I’ve been looking for a relationship for a while. Since I don’t like clubs, the idea of picking someone up in such a place does not appeal to me. I am somewhat shy, so the idea of going up to a random woman and hitting on her does not appeal to me either. That has led me to the conclusion that a online dating site might be the way to go. There are a lot of different kinds, and so I have tried a lot. Now, keep in mind that I am a guy and that puts me at an instant disadvantage for online dating. A woman can get away with a less than stellar profile and still get approached by men; a man needs a near perfect profile to even get noticed. And so, let’s take a look at some of the sites that I have used.
#5, the bottom of the barrel. eHarmony: one of the biggest dating sites on the Internet, eHarmony bills itself as the Relationship Site. It boasts a very high success rate. Where does this success rate come from? If they don’t think they can find you someone, they won’t let you join the site. When you try to join, they make you take a personality profile test. In a personality test, there aren’t supposed to be any wrong answers, but on eHarmony, there are. Since if you answer wrong, they won’t even let you try to use the site. Am I bitter about this? Yes. Do I have a grudge against eHarmony? Yes. If you actually get on, the site probably works pretty well.
#4 Geek2geek: Didn’t have any women in my area, but I liked the idea of the site. It’s geek dating, since I am a geek (example: I am an online writer) I thought it might work. There’s really not much to the site. You would think a Website based on geek dating would ask questions that would help explain what kind of geek you are.
#3 Match.com: actually pretty decent. All of the results they sent me were actually pretty interesting. I was not ready, at that point, to pay to talk to any of them. Which leads us to the two best sites I have found:
Best Site #2: Okcupid. The single best feature about Okcupid is that it is completely, utterly free. Your profile is free. Viewing other’s profiles is free. Communication is free. Free communication is unlimited. The matches they found for me were, for the most part, pretty decent. As I mentioned above, women can get away with writing terrible profiles and still receive interest. It seemed that my profile was good enough to get a few replies, but not good enough to actually get a date.
Best Site #1 and the #1 best dating site I have found: Craigslist. Yes, you do hear stories about people who meet people they met on Craigslist who end up murdered. The secret is to not be stupid about it. Meet in a public place, exchange photos first, and if they don’t match their photo, run. Tell friends or family where you are going and with whom. Bring a cellphone and leave it on. I have been on several Craigslist dates. Never a colossal failure and one amazing, wonderful, beautiful success: my current girlfriend who is absolutely wonderful. And I would be saying that even if there wasn’t any chance that she might be reading. Granted, that is a rare success story and might be pretty far off from the norm. But, ultimately, all reviews have to be based on personal experience and by far and away the best experiences I have had dating online have been from Craigslist.
Some further reasons to use Craigslist as a dating site
And some tips for using Craigslist to find a date
