They make it hard to be a free member and enjoy any services. They find ways to pressure you into paying which doesn't feel worth it. You'll find someone's profile that looks interesting, you'll go to write them and it'll say "20% of profiles are randomly blocked, please upgrade for unlimited access." But it seems like far more than 20% of profiles are blocked. Their interest isn't really in facilitating penpal friendships but just in getting paying subscribers. They should be more upfront about that and not tease users with the idea of a free site.