Editors Rating: 2.5 out of 5 

by Jason Tudor

True is a dating service that offers online daters a safer way to date. It is one of the few online dating site to do background checks on its members, not only does it checks members for lying about their marital status, it also checks criminal records.

If you are married or have a criminal record, True doesn't want you. Clearly stated, right on the homepage, "Married People and Criminals Will Be Prosecuted".  Funny how, in the context of online dating, being married and being a criminal are equally bad.

One could, but should never assume that they won't meet any married - felons at this dating site. No system is 100% foolproof, and even though True tries hard to weed out liars, cheater and bubble gum stealers, It might be giving its members a false sense of security. I'd advise you to take the same precautions,  just as  you would, if using any other site.

Signing up a basic profile on True is about as simple as it gets, though the questions you’re asked are less about physical details (i.e. your body type or hair color) and more about behavior or lifestyle choices (i.e. income, religion, drinking and smoking habits). There is a single section asking how attractive you feel you are, and how attractive you want your match to be – though it does also ask you just how important attractiveness is.

Where True shows its real power is in its True Compatibility Test. The TCT is a fairly long test – some twenty minutes – that asks various questions about your personality, your habits, the way you behave in a relationship, and so on. Some questions are multiple choice, others have you click on any space on a bar that at one end says “all of the time” and at the other “never” (or something like that… you get the point!).

After taking the TCI you will be provided with a mini-report of sorts that analyzes you. It not only gives a pretty succinct look at your personality, it details your strengths and weaknesses to assess where you might want to improve. Lastly, and this is pretty darned neat, it gives a pretty comprehensive explanation of your ideal match.

From here you can click to an immediate list of potential matches, drawn from not only your TCT results but also by age, location, and whether or not they have photos (the typical dating site stuff). Now, whether the TCT actually works, like most compatibility tests, is open for debate. True. has links on its site to a nice and complex description of the test full of graphs and formulas. Read this if you want – or just take their word for it.

Of course, you won’t be able to do much more than the usual “wink” without paying. Once you’ve joined (which costs from $49.99 for one month, not cheap), and you’ll be able to email as much as you want. There’s also a well-worked out chat room with neat features like the ability to “kiss” and “smack” fellow talkers that have impressed or angered you. Access to TRUE live chat isn't part of the regular monthly subscription fee, for the pleasure of chatting with your fellow members you get be billed an additional fee.

If you’re needing help with the whole dating thing, the site has all sorts of advice for you from a bunch of people whose names have all sorts of letters and dots after them. The True magazine is well written and a good source of general information.

If there’s any problem at all with True it might be that the site is a little, well, convoluted. While you can get to any page from pretty much anywhere, it’s all somewhat confusing. It can also be hard to tell what’s for pay and what’s not, and the seven-day free trial (which needs a credit card and can only be cancelled by actually calling True) is frustrating.

BUT this should not be considered in any way a major reason to not try True. If you’re at all concerned about safety in your dating experience, or think that science can help find you that perfect emotional, physical, and intellectual match, this dating service might be worth trying.

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