Your active line-up of dating prospects — the several people you're seeing at once before anyone goes exclusive.
A roster is not cheating, and it's not polyamory. The line that separates it from the first is a single word: honesty. You don't owe anyone a roll call — nobody has to hear "hey, you're number four" — but you do owe them the truth that you're not exclusive yet. Keep that quiet on purpose and it stops being a roster and starts being a mess.
It's also not the same as being poly. Polyamory is about maintaining several committed relationships at once, out in the open, forever if it works. A roster is early-stage and temporary by design: a way to get to know a few people in parallel before deciding who — if anyone — you want to go deeper with. Think audition phase, not season finale.
The honest case for it: if you tend to sprint into exclusivity with the first person who gives you butterflies, a roster slows you down. Options lower the desperation, and comparison sharpens what you actually want. The honest case against it: attention is finite. Spread it across five chats and every connection stays shallow, coordination turns into a part-time job, and the moment real feelings show up for one person, keeping the others on the bench starts to hurt someone. A roster is a tool for the beginning. It makes a lousy destination.