Firstly, let me preface by saying that I understand very well the reasons for not showing someone’s distance if he/she does not want it shown. It can be a combination of privacy, safety, both or something else.

That being said, I get a lot of messages from people that hide their distances. Additionally, if I am using filters and the results are only profiles that have distances hidden, I don’t know if I’m talking to somebody 5 miles away, 500 miles away, or 5000 miles away.

We can preserve someone’s safety and privacy while at the same time helping other users find people within their distance ranges by showing some indication of distance through ranges. For example, a variable can be placed on everyone’s profile that shows either something vague (very close, close, nearby, far away, very far away) or something a little more specific (<5 miles, 5-15 miles, 15-30, etc). That way you will have an idea if the person is anywhere near your current location. Because this is a problem sometimes.

In the cascade, something similar could be done by breaking up the profiles into groups, kind of like when you get to the end of the free profiles and suddenly your face with a group of extra profiles. Profiles in the first group to be less than 5 miles away or simply “close.” And then so on and so on.

The ability to filter out those who do not show any distance information is also an option.