@Fristo As you say, this issue is well known. The earliest thread about it I can find was from August 2014—about 6½ years ago:
just today i had been connected with an active listener who had only been on the site for two days and told me that he was originally there to find dating opportunities? i mean really?
I don't think there's been much progress since then.
Resistance to change
A fundamental issue with anything like this is that 7 Cups apparently resists changing anything based on discussions in the community. So, for practical purposes, discussing any issue here is very unlikely to result in a solution.
Cultural differences
To say, in this context, that "more is required to make 7cups a healthier place" seems to imply that dating is unhealthy.
I suspect it would be more accurate to acknowledge that dating is regarded as unhealthy in some cultures, tolerable in some others, and extremely healthy and normal in others. 7 Cups has to avoid trying to impose any of these points of view, so that everyone can be at peace within their own cultural setting.
This can be difficult for listeners who aim to provide emotional support, because the listener's cultural context sometimes differs from the member's. However, there's a clear boundary between informing a member that using 7 Cups for dating doesn't work as a matter of fact, and imposing any personal or cultural viewpoint.
The size of the problem
It's difficult to estimate how much of a problem dating really is at 7 Cups. Personally, I have never had any offer of a date here I do often read people's profiles, and I hardly ever see a profile that looks like the kind of profile anyone would seriously put on a dating site.
In order to understand the problem better, it would be useful to be able to measure it. What percentage of new members or listeners come to 7 Cups looking for dates? I have no idea, and I don't know how to find out.
When I searched the Internet briefly just now, I didn't see anyone recommending 7 Cups as a dating site, although I did learn something about the 7 of Cups Tarot card!
In a love reading, Seven of cups tarot card denotes searching online for love.
I don't think this is very significant, though.
Another factor is that one listener who unsuccessfully tries to date, say, 40 members, might cause 40 complaints, when the true size of the problem is just one person.
Overall, my personal impression is that relatively few people really try to use 7 Cups for dating.
False impressions
Another difficulty is that some people might give the impression they are looking for a date, when really they are looking for companionship, friendship or sexual fantasy.
For example, suppose a member is lonely and genuinely lacks companionship, but because of their culture and upbringing they feel ashamed about it. They might try to present themselves as looking for a date, because they feel that's more socially acceptable.
It's difficult for listeners to deal with this, because it means being accepting of the person and understanding their needs, while at the same time maintaining clear boundaries. Ideally, a listener would empathically understand, and respond to, the member's underlying loneliness and need for companionship without being triggered into rejection by the superficial dating stuff.
Meeting needs
If we assume that a lot of people do come to 7 Cups looking for companionship, friendship, sexual fantasy or dates, and if we also admit that 7 Cups cannot provide these, then the responsible thing for us to do would be to direct those people to other websites where they can find what they want.
We could do this by putting together a list of companionship, friendship, sexual fantasy and dating websites or apps that trusted members of our community have validated and believe to be genuine, and then refer people to the list, just like we do when a member appears to be in a crisis.
Charlie