Just coming off another thread, how many of you when you were single were set up/introduced to/hooked up - whatever you want to call it, with someone?
I think its a great idea because they know you, they know this other person, they know your both single and looking, so why not?
So say your best friend comes up to you and says “I’d like to introduce you to someone”.
If so how did it work out?
If not, would you want it?
A long time ago when I was single a kind of ex-lover of mine decided she didn’t think my then girlfriend was appropriate for me and told me she knew this women who would be far better for me. She was kind of blunt like that. I think that’s why she’s still my friend.
Some time later the ex invited me to a dinner to which my girlfriend pointedly wasn’t invited on some thin pretext and I was sat next to and pointedly introduced to this particular woman. She was OK I guess but wasn’t really my type. It was only afterward that I realised that my ex had been trying to set me up and that this was the women she had picked out for me. I’m kind of clueless about these things.
Actually it slightly bemused me that my ex thought that this woman would be appropriate for me; it gave me an insight into what sort of woman my ex thought I would like; which was quite substantially at odds with the sort of woman I actually do like.
I have had mothers try to fix me up with their daughters and daughters try to fix me up with their mothers. Nothing ever went past a few dates but no major disasters.
I’ve had several people discuss the idea with me over the years, only two ever followed through to an actual introduction. Neither really went anywhere.
I kind of like the idea in theory; the chance to extend my social circle is usually welcome, and if it works out, hooray! I think it’s tricky to pull off in practice, though. Details, and intent, matter. Is my friend doing me a favor by introducing me to a woman, or doing the woman a favor by introducing her to me? Either way seems to set up one person who should be grateful, and one who’s kinda slumming, which doesn’t seem like the best way to start a relationship.
Back in the '80s, I was in an open relationship with my ex. From the beginning, he had made it clear to me that he was not ready to settle down with one person, while I made it clear that I was happy just to be with him. So he saw other guys, and now and then encouraged me to do the same, though I didn’t.
Then one day he asked me what I thought of a personal ad in the local gay paper. I replied that the guy seemed to be very much my type, but I wouldn’t be responding. My ex then responded behind my back, in my name. So I wound up actually meeting the other guy. We had a couple of drinks together and chatted for a few hours, and that was the end of it. After my ex and I broke up, I tried to contact the other guy, but he had moved.
Then, just a few months later, I met my now-husband.
You usually learn more about the Introducer and how they view you vs. actually meeting someone who is a good fit.
I’d never had it work for me, but am decades past dating. I can think of two introductions that I set up: one couple is married with three kids, and the other couple slept together after that first date* and were FWB’s for a couple of years after than. Guess I read each situation okay 
*we double dated, then I and my then-fiancée split from them. The next time I saw the woman at work a day or so later, she thanked me. A lot
Update: I just searched for the guy in White Pages (fortunately he’s got a very unusual name, and I remember it after all these years). He’s living in a very posh community in upstate New York. Good for him! 
I went through that twice that I really remember. Neither time was bad but neither went much past the second date. It may be more me than the process, so to speak. I tend to be one of those who always preferred doing things for myself.
I haaaaaate when my friends do this to me, because then I feel extra pressure to force a connection with this guy that may or may not be there, because I know the matchmaker will be disappointed to hear things didn’t work out. And if these are good friends of mine, friends to whom I usually confide in when my relationships don’t work out, I feel too uncomfortable to complain to them about a guy that they know and like.
I had a friend tell me she knew someone who’d be perfect for me; I politely declined, mentioning that I wasn’t looking to get into a relationship at the time.
Rather a lot of time passed. I eventually asked her if her friend was still available.
“Yeah, that was me,” she explained.
No one ever did this for me. And I could have really used the help, too, for a really long time. Eventually I said, “Fuck you, Jobu. I do it myself.”
My wife and I met while working at the same company. As a result, we kept our dating relationship on the down-low. During that time, I had at least 4 different co-workers attempt to set us up.
Once that I recall.
The “perfect for me” was an admittedly cute and engaging 19-year old. I was 30ish.
We had lunch, and parted ways. No interest in dating someone who didn’t remember Adam-12 or Hurricane David.
A librarian friend in Albuquerque once mentioned trying to set me up with a co-worker of his but didn’t pursue it when I didn’t seem interested. Similarly, I was invited to dinner at some married friends’ home in Honolulu when the husband’s sister was visiting from the mainland. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but later it occurred to me they may have been putting out feelers for a possible hookup. Needless to say, nothing came of it if that was their intention, and I took up with the future Mrs. Siam Sam soon after anyway.
I wouldn’t be very comfortable with that sort of thing. Rather I prefer to make my own hookups and see what happens naturally. (Or did. Not these days, of course.)
When I was in college, I was an older student, as were those in my circle of friends. I wound up spending a lot of time with a couple - he was in the same major that I was and his wife was a very sweet person.
I graduated a semester before he did, and as I was packing to leave, the wife said “You know what? We should have introduced her to <guy>!”
Yeah, I’m about to move 700 miles away. Thanks! 
A few years later, (early 80s, so pre-email) when we were living in separate states within a couple of hundred miles of each other, they fixed me up with a guy who came to see me and took me to a movie. Afterwards, he confessed that he wasn’t supposed to have left his state as he was awaiting trial for attempted murder. :eek: Apparently, he was going to kill his boss’ wife for cash, but he ended up being arrested. A week later, I got a letter from my friends telling me not to see this guy. Um, a little late there…
Anyway, he did a plea deal to rat out his boss in exchange for a lesser sentence in a prison out of state. While incarcerated, he wrote to me to apologize - apparently he’d gotten religion in the interim. I don’t think I ever answered his letter, and that was the end of that.
Years ago, I thought about fixing up a friend of mine with a coworker. Good thing I didn’t - I found out later that he was gay. That would have been awkward.
Back when I was single my best friend introduced me to someone he wanted me to meet. Turns out she had just come out and was worried that straight guys would react differently to her in social settings. I was one of the test subjects.
He’s still my best friend, but I made it clear I never wanted him to introduce me to anyone, ever again.
My wife introduced a friend of hers to one of my long-time friends. She invited them to our house for dinner. We had the dinner and our respective friends chatted, but nothing ever came of it.
In the early 1990’s, when Mrs and I were just dating, I used to do computer tutoring for a Korean family’s children. The mother really liked me and tried to set me up with her niece who was my age and still lived in Korea. As she put it, “She’s really beautiful and she would be perfect for you. You two could get married and open a store here in town, and Korean women are the BEST lovers too.”
I politely declined.
no. I’m not a “go out and meet people” person, and such a situation would make me rather uncomfortable.
Just reading the OP makes me vaguely sick to my stomach.