Certs and how important??

hiwayrider2020, we use Skype.

If both parties can see and talk to each other then it should work fine. I imagine it works much like Skype, Facetime or Zoom. If you're in an area or situation where you get a lot of fakes, anything like this should work well. The fact that you're both on SLS means you don't have to set-up or install anything new.

We just haven't had a problem with fakes for whatever reason, and once Covid is mostly in the rear-view and we can get back to having and attending LS parties, we'll have even less of a need for it.

Onehourcouple....Does that really work??? Never crossed my mind in trying it. Have any others out there called
each other on this, and how well did it work???

Calcan,

We have been in contact with couples like yourselves who insist on group chats with each person having individual accounts. I know for a fact that some folks have turned us down because we wouldn’t play by their rules.

It wasn’t a big deal for us, and we didn’t hold anything against the other couples. Their requests were reasonable, we just were not in a position to meet their expectations. We both simply moved on to other people.

When we meet a couple for the first time, we tell them that we don’t play on the first date, a rule that seldom gets broken.
Since we know we won’t be playing there is less pressure to have all the boxes checked prior to meeting.

So learning with the video calls it's another good way to weed out the flakes and bullshitters. We like to schedule a call in the evenings with a prospective playmate(s) and if they don't join the call (we send a reminder too) without a valid excuse beforehand then it's AMF!! Seriously, if you can't join a simple video call then we don't expect you to show up for a play date so again... AMF!!

"...but Im sure there have been ppl who have thought I was a guy pretending to be a couple."

This has happened to us before, and ironically, it was a SM that I bothered to chat with. I think he thought his, "Yeah, prove it!" was going to get his foot (and other body parts) through the door. Didn't happen.

We are the same as HotLuvrs ... my wife hates chatting and PMing with ppl, she rarely does it. She would prefer to meet in person. She doesnt have phone access at work so doesn't have the time that I do to be able to chat, plus she has had too many whiny butthurt ppl in the past that give her the "oh I guess youre not interested any more" ... No MFer, I'm busy!! LOL ... Our Kik account has both our names on it and a pic of us both to show that we are a couple, but Im sure there have been ppl who have thought I was a guy pretending to be a couple.

We use Kik, but only a single account. Actually, two accounts, but they are both mine on different devices.

My wife refuses to use any of the chatting apps. If we are voice or video verifying she has no problem getting on with me, but she has zero interest in initiating contact or participating in ongoing group chats.

" The best way we have found to verify is that we all go on kik for a group chat each with our own accounts"
Exactly! We despise group chat with only a single account on the other end. If you're not secure enough to have separate accounts and collaborate as a team (even if reading each other's texts), then we're probably not a match. And like you, we've had the same with gaming the system with that. No matter what any of us do, there's always a way to game the system, so it seems. Unfortunately.

Ah ok. Can't say we've ever had a suspicion that people were only claiming to be close by when they weren't. So far our only suspicions are if a couple is actually in fact a couple. The best way we have found to verify is that we all go on kik for a group chat each with our own accounts. We did run into a couple very recently where it seemed the guy was logging out of one account to log into the "wife's" to say a word or two then got back on his own but as soon as it was apparent that we were on to what was going that account promptly blocked us out of the blue.

Wasn't take that way at all! And understand your point about your phone/IP location. Living in the larger western states we also (most of us) don't have the problem of showing up in another state lol. But really, no matter where you are in the continental 48, assuming it still shows a location that's no more than 30-40 miles away. That wouldn't be something we'd consider a red flag. The method is really to identify people literally THOUSANDS of miles away. We've been nearly duped by members reaching out from Indonesia and India claiming that they're nearby. They didn't respond to our request for the screenshot, but following contacting support we were able to confirm their IP location.

calcun - Sorry, wasn't meant as a dig. I just wasn't sure of what it proved. I've never had reason to doubt if someone was where they claimed to be, but if I did, that is a cool way to determine that.

One drawback I did notice was being on my phone. If I was connected to my router then my location was the same as it was for my laptop, but if not connected to that, it had me in Pa,

Not here to tell any of you what you should or shouldn't do to vet authenticity of a profile. Just sharing what's worked for us, personally, over nearly two decades of doing this. We're pretty tech savvy and have a number of methods that draw upon that strength. YMMV.

"Calfun, what does the IP screenshot accomplish? Are you calling in to question that their actual location isn’t where their profile claims to be?"
Not necessarily calling into question, just verifying. It's also an imperfect option as others have pointed out. Proxy services can get around it, and sometimes it shows a city possibly close by but not exactly where they're located. However, we've had a number of people reach out to us claiming to be nearby that we're sure are states or even oceans away. We don't ask for this very often. Just unique circumstances where our suspicions fit the need.

"Just type ipconfig in your run command prompt"

All that shows me is my local (assigned by my wireless router) IP, not my public IP.

Rustic - I tend to agree. It only proves you live close to where you say your do, so not sure of the point.

Quite honestly my IP address shows our location as 2 counties (we are near where they connect) much less towns away where the "hub" for our provider is. Go a few miles away in the same county I live in and the IP for a friend shows them in the right county but they do not live in the city. The sad part is they get higher available speeds and other options we do not get from the same provider. BTW my provider is the local phone company or I would have to use a satellite internet service but then again cell phones are very spotty depending on your company here as well. That being said I can think of no real reason to ask for someone's IP address and would refuse to give it out if asked. Of course it is available if you know how to find it but in my opinion it is useless information that just shows you are willing to jump through hoops like a trained performing animal.

Just type ipconfig in your run command prompt

Certs are such a double edged sword for us. On one hand, we don’t want to kiss and tell and feel who we’ve been with is no ones business. On the other, they do provide a little credibility. But then, people with a huge amount of certs is kind of a turn off. The length of time gone by since the cert has been posted also diminishes the credibility the longer it gets. Some people might not even still be a couple after their last cert was posted in 2012 and it could just be a guy looking to get off on private pics.

Calfun, what does the IP screenshot accomplish? Are you calling in to question that their actual location isn’t where their profile claims to be?

Since access to pics was mention....we’ve just recently started using the chat feature (lol just in time for it to disappear) and we find it amusing how many private messages we get from single males and couples alike who want to talk about our pics but then look at their profiles they’re thousands of miles away or have not a single gallery whatsoever and the bare minimum written under each heading to satisfy the profile requirement.

Type the IP into this search engine: iplocation dot net

In Google (or in the Chrome URL address bar) literally type in -

What's my IP

That will give you your public IP and then you'll see a link where you can do an IP look-up.

OK, I need someone's help. I googled my IP number, and got nothing on it. I tried (1) the IP numbers, including the dots, (xx.xxx.xx.x) (2) just the number without the dots, and (3) the number with dots with "IP" leading......still nothing related to me or my computer. What else do I need to do?? Thanks

Just this morning a certain single guy contacted us by Message. On the initial look, his profile text and pictures totally did positive nothing for him......his certs said otherwise. We are continuing a dialog with him, sorting out the pic and text issues solely because his mutliple certs made him sound very interesting. No promises yet, but we are keeping the door open for the moment.

Private pic requests on the app are incredibly easy to send on accident. It's part of the reason I don't bother with the app.

FWIW - What's My IP has us as being 2 towns over from where we actually live.

Off topic but I don't usually block them unless they're persistant. I also don't send pictures for those private pic requests. I may respond if it's a couple with an invitation to chat. This is assuming they are actually close enough to meet and someone we might be interested in. We aren't looking for new SMs outside of LS parties so requests like this from SMs get ignored. It's obvious that they never bothered to read our profile and think that SLS is like Burger King where they can get things their way.

For the times we've gotten these, more often than not it's someone 100's, if not 1000's of miles away that there is no chance we'll ever meet. It's likely they just expected me to provide them with jerk-off material for some crazy reason.

Obviously, I think this button was a bad idea on the part of SLS ;-) Seriously, it's VERY rare that someone will respond positively to someone using it with no prior diaolg. If you do have a dialog open, then you already have a mechanism to provide pic access, so what's the point in having this "feature"?

Before I hear, "People asked for it", what sort of people? Picture collectors? Clueless newbies that thought this was a good idea? Does ANYONE that is actually active in the LS reading this think this button was a good idea?