# Has something like "SDMB Personals" ever been tried? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 31, 2016, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-something-like-sdmb-personals-ever-been-tried/775944 "2016-12-31T01:22:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lee\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aeb1de/32.png) [@Lee\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lee_Q)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-something-like-sdmb-personals-ever-been-tried/775944/41 "2017-01-03T03:34:53Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > I’ll take the opportunity here (as I often do when I see a post referring to that somewhat moribund portrait gallery) to remind everyone that they can (and should, IMO) put their picture in their user profile for everyone to see. I really, really, encourage everyone to do this. I want to start a movement to get this going! Maybe more people try to do this than you think, but they get the same message I just got when I tried: \*Lee Q., you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons: Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else’s post, access administrative features or some other privileged system? If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.\* As for your own picture, Nice tail. Who’s the guy holding up your pic? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lee\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aeb1de/32.png) [@Lee\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lee_Q)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-something-like-sdmb-personals-ever-been-tried/775944/42 "2017-01-03T03:40:02Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I’ve met dopers in five states and on two continents. > > Any place where you don’t even know what gender people are doesn’t really lend itself to personals and dating. Yeah but is that really a problem of the _ **place** _, or of individuals just opting not to state their gender? Or maybe they just haven’t thought about it one way or another and the nature of their regular posting doesn’t make it clear one way or another. That’s one of the differences with a personals profile vs. a “profile” as it’s configured here. With personals, one is actively prompted for gender. ---
**Author:** ![Lee\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aeb1de/32.png) [@Lee\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lee_Q)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-something-like-sdmb-personals-ever-been-tried/775944/43 "2017-01-03T03:46:56Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > There is a Marketplace forum. Wouldn’t personal ads go there? I can’t tell if you’re mocking my earnest inquiry (so very earnest) or questioning my virtue :eek: but I assure you that what I both seek and offer has value far beyond the reaches of mere crass capitalism. Yadda yadda, something about exchange rates… ---
**Author:** ![Lee\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aeb1de/32.png) [@Lee\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lee_Q)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-something-like-sdmb-personals-ever-been-tried/775944/44 "2017-01-03T03:48:29Z")
> [@bare](#): > > Heh. > > I’ve tried to lure worthy gals to the Straight Dope over the years. In every case, they took one look and went, pfft!, never to be seen again. It’s like they think they’ll get addicted or something. Or maybe it just means you mistook for \*\*worthy \*\*gals some what weren’t. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-something-like-sdmb-personals-ever-been-tried/775944/45 "2017-01-03T05:10:35Z")
> [@Lee\_Q](#): > > I was thinking that in terms of user base in this context, quality might matter more than quantity. It’s cool that you and others have made friends here that’ve carried over. > > Having started this thread, I guess I should say that with one exception, I’ve never even attempted to private message another user here. For all I know, that would work splendidly and obviate any need for a dedicated personals section. > [@Lee\_Q](#): > > Romantic, or just efficient?🙂 > > In seriousness, you hit upon my exact reasoning in asking the question, and why it occurred to me in the first place. Not to use too broad a brush, as I’m sure it’s not true of every single person here, but part of what seems to make this place what it is has to do with people gravitating here because they’re interested in ideas. The world, other people, the occasional MPSIMS. That’s exactly the type person I most enjoy and want to spend time with, not just friendship but also close/intimate/relationship time. > > So, yeah, if you ask me, the **only** time it’s really nice being social is _exactly_ when it’s with someone you can also exchange ideas with. > > Efficient romantics of the world, unite! Or, you know, pair off… 😃 Assume for the moment that all members of this board are interested in ideas, the world, and other people. That doesn’t mean that all people who are interested in ideas, the world, and other people are members here. So you could look here and hope to find a partner with your desired gender, age, and location, or you could look on a more traditional personals site, filter by gender, age, and location, and hope to find someone with compatible ideas. Or both. > [@Lee\_Q](#): > > Yeah but is that really a problem of the _ **place** _, or of individuals just opting not to state their gender? Or maybe they just haven’t thought about it one way or another and the nature of their regular posting doesn’t make it clear one way or another. > That’s one of the differences with a personals profile vs. a “profile” as it’s configured here. With personals, one is actively prompted for gender. I haven’t really noticed anyone here keeping their gender a secret, it’s just that with the nature of the discussions here it tends not to come up all that often. If this place is about ideas, then the ideas should be able to stand on their own apart from the person who posts them. Personally, even when people do post their genders, I tend not to remember them very well. I’m that way in other contexts, too. I’ve had friends tell me about their friends and family, and I’ll remember the stories but not always associate them with the person they’re about. I think I need some direct, real-time exposure to someone to start to build a mental image of who they are. Once I have that I can start to remember details about them. For me, interacting by text is quite different from interacting in person. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-something-like-sdmb-personals-ever-been-tried/775944/46 "2017-01-03T16:08:04Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > I’m in a part of the country pretty heavy in members and we haven’t had a Dopefest since 2005 or earlier; any I’ve attended have been at least a 2 hour drive. Of course, for a while there it felt like the Dopefests were turning into single mixers and pick-up opportunities (at least in my neck of the woods). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-something-like-sdmb-personals-ever-been-tried/775944/47 "2017-01-03T18:51:37Z")
> [@Lee\_Q](#): > > Maybe more people try to do this than you think, but they get the same message I just got when I tried: > > \*Lee Q., you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons: > > Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else’s post, access administrative features or some other privileged system? > > If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.\* > > As for your own picture, Nice tail. Who’s the guy holding up your pic? 😉 I think you need to be a paying member to have the ability to set a profile pic. Your current status of Guest doesn’t have that right. ---
**Author:** ![Lee\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aeb1de/32.png) [@Lee\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lee_Q)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-something-like-sdmb-personals-ever-been-tried/775944/48 "2017-01-04T03:48:26Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I think you need to be a paying member to have the ability to set a profile pic. > > Your current status of Guest doesn’t have that right. Thanks. I didn’t even know “paying member” was a thing. Yeah, I haven’t read every word of the FAQs and so forth. Guilty, guilty, guilty. OTOH, the guy who made the suggestion upthread is listed as a Charter Member and apparently he wasn’t aware either, so I guess I shouldn’t feel too bad as a newbie to not have known this. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-something-like-sdmb-personals-ever-been-tried/775944/49 "2017-01-04T15:29:41Z")
Nothing to be guilty about. Most of us learn by osmosis, not by reading the directions. From the “user CP” link at the top you can access a variety of links including (at the very bottom) “paid subscriptions”. The main benefits are 1) no ads are served to your browser; and 2) you can access the built-in search facility. vBulletin search is kinda crappy, but has more insight into the board’s structure than does the alternative: Google/Bing/Etc searching within the domain “[boards.straightdope.com](http://boards.straightdope.com)”. There are a couple of ancillary benefits besides. Including putting a picture in your profile. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-something-like-sdmb-personals-ever-been-tried/775944.md?page=2)