Interesting. (And I’ll admit that it’s true for this woman: 5’5 - 6’3, please. :))
Meh, you don’t get any points for that one: as you said, it’s from last year (the post is 10 months old, and at the time it had been 7 months since I’d read the book). There’s a difference between everyone claiming that the last thing they read was the latest bestseller, and everyone claiming that the last thing they read was last year’s bestseller (and it might even be closer to being 2003’s bestseller, because I know that I heard about it for a long time before I read it). I still see tons of profiles listing that book as “last read.” So they either a) really haven’t read anything since last year, b) haven’t bothered to update their profile in the past year, or c) don’t read books at all, but that’s the last one they heard of and they don’t want to seem illiterate. Whatever the case, seeing The Da Vinci Code as a guy’s “last read” bugs me more than if he’d just left that field blank.
Damned robosexuals … next thing you know, they’re going to want their own parade! :mad:
With the generic, mid-twentysomething American hotties looking for anything between the ages of 18 and 50 with a pulse and a penis, it’s probably to pitch a porn or pay site.
“Hey, I don’t check my mail at Match that often, but you can find my profile under the same name at SingleHottiez.biz.” VisitSingleHottiez.biz or whatever, and you’ll probably your admirer’s profile – but you can’t contact her unless you fork over some cash and become a member.
Like I said, a man that isn’t very Web-savvy might fall for this. Men don’t really have meny wmen writing to them on match.com, so when they get just a litle bit of attention, a few might be so naive and eager as to actually plunk down $20 for what may seem like a sure thing.
The site that ripped my profile was a pay site. If they appear to have more girls on their website, then more guys are going to be willing to fork out money to try and hook up with the girls.
Especially if they’re ripping off profiles as good as yours.
Personally, I’ve gotten identically worded messages two or three times on Friendster, but from different users and including different e-mail addresses. They were actually quite well-written and without an obvious motive (though I suppose I could reply and find out). If they hadn’t arrived within a week of each other (I don’t check Friendster very often), I probably would have thought they were legit.
Also, a friend of mine on Lavalife got an e-mail to the tune of, “I have more pictures on this site. You have to register, but registration is free.” I think it was one of those services that requires a CC as “age verification” but will either a) charge your card if you don’t cancel before X days have passed, or b) send your CC# to the Russian mafia. (Too bad for my friend; the girl in the picture was kind of cute.)
Maybe I’m missing something, but is there something hideously wrong with that email, aside from it being very short and to the point? Honestly, I think that “you look interesting, but please check my profile because I already spent a lot of effort so that it gives a good impression of who I am, so you might as well read it right now before I put any further potentially wasted effort into writing you an actual personalized email which, if you don’t like my profile, you’ll just ignore anyhow” is a perfectly reasonable message to communicate.
Oops, my bad for thinking that what I didn’t like about it would be obvious. I’m usually pretty good about remembering to take other interpretations and points of view into account, but every now and then I slip and forget that not everyone thinks like me. Sorry!
Here’s what I didn’t like: [ul][li]He talked about me in the third person (how is that not annoying?).[/li][li]“I like that” was a dumb thing to say: obviously he liked my profile, or he wouldn’t have written. It also seemed a little … I don’t know … condescending? Arrogant? Something about it bugged me, and it’s something I thought would be obvious to others. Again, my bad.[/li][li]The commands to check his profile and then write back to him were too much. There’s confident and there’s cocky, and that was cocky. [/li][li]He completely ignored both of the parts of my profile that say I’m looking for guys who live nearby (he could have at least acknowledged it, with something like “I know I’m too far away, but I liked your profile…”).[/ul][/li]Basically, every part of that “short and to the point” message rubbed me entirely the wrong way.
First, I don’t think that’s the message his e-mail communicated. To me, his e-mail said “I’m lazy and arrogant.” If he just wanted to say “I like you, check me out” he should have winked. Is mentioning at least one specific thing from my profile that he liked really too much to expect?
Second, I don’t think that’s a perfectly reasonable message to communicate. How is it “potentially wasted effort” to personalize the first message you send to someone? It’s what separates e-mails from winks, and it’s what first messages are all about! Also, I know from experience that a lot of people on Match.com ignore messages from people they aren’t interested in, but an e-mail that reflects that assumption is too cynical for my taste. (FTR, I reply to everyone who writes to me – I even replied to the guy in question.)
I use Myspace.com a little bit with my real life friends, and I’ve gotten several messages from bots. I’ll check after receiving a notification e-mail, and often they’ve already been deleted.
I did get one that amused me:
“Heya, I really like your pic, you are cute! Please look at my profile, and tell me what you think.” The profile was a scantily clad young woman.
This is amusing because:
1.) I am female. My first name is on the site and is obviously female.
2.) I had no picture up at the time.
