I have to say my experience was pretty good, as I am engaged to the 4th man I met through okCupid. I really like OkCupid's ability to match you with someone based on criteria you set. I did have one glitch with online dating, though. In an introductory email, I told this guy that I am a psychologist. He replied that he was a paranoid schizophrenic. I thought he was kidding. Turns out not so much. I'll share my most recent one, which was about two years ago. I dated a girl who had borderline personality disorder BPD. One minute she would be Jekyll, and the next minute she would be Hyde. I only dated her for about a month, and I have to say that it was the most exhausting month of my life. However, I met my current girlfriend through her. It's funny because I caught myself checking her out when I was dating the BPD girl. Online dating never worked for me. I've met too many crazies. I was only on it for a week or two. Then I bit the bullet and signed up with eHarmony. I had one date with another nice guy who wasn't my cup of tea, a date in which neither of us liked the other, a date with a guy who I hung out with a few more times... My OKCupid find just wandered into the bedroom of our new apartment and offered to make me breakfast and a cup of coffee... I approached it systematically, sending messages daily and arranging 3-6 dates a week. In my thinking, the more people you meet, the more likely that one of them is likely to be a compatible partner. I think it's also important with online dates to avoid placing too much hope in any one person until you've had some time to get to know them, and it's easier to do that when you have a lot of balls in the air. It was sometimes exhausting, but sometimes you have to just keep on at it. I found my guy within two months, but of course a lot of that is just luck. I met my boyfriend on Match. There were a few interesting experiences on Match before I met my boyfriend: One nice but boring guy who I went out with a few times before we decided it wasn't going anywhere. A handful of guys who I emailed regularly but never actually met. One guy who I tried to meet in person but he had to cancel once, I had to cancel the next time, and we never tried the third time. One guy who wanted me to move in with him and raise his kids before we had even met. Modern Master, I'd encourage you to keep trying. You just never know. Gotta kiss a few frogs sometimes. I've only ever had horrible experiences with it that have never made any sense to me. I do so well when I meet people the old fashioned way and had utterly no luck with traditional online dating sites. I've actually tried a few casual sex sites and been so annoyed that women looking for meaningless sex are so much better at having an online conversation than supposedly normal women on regular sites are. Since I never really have had a problem meeting women off-line I decided to swear it off forever. For what it's worth, I acknowledge my experience is atypical. I went on Match. Was on for a little more than a month. Had a few contacts that went nowhere. Then went on one date. Seemed to hit it off. It was her first Match date too. We have been dating for about 2 years now and I don't plan on dating anyone else ever. I'm a guy btw. I think the experiences will be different between men and women. If you're very picky like I am, the online sites are very effective in eliminating whole categories of women you're never going to get along with. I've advertised myself as being extremely intolerant of pets, religion, children under 18, women from New Jersey, women who don't appreciate modern art, women who don't drive, Republicans, and several other qualities, and so I've gotten few inquiries from women in these categories. I met men who were technically okay, that is, good looking, smart and kind, but there was no real connection in person. I met one guy who was so effing funny fwiw, the fastest way to make me like you is to be hilarious that I was looking forward to our date --and I never look forward to online dates-- yet face to face, whatever chemistry we had via e-mail had evaporated in person. I really don't get what people have against meeting people in real life. I hate to seem like your grandmother with her Jitterbug cell phone, yelling about how in the old days the trolley used to cost a nickel, but can't we agree that in-person chemistry matters 100x more than some website's compatibility score or if you have the same favorite bands in common? None of that shit actually matters when it comes down to how you feel about each other when you're having actual face time. My current boy I met in person, and it was easy to know if I'd like him by hanging out, because I met him by hanging out. Met one nice woman, got together with her twice, fun but nothing more due at least partly to distance. Met another extremely nice woman and am utterly besotted, and she with me. Only 7 months so far, but I'm anticipating it being much longer. I still find it amazing that a dating site was able to match me with someone so right. I always assumed online dating was an admission of failure. I recoiled when others suggested it. I actually had no idea it wasn't stigmatized. I eventually gave it a try, because I was sick of being dateless for years at a time. I was sorely disappointed when I sent out a bunch of messages to women, and got no responses. They often looked at my profile, and decided not to respond. Eventually I rewrot
