Cougar Date December 2024

Upon registration, the only things asked are whether you're a younger man looking for a cougar or an older woman looking for a cub, name, and birthday. They expressly ask "no nicknames, please" which we take to mean that customised usernames with numbers and special characters are discouraged. Verification of your email is required, in fact heavily encouraged (there's an entire page dedicated to it after you sign up), but can be skipped temporarily.

Only female members get the unlimited messaging feature. Male members can see the preview of messages but will have to pay to read or reply to them. The main inbox page is a compilation of all the types of communication you can receive. But there are tabs where you can separately view your messages, winks, gifts, favourites, and messages from the support team. 

Fortunately, you can view if a member is inactive. Although it isn't stated how many days they have to be absent from the website to qualify as "inactive", this is still a good way to save your time by filtering out those who probably won't reply any time soon. 

Profile photos are optional. Even though this is a relief for the people who are still timid about putting themselves out there and exposing their face to the world, this also means that fake profiles can easily be created and managed. Photos need moderator approval before they can go live. This suggests that the existence of graphic display photos isn't oversight on Cougar Date's end, but express permission.

The main information needed on a user profile is what they're "here for". This isn't a multiple-choice option. Members have to fill out this field with a self-description to let other members know more about them. It also includes when the member was last online. A user's photos (other than their display photo) cannot be viewed by free members. These aren't private photos that need permission to be accessed, so to speak, but additional public photos that can only be viewed by paying members.