Posted on 08/17/2007 3:09:50 PM PDT by WFTR
Welcome to the thread. We're glad to have you here.
This weekend's topic is online dating sites. We've all seen the ads for e-Harmony on TV and for Match.com at various places around the internet. Yahoo has a personals section. AOL has a personals section. Craig's List has a personals section (if your immune system is strong enough). The local ISPs in most major cities often have personals ads somewhere on their websites. Many specialty websites have arisen for special interest personals. ConservativeMatch.com and RepublicanPeopleMeet come to mind. The question is "Are any of these places any good?"
The major topic of this weekend's thread is a review of these sites. Do you have any experience with any of them? Did you like them? Would you recommend them? In general, how do you feel about online dating? Do you see online dating as being any different from the old personals magazines that we used to see in supermarkets? Would you consider having a long-term relationship with someone whom you met this way?
Again, this topic could be touchy to some people, and we ask that everyone be adult and be considerate.
We'd also like to thank Spirit of Allegiance for thinking of this one. His original idea was to spend a weekend each month looking at each site in depth, and if the topic is popular enough, we may return to a deeper exploration of some of these sites at a later time.
We also have a couple of bonus questions this week, and we'd like everyone to take a shot at one or two of them. They are:
1. What kind of car do you drive? What kind of car would you like to drive?
2. What kind of car would your ideal partner drive?
3. Your ideal partner just won $5000. How does she/he spend it?
As always, we like to remind people of last week's thread and offer folks the chance to bring forward any part of the discussion that they feel is appropriate. The topic was death and whether being single changes one's views of death and dying. The thread is at: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1879545/posts .
Freepers living along the coast anywhere between Brownsville, Texas and New Orleans, Louisiana have a 10 to 20 percent chance of experiencing tropical storm force winds by Wednesday afternoon. The winds won't arrive this weekend, but now is a good time to buy batteries and other essentials.
And there is always:
I met my husband here on Free Republic. But previous to that I had some nice conversations from Catholic Match.com.
And load up on plenty of Cakesters. They are unbelievable.
To me, one of the big weaknesses of all of these specialty sites is that they just don't attract enough members to be helpful. I've been on many of them and not found anyone even close to appropriate within a 100 mile radius.
The Oreo cakes look pretty good. I'll have to look for them when I'm at the store this weekend.
Bill
How many other online dating services did you try?
You nailed it. Nice as they are in theory, the bigger sites like match.com or Eharmony tend to be more "target rich environments".
Bonus answers:
1. What kind of car do you drive? GMC Jimmy
What kind of car would you like to drive? Jeep Grand Cherokee
2. What kind of car would your ideal partner drive?Something that runs
3. Your ideal partner just won $5000. How does she/he spend it? However she dang-well wants to! It's her money.
I have. When I was still living in Reno, I met a girl online and I went over to her house--or actually her parents house, since she still lived at home. Two things really turned me off about her:
1) Her gingivitis. As she leaned over to attempt to make out with me, I could visibly see how bad her gums and teeth had decayed. Now, I'm reasonably certain that it wasn't due to drug use--considering that she was moderately overweight and all--but it perhaps contributed to her very bad halitosis.
2) Despite the fact that she and I had been on two dates (read: two nights vegetating at her house), she felt compelled to say that she was madly in love with me.
Well, I wasn't. Nice enough of a girl, but she just wasn't what I had in mind. Bear in mind here, I'm not trying to come off as superficial with the whole gingivitis and bad breath hang up. She had other problems, including the fact that she would keep calling me every day for a good 5 to 6 months before she finally figured out I wasn't interested.
Anyway, that's just one of my many experiences. :)
I'm not much for online singles sites. I always prefer to meet someone in person and generally don't do well when presented with a whole host of potential friends/dates who may or may not be who/what they say they are.
What kind of car do you drive?
A Ford F-150 4x4 pickup truck (it's for both work and play).
What kind of car would you like to drive?
A Ford F-150 4x4 pickup truck.
What kind of car would your ideal partner drive?
Anything but a hybrid (LOL) -- though I have a particular affinity for women who drive 4x4s.
Your ideal partner just won $5000. How does she/he spend it?
On me, of course :-P
Actually, I would hope she'd do something prudent and/or generous with it.
Here too....plus E-Harmony. Yahoo had all weirdos, Match.com had tons of married guys posing as singles....and CC...... mostly duds I couldn't keep an intelligent conversation going with for more than 5 minutes.
On all these sites...... I seemed to click best with guys more than 500 mi away. I just finally gave up.
Funny quirk ....alot of guys I bump into in person that seem most interested are 30yr olds and 70+. Go figure. I hit a new low when some bubba tried to pick me up in Walmart while shopping for spaghetti. I think I'll write a book. lol
Ford Taurus SES. Chrysler 300
2. What kind of car would your ideal partner drive?
Hmm... Probably a pickup.... but I could care less as long as he's happy with it and the city doesn't drag it to the dump by mistake. :)
3. Your ideal partner just won $5000. How does she/he spend it?
Any way he wants! :)
I met my husband on Match.com. Reluctantly joined after friends told me, no, begged me, to start dating again...I went on a 2 year dating hiatus - the best 2 years of my life before I met my husband, that is. Cleared my head, let me focus on my career, and more important, let me finally figure out what I needed/wanted in a mate.
Online dating services aren’t all bad. They aren’t all good, either. But it’s a good way to supplement “brick and mortar” dating...meaning, meeting people in “real life” through friends, etc.
It’s neat to hear of a success story on Match.com. I’ve thought about joining, but there are too many other things on my mind these days.
That happens sometimes. I've long ago quit thinking of meeting someone at the grocery store. I occasionally run into someone who seems nice but seems either too old or too young. I don't know how to explain why that happens.
Bill
I was a charter member of conservativematch 3 years ago. I made quite a few good friends from that site, and we still keep in touch. Over a year ago, a few trolls invaded the site and my friends and I left. It’s really lame over there now. The same people own CatholicMatch. If you’re Catholic, it seems like a good place to meet other Catholics. My friends that left Conservativematch have since started our own website for conservative singles. We only have about 50 members so far, so the discussions are pretty casual.(but hey, it’s free!) If you’d like to know more, send me a private message.
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