TheRealCallie said:
I disagree with this. Online dating is a good experience, because it gives you just that...experience. Whether that is experience in handling rejection or talking to people, doesn't matter, it helps people get their balance on how to deal with it.
Also, it is NOT just for good looking or interesting people. There are plenty of....well, the opposite, I guess, on there. However, what is deemed interesting and good looking to one person, won't be to the next person.
It does give you experience... but it can be very painful for folks like myself who have very little if any real life experience. It's like for most of your life (or mine, in this case) you take little initiative to have a social life, you never approach women due to low confidence and fear of rejection... and therefore can say to yourself "well, maybe if I had actually tried, things would have been different, I might have had a few relationships." By not trying, you get to keep your self-esteem up, but in a shaky way. This was what I did and it worked. Also what helped.. I have had a few occasions here and there in real life where girls would act interested, give off some surefire flirty signals, and I'm also fairly certain I've got average or better looks.
Well then you get to the dating site and your response rate is about 1 for every 10, of those rare times you get more than 2 responses from the same girl, you then ask "would you like to email" and nothing or.. "I'd rather not." All at once now, your self-esteem starts to shatter, and you begin to think.. had you actually tried in real life, maybe the results would be the same, as in indifference or simply rejection. So.. this is what really hurt, and just this one short experience on that site, has put my self-image into flux again.. uncertain of my worth, and perhaps less likely to try in real life now, than before.
The moral of the story then, I suppose, is if you have no experience out in the field (real life).. perhaps you should not get on a dating site. Perhaps real life experience is the best way to start. If you decide to have a go anyway: it's as I've said, a masochistic temperament is necessary, otherwise it could be damaging. Had I gone into it somehow believing women ignoring me or not replying is a wonderful thing, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad... so, mind games for yourself are a must.
TheRealCallie said:
Considering the massive number of dating sites, some with very specific criteria, I find it hard to believe anyone couldn't find success on at least one of them. They have them for farmers, Christians, fetishes, races and everything else you could probably think of.
And if all else fails, you could try the paid ones.
This guy I mentioned said he had tried many sites over the years and not received even ONE reply, even with getting help for his profile. It boggled my mind. If the guy was telling the truth (and who would lie about this?) then the fact of the matter is, that's not going to be helpful for anyone's self-worth. So.. a cautionary statement for all.
VeganAtheist said:
My experience hasn't been that bad and I am not very attractive nor do I have an impressive life. My profile isn't amazing or professionally written. It isn't well written at all. And I tend to be attracted to women who generally wouldn't date someone like me. But I have had some success.
Well, I might also say, my "basic crap" wasn't together.. as in, I didn't have some of the things women generally expect every man to have.. and thus could not in my right mind lie about it. So what I did instead was I omitted some of that information, or gave obscure answers. Which is better than stating the undesirable truth, but I guess perhaps women still caught on to it.
It does make me wonder though.. does it make much difference to a woman if you give an obscure answer for employment, or if you say you make only $20K (or even less) per year? The realist in me says it's possible both the "skillful omission" and the 20K guys would get the same response, and a depressing possibility comes into my mind just now.. I wonder if the 20K would get even less responses!
My looks are not the bottleneck... I believe it was what I had to say for myself: very little. That was probably the biggest problem in terms of my profile.