Meeting people through online personals?
 

Anyone here have any luck? I'm thinking about giving it a try..

A friend of mine is trying Yahoo Personals, so far he's 0-6. Two have been psycho. He isn't ready to give it up, but he's not sure if he'll find anyone 'normal'.

I'm actually trying it right now. So far, no luck, but I'm not really serious about it, anyways.


However, one of my friends (who just joined TFP this week) has had some success, but I'll let him identify himself if he chooses!

Not quite personals, but I've met some really nice people on Craigslist (www.craigslist.org). It only works if you live in a big city though.

Did it for 2 years. Got 15 first dates, no seconds. I resigned my account, determined to be single for the rest of my life, and match.com offered me 3 free months to stay on.

I did, and just started playing with it, and extended my searches to the whole world, and found a nice girl in Malaysia who started corresponding with me. Then we started chatting through yahoo messenger, then we started web camming, then calling...now I'm going to visit her in May, and we've both agreed that we've fallen in love.

Take whatever you can from this story, because results aren't typical for anyone.

I took the eHarmony personality profile and it said I wasn't compatible and if I had payed for the profile I should get my money back. So it must be good.

My dad met someone online through Match.com, I guess he is pretty happy with it. It might be more of an age thing. If you are young, you end up meeting people through other channels. But when you reach your 40-50's "normal channels" are less hospitable.

It's alot like ordering pizza.

A buddy of mine at work went this route. He has been dating the same chick for nearly six months now and they seems pretty happy.

Guess it works some of the time. I don't know how many dates didn't work out for him.

I met my wife of almost 13 years now through a personal ad (prior to Internet dating), and we have been extremely happy. There is absolutely no way we would have met otherwise.

it can be hit or miss but i've had good luck with the spring street personals (hosted by lots of people but origonally nerve.com -- which is also a great site!). a lot of it depends on where you live, certain areas are heavier on certain sites. nerve seems especially good for the san francisco bay area and new york city.

i have more luck meeting people online through communities. I've met one girl through that spring street thing... we're currently good friends. Met 2 other girls through craigslist... one is surprisingly conversant and intelligent. Not really anticipating things to go further.

Got myself into a 7 month relationship, that didn't work out so well in the end, but up until then, it was pretty good. I've known quite a few people who've put themselves out there and gotten good results. So yes, I recommend it...what the hell??:)

I did it for 3 years. Had roughly....*starts counting*..... 20 or so 1st dates, but only a 4 or 5 second or more dates. I met one long-term girlfriend, 2 good friends (female)....and oh yeah, my wife. She's simply the greatest thing to ever happen to me, and I met her online.

I used matchmaker.com mostly. I like the way the site is organized and the way their questions are set up.

That's the trick...if you go online personals, be prepared for a lot of "first date then never hear from her again" situations.

I did it for a whileand I discovered people lie about the oddest things. The first girl I contacted had put a phony picture on the site, and was about a hundred pounds heavier than her profile had stated. What was she thinking?!? I mean one can exaggerate about ones hobbies or interests somewhat and thats not a huge problem but being a completely different person just isn't going to fly! I met her at my favorite pub and when my usual bartender saw my situation (he had been informed of the meeting before hand) he quietly walked over and handed me a large straight Scotch on the house. I never confronted her about it, I just got through the date and vowed never to do internet dating again. Well, a year and a half later I was a little bored at work and thought what the hell, I'll put a profile on Match.com and see what happens. In about a week I got an e-mail from a girl that was interested. She seemed nice and we met. Long story short, we'll be married in September. So like much of life its a crap shoot. Some days are diamonds, some days you get stoned!

ultimately, the online personals scene is just like the bar scene ... only with the benefit of having some idea of the background/intellect/interests of your crushes/suitors. and conversely, the drawback of not having direct contact with him/her to establish physical attraction/chemistry. it's a tradeoff.

i posted my first online profile through yahoo personals about 6 years ago while living in NYC. met a few guys, had a few dates, never turned into anything serious, but was enjoyable just the same. after moving to LA, i posted on match.com and had similar results, with the exception of one complete psycho (who, after dating for 2 weeks got drunk and berated me and my friends in my living room) and one perfectly lovely guy who i dated for a year. when that ended, i decided to trade in the e-dating for something more "organic" ... like coffee shop encounters, friends-of-friends, etc. hmm. well, 6 long months later, i went back to match and met my now live-in boyfreind/lover/SO (he's so boss; me=luckygirl).

moral of the story: uh, not sure. but if nothing else, it's an option, and one that can garner some pretty impressive results.

last word: hey - check it out. i had the most fun just seeing "what's out there". it can also be a nice ego booster when people express interest in you! (yay you!)

I'm thinking about giving it a go, but I dont really know... somehow it still feels kind of... defeatist I guess. I have free profiles on a couple of sites, but I cant make up my mind which site I want to join (ie - which one is likely to have the most girls around where I live on)

When I was single and bored, I would scan the online personals quite a bit. I sent out a bunch of emails, but never got many responses...
...until one day--and now we're getting ready to celebrate our fourth year of marriage!
I say give it a shot-it's not any different from meeting people any other way. In fact, you get to know each other a bit better than you would shouting over the noise at some bar.

There's an older thread on this somewhere. My wife and I met on webpersonals.com. I think it's called lavalife now. Worked for us.

No luck yet but then I haven't subscribed to any just browsing. I used Yahoo and the spring street sites. Who knows, this thread at least may provide some hope.

Maybe I'll give it a try once I get my shit together.

So far, I've gotten nowhere with match.com. Most recently, I heard from two women in the area. One turned out to be a twit who realized it and stopped e-mailing me. The other didn't have a profile I could read, but expected me to quiz her. I asked match.com why people could do that. I don't have an answer from them.

I've met most of the people I've dated through online personals. Met my wife there as well... I had some pretty decent luck... but I also met some people that just definately weren't for me.

I met a cool girl from a joke personal profile I set up, gooooooooooooooood times.

I had a few good sexual experiences off Match.com but never met anybody I was interested in dating.

Go for it, a friend of mine did it and ended up getting married to the girl. Whats to lose.

i don't mean to be mean or stereotypical but i was just curious what kind of women sign up for these personal ads? are they in general attractive, average, etc?

and yes i'm fully aware that looks aren't everything. Just wondering since i've never gone this route b4. And i apologize for anyone who is offended by my post..

online dating, or looking for love on the internet is similar to the hedonistic paradox. if you go out looking for love, you will find it, but it wont really be love. i think the internet dating can be helpful in meeting people, but you shouldnt let that be the only means of meet dates

Well, I got on Swissfriends a few days after I arrived in the country (Switzerland), and found the love of my life. That was in July 2002. I'm marrying her in May this year.

Swissfriends is really for people living in Switzerland, which has a very international population that comes and goes a lot, so it's a valid way of making contacts. There's a lot of really good quality, serious professionals who are looking for relationships, and the international community largely consists of women who are single, it seems. The ratio is something like 8:1 I believe.

Worth a try....

online personals are totally mainstream now...you'll meet the same kind of people you would meet at a show or the library or whatever, especially if you're in the 18-35 age group.

There's no reason why anyone would be offended by this.

Why don't you check it out, yourself? Most online dating services simply allow you to browse their database, without registration or payment. The idea is that you'll see that the database is full of people you'd like to meet but the only way to meet them is to sign up and so you will. That's the key to their success.

If you're simply looking for my opinion, there are plenty of attractive people on these services, just like in real life!


As a side note, technically, this thread belongs in Tilted Sexuality...

It worked for me alright, I found the most amazing woman through online personals.

We met up after 3 months of AIM/emails (we live 400 miles apart), spent a wonderful week together and things are looking good.

<b>Very</b> good in fact - the wedding's in February!

ive met some cool people and a couple of them are still friends. never had anything solid though. I'm really picky when it comes to relationships though. I need a more direct approach I guess.

I just started doing online personals through Spring Street Networks. It's been a strange experience. I've messaged a few girls, but rarely get replies from them. Whatever. However, one girl actually contacted <i>me</i> and she's actually hot. We're good friends (with benefits!!!) now. Wierd.

I'm still looking though, because I'm actually looking for a relationship with some kind of meaning, not just fuckbuddies. It's frustrating though, because being 22 years old, I've found most girls my age are looking for guys who are between 25-35.
I personally can't see why they want someone so much older than themselves. Mostly because it leaves me with nobody to date (unless I wanna hang outside the middle school and cruise for 8th graders).

The part that bothers me most, is who are these 30 year olds that are preying on 22 year olds? They <i>have</i> to be leches & perverts looking for an easy lay... & apparently that's what the girls want?

I'm so confused...

Maybe I should just wait till I'm 30 to date...

Yeah I'm 25 and find it hard to meet girls out of college looking for a real job. A lot of girls my age are either married or looking for a sugar daddy.

I have a friend who is 31 and dating a 21 year old. He's such a pimp.

Ummmm... so life is seriously FUCKED up. My friend, who I mentioned above just called me from California. She's pregnant. I've known her for a month. She was too drunk to really speak coherently, so I have to wait until tomorrow to get details.

Life is seriously fucked. Who the hell is in control here? I want to speak to the operations manager immediately.

dude im 19 and the same thing happens to me, and whats worse is im a young looking 19 year old (as in i look 16-17). The girls my age are looking for guys around 25, which sucks because im a first year uni student so theres no 17 year old chicks, which is about the age that I go for.

sorry guys, that'd be me... i'm 25 and have a date with an 18 year old tommorrow! (but... if i weren't still in college, i don't think i'd be willing to date soemone so young).

I tried matchmaker.com for a few months. This was a few years ago but I liked it. I met a few nice guys and went on some dates. Alos met some crazy people too. But overall it was fun.