar to those of other online dating services of this caliber.)  You can pay by credit card, by mail or by western union.

I’ve mentioned this in other articles dealing with online dating sites, but I’ll mention it again: it would be nice if they also allowed for a Pay-Pal option (I personally like the safety of that) or perhaps an online check option.  But those are more preferences than requirements.  (So, anyone from LDS Planet reading this review…there is my $.02.)

Okay, so I have to confess something: I’m a fan of LDS Planet.  I find the site very easy to navigate and use.  Admittedly, it’s not perfect, but it doesn’t have too many features that you get distracted trying to figure them out, but enough that finding people you are interested in is a breeze.  And as with any dating site you have to be vigilante.  However, I’ve met some really great people through LDS Planet, some of whom are very dear friends.  So give LDS Planet a try by clicking here!

Remember:  We’re LDS! We’re single! And, we’re all in this together!

P.S. For a look at some of the other online dating sites suitable for LDS Singles read 7 Best Online Dating Sites or my review of LDS Singles Online