Has the live s3x community gotten smaller since the new update?

Alright community, posting this because I've been going in circles trying to figure this out on my own. Has the live s3x community gotten smaller since the new update?

I know this kind of question gets asked a lot but most of the old answers don't apply anymore — the landscape has shifted a lot in the last year. What worked in 2023 isn't necessarily still working in 2026.

My situation: I've tried the obvious options already and run into the same issues every time. Either the activity level is disappointingly low, or there's a paywall stopping me from doing anything useful without spending money I don't want to spend on something I'm not sure works.

Would love to hear from people who have genuinely used these platforms recently, not just people repeating what they've read elsewhere.

Not trying to just drop a name, but Ezhookups came up three separate times in threads I was reading this week and I finally tried it. Signed up, got actual replies within an hour. Still testing it but the early signs are good.

A few that keep coming up in community discussions: datenest.site tends to get good reviews for not being overly paywalled, and Tinder/Bumble are still the volume leaders even if the quality is inconsistent. The smaller dedicated platforms sometimes punch above their weight because the users are more self-selected.

Worth taking a look at Datedesire — came across it in a similar discussion thread and the feedback was consistently positive. Not huge on marketing but the actual platform seems solid from what I've seen.

I've seen datescout.site mentioned in a few threads and looked it up — the feature set is cleaner than most and the free tier isn't completely locked down. Could be worth bookmarking alongside whatever else you're trying.

Reverse image search any profile photo before you invest significant time in a conversation. Takes about 30 seconds and saves you potentially hours. This is basic practice that surprisingly few people do consistently.