OLD should not be an excuse to string people along

So I get that nobody is exclusively yours on a dating app right away. It’s definitely a given that everyone is communicating with more than one person on an app, but we all communicate to various extents with different matches. Even thought you may not end up with every match you get to know and/or hang out with, a match is not a placeholder for a “better option.” If you haven’t extensively conversed or hung out/gone on dates, you may not owe anything. But if you have done that, always be upfront about your interest at various stages, make sure you’re on the same page about not being exclusive, and make sure you have the same goal.

1) Regardless of whether the reason is wanting to date someone else or just not feeling it any more, have the decency to let a match you either extensively conversed with and/or hung out with that you’re no longer interested. And tell them something along the lines of “I enjoyed getting to know you” or whatever you liked about them before getting to know them initially before letting them down. The thing is, extensive conversing and/or hanging out indicates an interest. So people who are just dropped suddenly without a civil let down or explanation (the elaborateness of the explanation is a case by case basis) and w/o an assurance of what you initially liked about them are going to feel led on or like mind games were played with them. Whether or not you mention going with another match/dating someone else depends on the appropriateness of the situation. But making a choice of dating someone else without properly rejecting someone you conversed extensively or hung out with is going to create the impression that you were trying to string them until you got a “better” option.
2) If you’re going to extensively converse or hang with a match, do it with someone you actually are genuinely interested in the moment.
3) And for the love of god or whatever you believe in, don’t keep a match that is interested in you in limbo or as a “backup plan” if you are no longer/aren’t really into them in the first place. You don’t need a “backup plan” in case your preferred match ends up not choosing you or in the meantime of finding who you want. The point of OLD is even if your preferred choice rejects you and/or you aren’t currently into whoever likes you so far, you just move on and keep searching for people with whom the interest is mutual. You can be single and don’t need a backup while you’re in the process of that search.