Many, many moons ago, before I joined AOL, I belonged to a BBS called Matchmaker. I just stopped by their website, to see what things were like these days. They have made a lot of changes over the years and their site is excellent! It is cool even if you aren’t looking to hook up with someone, I actually made several good friends from that place when I used to participate there. One of them is the one who is taking me skiing next month. Only problem is, after a trial membership, you have to pay, about 12 bucks a month. Anyway, if anyone is interested, the site can be found at www.matchmaker.com
Wait a minute. You went to a matchmaker site? This is Michelle we’re talking about here!
An infinite number of rednecks in an infinite number of pickup trucks shooting an infinite number of shotguns at an infinite number of road signs will eventually produce all the world’s great works of literature in Braille.
Yeah, Michelle the Cat Lady. Anyway, I am not looking to hook up with anyone from there, although a few guys did write to me and if the pics they have posted are truthful, some of them are really cute! 
American Singles used to be free and I tried it, but it didn’t work for me. I just refuse to pay for any net matchmaking service. Takes the fun out of it.
Matchmaker services online are great for women’s self esteem and horrid for males. Much like the rest of the net, only moreso. A female friend of mine without a pic got about 10 new responses a day on MM. I got 3-4 total in the month I was there, even with my best pic up. Of the women I wrote, half didn’t write back and half were so full of themselves that it wasn’t worth talking to them… once a girl gets that much male attention, it just isn’t worth trying to get her.
(I’m sure this is true in the reverse, but I don’t have any personal experience to back it up)
http://www.madpoet.com
Computers have let mankind make mistakes faster than any other invention, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns.
I joined one called friendfinder after being encouraged by a friend. This is not my type of thing but I did it to show her it wouldnt work.
I got 11 responses - 8 were married looking for playmates, 2 were married and had the usual… its an awful marriage, poor me routine down pat, 1 seemed nice and we just corresponded for a bit.
I think I definitely proved my point that this wasnt for me. I do however, work with a girl who met and married a fella she met in the personals.
We are, each of us angels with only one wing,and we can only fly by embracing one another
Excite.com offers totally free personals. Just FYI.
–
Teeming Millions: http://fathom.org/teemingmillions
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
The problem with free personals is that there are about 20 guys for every girl. The problem is only slightly less pronounced in the fee’d personals. I’ve been a member of chicago.matchmaker and alt.matchmaker (somewhat more interesting) and had no luck with either. There’s nothing wrong with me, but there’s so much crap to wade through that it’s almost useless. Don’t even get me started on the cleverly disguised porno-spam.
Everything looks better in black and white – Paul Simon
Because at least 19 of the 20 are probably types who use opening lines such as :
“What are you wearing?”
“What’s your bra size?”
or worse
My favourite is still… Oooh I love older women… great compliment eh?
We are, each of us angels with only one wing,and we can only fly by embracing one another
my neighbor showed me one-and-only.com. Lots of ads & pics. You have to pay only if you want to respond. One thing I noticed on each ad, NO DATE! Like when the ad was posted. I guess they just leave them up forever to make it look like there are a lot of people!
Still, we sure got lots of laughs reading them. She showed me some of the guys who wrote back, and they are just really old! One guy even wrote in his first message about ‘volcanic heat of passion.’ Lol.
“Oh, dear… I seem to have had a minor eruption in my pants…” (trundles off to change underwear…)
JMCJ
Just confirming that my ass is, in fact, the wisest part of my body.
Is this the same Matchmaker.com that I completely found useless due to their stupid questions?
“Do you wear glasses? How would you describe them?”
“Have you ever had an experience?” (or something like that). And if you can explain that, please do.
And they had no categories for religion. Take the most fundamental type of difference people could have and treat it almost like it doesn’t exist. Duhhhhhhh.
But I did use Match.com, and a christian one at cybergrace.com, and met my now friend there. And unless I miss my guess at this “advanced” age (30), I can let you all know a date to fly out for the wedding by about next Dec.
Horray for the web!!! It does have its uses.
That should be g-friend, of course…
Dave Sweeny–you are not describing the same Matchmaker as the one that I just checked out.
Anyway, let me clarify a few things here–I used to belong to Match Maker about 6 years ago, before they went on the net. There was an established gourp of REGS there, all living in my area, and we would get togethr as a large group once a week. We had a blast! I am still friends with most of the people I met from MM. In fact, the guy who is taking me skiing next month was someone I met from MM.
I just re-joined to see what the system was like 6 years later. I have gotten a ton of mail, and so far only ONE was sexual in nature, and it was rather tame-an invitation to a hot tub. Most of the guys who have written me are just making small talk, not pressuring me to meet them or anything like that. it seems very casual to me. I am actually having some intelligent conversations with people other than the SDMB people! Can ya believe it??? I probably will not stay on the system once my free tiral is over. Instead, if there are any guys there that I want to continue talking to, they can e-mail me at my AOL address.
MM is fun, and I just thought I’d post the link for anyone who might be interested.
The Matchmaker!!! Yes, I remember them, as a text-only BBS that had a truly GREAT intro quiz.
Theoretically, I still have an ad and an email address there, since at that time anything one entered was not supposed to expire unless the user logged on and nuked it themselves.
Designated Optional Signature at Bottom of Post