Cupid's Pudding

"The proof of the pudding is in the eating".

Four years ago, several people told me I should try online dating. Two of them were female friends; another was an acquaintance who had 2 female friends who had found love online.
In retrospect, I should have noticed that these were all women. But at the time, I figured that meant online dating was finally attracting women as well as men.

Never one to do things half-hearted, I tried two paid services and two free ones. I lost count of the number of women I contacted, but it was a lot.

Result: 4 reactions.

One woman wrote back once, I wrote her back and never heard from her since.
Two women hit the "Sorry, not interested" button.
The last one wrote back to tell me that yes, we did have a lot in common - but she'd just met a great guy on that site.

That last woman had been on that site for less than a *week*.


Only later did I realize why these things happened.
Women on dating sites are a minority. So they get flooded with messages. One of the female friends mentioned earlier told me she got on average 7 (!) messages a day.
Also, dating sites encourage people to make profiles for free - profiles they forget about, but the site can keep them practically forever to show how "many" members they have.

These are a few of the reasons why these dating sites failed to work. I could think of more reasons, but I'm sure they will be discussed in comments and future posts anyway.

So, I had tried online dating. Proof of the pudding is in the eating, and Cupid's online pudding tasted horrible.

But lately, people around me have started to talk about online dating again. I even know a *guy* who met his girlfriend on a dating site, and she's actually a fun girl!

I started thinking about this. Four years is a long time, and things change - especially on the internet. Maybe I should give online dating a second chance?

On the other hand, one definition of foolishness is to try the same thing and expect different results.

So here's the plan: I am going to see what is new in online dating.
I will not waste time on the sites I have already tried; I looked at them again before starting this. Their basic operation is still the same tried-and-disproven technology.
Instead, I will look at the more creative web services for finding Miss Right.

This blog will be a firsthand account of my exploration of innovative dating services.

Let's see if Cupid's recipe for pudding has improved!