One of the plenty of fish app problems some people are finding annoying, and at times damaging, is the fact that they can show online when they actually are not.
The plenty of fish mobile app for android and iPhone appears to have functionality built into it which can have a negative effect on users.
When using plenty of fish myself, I sometimes got messages from people asking why was online so late at night. I would also receive messages asking why hadn’t I replied, because they could see I had been online the whole time.
The fact is, the plenty of fish app shows you was online even when you are not. You can even log out of the mobile app and still show was online. I have tested this. Sometimes you show as online for hours when you have been nowhere near your POF account.
It appears that if you are using your phone generally, you can still show was online. If you receive a message on plenty of fish, generating a notification icon on your mobile phone, is also then shows you logged in.
This is being described as a bug. However I think there has a slightly more devious intention. My belief is that plenty of fish have done this deliberately, so that the site shows more people online than they really are.
So Why Is This Plenty Of Fish Mobile App Problem…A Problem ?
The fact is it can cause confrontation on plenty of fish. I have had quite nasty messages from people based on them seeing me online and leaping to conclusions.
On one particular occasion I did not respond to a message as I just wasn’t interested in that person. I then logged off the app, and was not on the site the rest of the day. When I logged back into the plenty of fish app that evening, there was a torrent of demanding messages from that person.
They were demanding to know why was not responding to their messages through the day. Because they could see me as online, they were assuming I was reading the messages and simply blanking them. This is not cool, as you can read here.
This led to a situation where I apologised and tried to explain I had not been online in order to try and defuse the issue and retreat safely. The response was for them to get threateningly aggressive.
I blocked them and moved on. The next day they were at it again using a different account,,,this time demanding to know why I blocked them. Complete fruit cake, but a situation that may never have occurred if the app had shown me as logged off as it should have done.
So this is an issue for plenty of fish users. My concern is that plenty of fish have designed their mobile app in order to show more people online are really are, which is great for their site, but not so great for confusing and angering people.
It is also worked against me in the opposite way. I had a couple of dates with someone, and had really lost interest in using plenty of fish because of that.
However because I had not deleted the app, I was apparently always showing online. The person I had been dating had a friend who used the site, who commented on the fact that I was always showing as online in the listings.
This led to an awkward situation where had to justify myself and try to make them see that I was not still continually scanning for someone else to chat to.
.
So why does Pof show online when not?
As I say, I believe that plenty of fish have deliberately done this to make the site see more populated than it is. I also think the extensive permissions on the plenty of fish mobile app mean that other applications can access it, again making me look active when I’m not.
On top of that, I’ve also read that plenty of fish do not show you as logged out until 15 minutes after the app has confirmed you are. So no matter how often you log out, you still show was online for 15 minutes when you are not.
When you are using the POF Mobile app, be aware that this may be a concern for you. Some people, including me, even go as far as to mention this at the bottom of our profile. So I recommend a little disclaimer saying I’m not on here that often, if I’m showing online and don’t reply its because the plenty of fish app doesn’t work properly.
After that I also say that I may not respond because you aren’t my type, or seem a bit mental. Hey, you have to use a bit of humour.
Finally, if someone is bombarding you with messages accusing you of ignoring them then why on earth would you want to communicate with someone so unstable anyway? So maybe the POF app issue has a positive side, by weeding-out the nutters….