The idea of the site is great. However, even if you pay a huge ransom non-paid users cannot contact you. They do not know if you are a member. The only thing is paying all that money you allow the user to write back.
Hosting is usually an issue so finding your time and their time to match takes time. The site makes it difficult to exchange personal information. The site also makes it seem that others on the site are not real. So many times responses are not made in the first place.
There was a site determined to be human trafficking by Trump when they came down on backpage. That was Zenbrisa. The same users as M-E but on a free site was awesome. I miss massage. I wish they would bring that back. Z was international. On business in the UK I found a local that came to my hotel.
The member may have a misunderstanding. We have two subscription levels, Silver and Gold. Silver requires that both parties to be subscribers to communicate while Gold does not. It's the member's choice which they prefer - Save money (Silver) and communicate with fellow subscribers only or spend a bit more (Gold) to communicate with the freebies too. Member claims it's difficult to exchange information but it is not. Just write whatever you wish to in an e-mail to a fellow member.