Online Dating

Hollis...didn't you at one point offer to moderate a BT dating board?

Plus, it'd be a fun place to hang out and heckle. Not sayin' I would, but I'm just sayin'.

There should be a filter or requirement---no marrieds.

I was thinking the same thing. 

Nah, make it your sig file.    Get more views that way. 

I tried match.com. Met one guy for coffee; he talked about his father's alcoholism and detox for about 45 mins. Then he grilled me about why he can't get more dates. Was stoodup for first-dates (coffee) by the next 3 guys. I gave up. Still man-less at the moment.

I would not want to date someone who tri's. What if it's a bad breakup or he's wacko? Then I'll  run into him at my tri's - ick! I like my tri friends; I don't want to go poaching for men in the tri community. And, I like BT so I definitely would not want my personal life spilling into BT either; I like that I can be frank and open (yeah, maybe too open - get over it) on BT.

I want to keep my interests mine. No tri guy for me.

My wife bought me online (at least that's her joke).  Really, we met online.  She was in residency and working 80-110 hours per week and wasn't into the bar thing.  So she started looking at the AOL personals and after seeing my profile for the 5th time she decided to write.  Yeah I said it took her 5 times before writing because I didn't fit her physical preferences:  Am too tall, too big, wrong color hair and eyes and had facial hair.  Had our first date on Jan. 15, 2000.   Proposed Jan 6, 2001.   Married July 19, 2002.  Had our first child Jan 5th this year.

Guess love IS blind as she took a chance on a guy who didn't fit the physical preferences and now she's got me for life (she didn't read the non-refundable part of the online purchase). 

GO FOT IT!!!!!   

Ty, this morning the guy from electric co. came to my house to do an energy audit. I had just returned from my morning run and was flush-flaced, sweaty etc etc. (he was about 15mins early and pulled into my drive about 1 minute after I ran in). He's older (all white hair) and has a pot-belly but no ring on his left hand. He seemed nice. I actually thought about asking him to have coffee sometime. I even asked if he had a number I could reach him at - you know, in case I had questions about all this energy saving information. How about email?

I don't really have physical requirements other than good health and no extremes (extreme skinny or obesity). I do want him to be taller than me but at 5'2" that's not such a stretch. He must be gentle.

I'm long married (wait, make that long shacked up, recently married) but I like this topic so can I chime in? 

It was like falling down stairs to catch my husband because I was young and cute and spent a lot of time in social situations (fine, I picked him up in a bar, but it was 12 years ago, so I believe I have been validated).  But if I were single now I'm sure I would have to put a little more effort into the process.  I think it is great when people who really want to meet someone take charge of the situation.  I've never understood the method of saying that you want to meet someone, but for all the effort you put into it, they would literally have to come knock on your door.  Then you whine because you never meet anyone. I don't believe that in ANY area of life you should just sit still and wait for things to happen for you .  If they are truly a priority, you treat them as such and make them happen. Granted, you may have to wade through a lot of frogs, but if it were easy, they'd come knocking on your door.........

Go for it!

I haven't read the other replies, so I may be echoing those... I met my husband on match.com so I can recommend that one, anyway. I wasn't necessarily looking for a husband when I registered, and I didn't meet Mark until I had beein using match for a good 18 months or so. I thought it would be a great way to meet a bunch of different people and indeed it was! I had a great time using it!

Some thoughts based on my experience:

• Don't lie in your profile.
• Expect that everyone else will, at least a little bit.
• Include a picture. Many people will not look at profiles that don't have a pic.
• Write what you really think, not what you think will get you the most hits.
• Meeting for lunch works well for the first face-to-face meeting. Dinners can be too long... (insert story here of me trapped at the Olive Garden with a guy who was explaining to me how the 12 Disciples are similar to the Carbon-12 atom... gah)
• Expect that everyone will lie a little.

Be safe! Have fun!

I'm waiting for the knock on my door... or he can fall out of the sky and come crashing down on me.

Ok, just waking up with my morning cup of joe, so why not chime in?

I tried match.com and a few others on a few occations. No luck, really, but no awful experiences either (except for the guy I went on a totally boring date with who then got mad at me when I told him I didn't think we should go for another date). I also live in a smallish town, and I'm not willing to date outside my zip code, so the gene pool is limited already.

However, I've known scores of people who have met online and have great realtionships. And it's not a bad way to get back into dating if you've been out for a while.

I tend to lean to the cautious side and would suggest that you don't post you pic openly, but offer a picture pass for those who are intersted in your profile. This will ensure your privacy, as well as show that if someone is really interested in how you describe yourself (your personality, hobbies, etc.) that they are willing to make an effort to get to know you based on more than your cute pic. I also say this from experience - the first time I did this on Match.com, I posted a pic. Now, I have long blonde hair, and I swear, there's some Pavlovian response men have to the hair -- I got tons of emails from guys who apparently ignored my profile. I'd read thier profile and found myself thinking, "Why on earth did this guy write to me? I'm not into motorcycles, NASCAR, or country music." Or whatever the misfit may have been. So that just ended up being a pain to deal with.

Also, I got fed up with the misrepresentations. Like the guy who said he was a musician. On the date I asked him about it. Then he said he was just learning to play bass guitar! I've toyed with the idea of starting a consulting service for guys using online dating services - they are so clueless!

Another suggestion on protecting your privacy: create another email account just for this like a free hotmail email, and don't give out your last name. Jeez, can you tell I've had a few stalkers?!? lol

But, what the heck, you've really got nothing to lose.