As I was rushing to fix my settings again after my SA rebill fired (*see note below), I was also lamenting the increasing decrease (if you'll pardon the turn of phrase) of search results with my standard search criteria and decided to try a simple experiment.  

 
Now my "standard" search was consistently showing between 700-750 results way back in the before times (2018-2019). And as many here have pointed out, that result count has been steadily decreasing ever since.  Two possible major external forces are probably the root, but certainly not only, cause:  

 
1. The passing of FOSTA/SETSA legislation
2. The COVID global pandemic.  

 
I won't rehash either of these in this post (because FML!), but we have all been looking for a way to compensate for the reduced profile quantity AND the reduced profile quality that has compounded the issue.  

 
So back to my post theme:  I live in suburb of a rather population-dense metro center. I moved my search location 9 miles to my east, towards the metro center.  The result was spectacular. My current search results went from about 320 to a 400% increase at 1250.  And when I cut back my age filter from 18-35 to just 18-25 I still had over 600 results - very close to my results from back in the day.  If I moved just 9 miles east, well... you get the idea.  

 
Not really a viable option for many of you (like Papa Sweet) who live in less dense population centers. Just another datum for your ongoing analysis.  

 
*Settings on rebill: I can now confidently confirm that if your SA account is on auto-rebill, your search settings will reset to VISIBLE in all three areas when the rebill fires.  This is particularly annoying to me, as I keep mine set to HIDDEN when I'm not actively searching to add backups or replacements to my portfolio.  Why?  It's called the Law of Unintended Consequences.  When SA flips me to VISIBLE, I will be flooded with profile likes from dozens of profiles in South America. For a brief moment, I panicked thinking that I was the latest victim of Papa Sweets' "favorites hacker."  

 
Fortunately, it was just the usual system noise...  

 
And that's it for today's wandering thoughts post. Fortunately, I can still say with confidence....  

 
Life is good

 
The Cat