Question of the Day

[ayoub]

What is your opinion on internet dating services?

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Mostly, all I hear are horror stories... :P

Comments

[seegwa.livejournal.com]

First attempt - heart shattered into a million pieces when it didn't work out when we met.

Second attempt - Ugh

Third attempt - More Frog than Prince (you remember him)

Fourth and current attempt - who knows?

It's a lot of energy for not a lot/any payoff in the end. People are not the same online as they are in real life. Stick locally if you can and meet as soon as possible after first contact.

[willnobilis.livejournal.com]

Are you counting MMOs such as WoW and Second Life?

[monkey.livejournal.com]

FTW!

[wildepixie.livejournal.com]

Same as my opinion on RL dating services (RL as in "speed dating" or the like) - I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

All of my relationships have been organic not engineered...met, became friends, suddenly realised we were attracted to each other. I can't help it, I just have a severe distrust of meeting someone with the specific intention of having a relationship - I've never even been on the likes of a blind date because I just don't agree with the concept, it seems so false, everyone's lying and trying too hard to be what they think the other person will want.

Course, as I'm happily partnered, it doesn't matter much anymore :o)

[milagro75.livejournal.com]

Can't say I've had lasting success so far. Seems to me the best pairings are sometimes the random ones, or met through friends or something...

[kathyrene.livejournal.com]

Being married for a while now I wouldn't know. Recipe for disaster I would think.

[amante-donne.livejournal.com]

i've never used them, my mate met his missus on there though and she is nice, so I guess they can be ok.

[princess-charl.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure as I have never used one (being married and all that!) but I guess it depends on who you meet.

[bangdrum.livejournal.com]

They don't work. Well, certainly not if they're free *cough*OKCupid*cough*. Where do you think I met Psaul the Psycho?

[cerebralpig.livejournal.com]

I tried it... no other way of meeting men. A lot of effort... much disappointment...some fun was had... and I guess you could get lucky. I met Neil online in a chatroom... not a dating thing... just by chance. It is possible to meet wonderful people online as you well know. :D

I honestly...

[mikesmaddie.livejournal.com]

...have no idea because even though I met Bri online, it wasn't through an online dating service.

Instead it was in the former chatroom section of the TRIPOD site.

Hugs. *HG*

God bless and take care. :).
Olga/Maddie

[conservative67.livejournal.com]

They're a waste of bandwidth

[kingdavey.livejournal.com]

My ex-wife met her current husband via an internet dating site, so it's not all horror stories (although it may be turning into one for him *chuckle*)

[chiropteraclan.livejournal.com]

My experiences have been extremely bad. It's not much different than using a blogging site (like LJ or myspace) to find dates. The beautiful are stalked and fawned over like gods and goddesses. The "average" and less in looks are treated like garbage for not being absolutely perfect. And it seems that a lot of people have a lot of hyped up expectations about who they will find and are not honest about themselves.

It's pretty much like meeting people offline to date, but sped up and multiplied many times in number.

[corporatebeach.livejournal.com]

I met my husband on-line but not through a dating service. It was in a local chatroom of all places. :)

I always worry about how honest people are about themselves. I saw an old boyfriend on a dating site and I had to laugh at how good he made himself look. I had just broken up with him and knew he was living with his old girlfriend again. He said in his post he had a house and a job. LOL He didn't have either. That's why I dropped him. He was looking for a free ride. I feel bad for the woman who chose him. I'm sure she was disappointed.

Buyer beware. :p

[monkey.livejournal.com]

Fraught with failure.

[prettydeth.livejournal.com]

It's no worse than meeting people anywhere else as far as psychos go. And it's much easier to screen for mutual interests before I waste valuable "in-person" time with a sports-obsessed goon, LOL. Seriously, I'm a big fan of the whole internet dating thing and it's my preferred way to meet men, for varying reasons. And I've made some friends out of the deal.

[1-rhiannon-1.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's something I'm interested in doing but if it works for someone else, so be it.

I have friends that keep telling me I should try eHarmony - I'm just not willing to go to that much trouble to attempt to find a date, y'know? I'm really not willing to cross the street to find a date at this point. *shrug*

[the-ravyn.livejournal.com]

I have no idea since I never had a need for one.  A couple of friends of mine have tried them, though.  One said, and I quote, "Eff this shit...I'll take my chances in the gin joints and dance clubs!"

[mighty-rontor.livejournal.com]

I'd sooner get advice on romance from a serial rapist. Why do you ask?

[razzberee.livejournal.com]

hah! I wasn't expecting that, too funny

[donnickcottage.livejournal.com]

Nice fantasy. Ugly reality 99 times of 100.

[razzberee.livejournal.com]

Really, really low.

[childeofloki.livejournal.com]

eHarmony and such are for pod people. They have high success rates because they only take clones. Hence the questionnaire they have you fill out, I didn't make it more then five questions in.
You have to be upper middle class urbanite Christian that mow the lawn on Saturday, and dear, don't forget this evening, we're having dinner with the Jeffersens.
eHarmony is for people who haven't told Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite, basically.

Anyways, it's too easy to lie, or present a false face, on the internet for me to fully trust it, and I am better off in face to face meetings anyways. I have a surprising amount of charisma in real life, especially for a fat, hairy guy.

[lostincandyrain.livejournal.com]

That's kind of funny because I signed up for eHarmony one day when I was watching a Match.com commercial about people being rejected from eHarmony, and I couldn't figure out why they'd be rejected- don't they just want anyone who'll pay? So my theory was that they probably rejected people who weren't really serious about meeting people online. I was seeing someone, and it was kind of messed up but I wasn't really serious about looking for something else, and I've never believed in meeting people online, flirting online yes, actually meeting the people, no, so I thought I'd try to see if they rejected me and they didn't...

...The funniest part is after that initial questionare thing they have this "guided communication" which involves sending people questions from this list of pre-written questions that are supposed to be important to you. They're all ridiculous. And then you have to answer the questions they send you... Being as none of the questions were important to me, I just send the most ridiculous ones and answered everyone else's questions really sillily...

...I still ended up meeting my boyfriend (we've been together over 9 months now, so not too long, but not too short) on there, and however it turns out, it's probably the most functional relationship I've ever had.

He was the first person I met. I had eHarmony less than two weeks, so they even refunded me my money, counting it as a failure since I "gave up" so quickly...

[katamphigorical.livejournal.com]

They're about as effective as walking along the edge of a cliff blindfolded. The fall is inevitable and the sight at the bottom won't be pretty.

[ktsies2.livejournal.com]

Never went near it. I prefer reality and it all worked out for me. Sure I had some crappy, crappy ex's but I found a wonderful husband :)
An ex of mine used a dating site and went out with the chick for over a year. She was pretty crazy, and he finally saw that. Whew. That's the only experience I know of.

[kelly-pink.livejournal.com]

I know three married couples that met online...but not on dating sites exactly..yahoo personals..lol..As for me, I don't think they work properly.