We conducted a full review of OneScene to provide you with the basic information that you need to make your own determination as to whether or not it will work for you.

— Pros and Cons —

Pros

• Inclusive and welcoming of all lifestyles
• Free full-featured 14-day trial
• Large international user base
• Powerful search engine

Cons

• Communication and advanced search features require paid membership after 14 days
• Some people might prefer a more complex feature set

— In-Depth OneScene Review —

There are many dating sites dedicated to the LGBT community. In the last two years, this particular demographic has seen the fastest level of growth in the online dating industry. That being said, with an ever-larger set of options to choose from, finding an LGBT-friendly dating site that is effective can be quite a task.

Among one of the most popular LGBT dating sites currently online is OneScene.com. For those seeking a dating platform that is user-friendly, inclusive, and accessible in terms of cost, OneScene has a good reputation on all of those marks.

Of course, just because a particular dating site has a lot of positive buzz does not necessarily mean that it will be good for everyone.

— OneScene Rundown —

OneScene is a straightforward LGBT dating site. It focuses on optimizing the user experience through simplicity. This means that you should expect a simple yet powerful platform. OneScene bills itself as part of the international LGBT community. As such, its user base is composed not only of users from the United States, Canada, and the UK, but also from the rest of the world.

It is very inclusive and does not cater to one particular sector of the LGBT community. It is welcoming of gay men, lesbians, transgenders, bisexuals, and straight people. It does not engage in the practice of subcategorizing each section of the community. In other words, don’t expect to find subcategories such as bears, twinks, etc. The site creates a community feel that is accepting and inclusive without creating unnecessary subdivisions.

— Registration Process —

OneScene provides new users with two methods of registration. One involves using a valid email to establish your account — your email becomes your username. The process requires you to manually enter all of your personal information such as name, age, location, sexual orientation, etc.

The faster option involves you to register on OneScene with your Facebook credentials. To do this, all you have to do is click on the blue “join with Facebook” button. This will automatically import your basic personal information from Facebook on to your OneScene profile. You can modify your profile information whenever you want through your user settings regardless of your original method of registration.

OneScene is respectful of the privacy of its users. If you join OneScene with your Facebook credentials the site will not request permission to post on your wall or to access your friends’ list.

— Features —

Since OneScene strives to enrich the user experience through simplicity, it is to be expected that the feature set offered by the site will not to be complex. It consists of a search and discovery feature along with a collection of messaging options. While this might sound sparse, when you actually start using the platform you will find it to be easy to use and powerful.

— Search Feature—

The search engine for OneScene takes the basic information that you entered on your profile page regarding your physical, personality, and lifestyle attributes to generate an initial list of suggested matches. These matches can then be filtered along a wide spectrum of search criteria. You can narrow down the search to location, age range, even personality and lifestyle attributes such as whether they smoke or drink, whether they want children, etc.

The search results are presented to users in a tiled format consisting of the profile image of each member. On some profiles, you will notice a circular icon in the upper right-hand corner. If it is a goldenrod color, that indicates that the person was online recently. Although the site does not specifically state how they define “recently,” during our testing we were able to deduce that this usually covers a period of time of no more than two weeks. If the circular icon is green, that indicates that the member is currently online. These visual signals helping you to identify the level of activity of each member are very useful. They save you from wasting your time trying to contact someone that is not active on the site.

By clicking on the profile image, the profile page of the member will open. On there you can review all of the specific characteristics and attributes of that member including their general interests, musical interests, and lifestyle details. You can also view the requirements that they have in the partners that they are seeking. You can also send them an icebreaker, add them as a friend or favorite, and start a chat window.

— Chat Feature —

When you access the chat feature if the person is currently online they will receive an immediate notification. Of course, it is their choice whether or not they want to answer. If the member is not online, your message will be delivered to them the next time that they access the platform. Likewise, if anybody sends you a chat message when you are offline, you’ll be able to read those messages when you access the platform.

In case you are wondering, the chat, icebreaker, and advanced search filtering features are only available to premium members.

— Cost —

It is completely free to register and maintain a profile on OneScene. However, if you want to have full use of its messaging and advanced search features, you will need to purchase a premium a membership. This has a cost of $10.95 for one month, or $84.95 if you pay for a full year in advance.

When you first register with OneScene, you are given a 14-day free trial that includes all of the premium package’s features. We found this to be quite generous on the part of OneScene. Usually, dating sites will only give you three days as part of their trial period. By having 14 days, you have a better opportunity to properly gauge the effectiveness of the site.

In terms of value and opportunity for evaluation, OneScene scores highly in our opinion.