The Ongoing Online Dating Advice Thread

You’ve already sent two messages that she didn’t respond to, right? If she’s got a new profile, she probably checked out yours because you were one of the first guys to message her. Personally I’d let it go- three messages is a bit much- but you’re right, there isn’t much she can do beyond just ignore you again.

Yeah, if the first two didn’t do anything, I’d probably let it be. I was planning on send Ms. Perfect Match another message after the weekend if she hadn’t responded, taking a different tone than the first message. Or would have, if she didn’t decide to kill her profile. :frowning:

Thanks. OK, I’ll try that … http://www.okcupid.com/profile/WingedSaboteur

I hate all this courtship stuff. This is one person that I wish I could just an email that say “Uhhhh. Drool” Seriously, She’s got the body type I like, the hair I like, from what I can tell she’s got the personality and family values I like and plenty more things. She’s also got what Simon Cowell would call “the X factor” she appears to be the type of person that would light up a room when she walks into it.

Quick skim looked pretty good. One thing that I liked is the introverted statement. A LOT of people think they’re introverted, but the comment about silence tells me you probably mean introverted as opposed to shy…the two are NOT interchangeable (take it from someone who is introverted). Now, add a few more pictures including one that shows your whole body (if you have a decent picture like that). The next thing to do is to answer or explain more quiz questions and take some of the tests. They’re stupid and basically meaningless, but at least kinda fun and if you get a result you don’t like you can just go and delete it. But in the mean time, each time you change your profile, answer a question, explain a question or take a quiz you show up on peoples home page. You’ll find that if you, for example, answer a handful of questions you’ll suddenly have a bunch of visitors to your page.

So I take it IMing her would be out also :smiley:

Actually I would never IM someone without them asking me to.

I’m just going to keep telling myself she’s working on the email. I’m so stunning she just can’t find the right words to use for fear of scaring me off.

Looks good. I tend to prefer longer, more detailed profiles, but what you have there says a lot by itself, like “I text in complete sentences.” :slight_smile: Were it not for the age and location, I’d probably try to get a conversation going.

Edit: Yes, more pictures are good, especially if you can do whole-body ones. It’s not a fat chick check; having a full body shot says you’re comfortable with yourself and helps people get a better idea of what you’re like. Tight framed faces never tell the whole story. I need to get a full body of myself; as it is, all that can be seen about my picture is the near-double chin, and that’s not cool.

I feel for you, man.

That’s good. The two times I’ve been IM’d without provocation (both times by people I wasn’t interested in- probably would have felt differently if I had been) I felt put on the spot and wound up ignoring them. I felt like a monumental dick but there you go.

Don’t worry, that’s why more women don’t respond to me. I scare them off with my amazing good looks.

More pictures would be good, but that picture could substitute for a full body shot if you don’t have one. Unless you’re pear shaped, I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of what you look like based on that one. There’s one girl I’ve run across a few times that some how managed the FGAS even with some of the pictures being waist up. Didn’t look on purpose either. She appeared to be completely comfortable in her own skin, but I saw that last picture and I was quite surprised. And it’s not just that guys are worried that the face only picture is a FGAS, it’s just that we want to see what you look like. With only a few hundred words to explain yourself, and frankly, the few hundred words on one profile are typically the same as every other profile so seeing what someone looks like is pretty important and I think says at least as much as what’s in your profile, if not more.

And for those of you not familiar with the FGAS, here’s the most common one.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/thumb/c/c5/FGAS_plus_Crop.jpg/1000px-FGAS_plus_Crop.jpg&imgrefurl=http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Fat_Girl_Angle_Shot&usg=__fjp64Sme8SUZLESlUi8XC2iA8Q0=&h=320&w=1000&sz=70&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=uw0E9JioQNlmiM:&tbnh=59&tbnw=183&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfgas%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D585%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=61&vpy=144&dur=813&hovh=127&hovw=397&tx=202&ty=51&ei=nI6VTNO7LYnInAeXgZ2qBw&oei=nI6VTNO7LYnInAeXgZ2qBw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

I know you meant to link to the pic but Google Images is being retarded and showing the source site as well. Result: You get a glimpse of a girl with a flashlight in her anus. Might want to spoiler Encyclopedia Dramatica links. :smiley:

Weird. I’m just getting the pic.

Well, if anyone can’t see it, just google image search FGAS.

I just re-read perfect girls new profile. Wow, her grammar went down the crapper. But still…if she e-mails me, I’d still be thrilled…

I wonder what has been going on behind the curtain at OKCupid in the last year?

It used to be that most matches for me were in the 60s and 70s, with only the occasional high % match. Then I wandered off for a year, only to come back to find most matches in the mid to high 90s. I didn’t change anything on my profile, or answer more questions or write more tests in the intervening time.

I wonder if it is proof that there is a god?

Aaaand, she just uploaded a slew of new pictures…so tempted.

Nah, just that they’re doing weird things with the algorithm. Same with me, and I got match percentages that jumped almost 10 points with guys I knew who hadn’t edited their profiles, either.

It’s not in OKC’s best interest to have you only see 60-70%, so they’re tweaking the numbers to inflate them. Makes sense.

Personally, I find I’m not looking at the Match or Friend ratings so much as the Enemy rating, and anything below 10% makes me sit up and take notice. The thing is, I can get along with most anybody save those who I just can’t compromise on, like smokers or highly religious people. So while decent matches might waver between 70-100% and still be interesting, people who get higher than 20% Enemy are likely to not be someone who’d be interested in me or vice versa.

I see the “staying at home” answer on the Friday night question all the time. I’m not what age group you’re after, but mine are in the 22 to 30 range. In any case she’s hardly unique in this. There will be others. Many others. The odds are in your favor, my friend, and it only takes one.

I’ve done what you’re doing over and over. I’ve found an incredible profile. Well-written, similar interests, even the more esoteric ones, and an overall style that gets me swooning and (the kicker) gorgeous pictures! “NO WAY”, says I. “Perfect!” Things get a little blurry as my mind suddenly becomes flush with idyllic visions of riding bikes with this vixen along the pristine coasts of Malaysia at sunset. Then visions of secluded sex on the shore of a deserted island in the Indian Ocean are all tip-tip-tappin away in my happy head. So I send a message. Great opening, knocked it out of the park. Then I added just enough witty humor in with a bit of my own personal interests and the things we have in common. She’s obviously a mega athlete so I sneak in a remark commenting on how strong and fit she looks in her bicycle picture, and express my fear that she will completely emasculate me on the trail. But hey, I wouldn’t mind a good workout with some good company. Perhaps she could toss me a few pointers. More visions of couples’ bike rides up striking mountain trails where the air all smells of Lilacs and pine… and LOOOVE. We find a field to lie together and stare up at the sky, arguing over which animal-shaped cloud could win. She leans over and stops just short of kissing me, so that later she can tell everyone that I made the first move. It works.

Sadly, as these things sometimes go, no response. She looked at my profile. It’s a pretty accurate assessment of who I am so no problems there, and then… nothing.

So I try again. I make mention of my first letter. Remark that a beautiful girl like her probably gets so many messages that she doesn’t have time to read even the super awesome ones like mine. I (tongue-in-cheek) offer to help her screen her incoming messages from what are undoubtedly thousands of admires and filter out the douchebags for her. But anyway, she should really read mine because I think we have a very real potential of becoming great friends.

And then… nothing. My visions of exquisite tropical bike rides off the coasts of Asia turn to solo trudges through littered beaches in the rain, dragging long sad lines in the dirty sand with the flip that wasn’t carried away by the cruel, cruel, sea.

And that’s that. So what happened?

Well, nothing. She likely just didn’t find me intriguing or attractive enough to warrant further conversation. Fair enough. She’s not exactly in exclusive company. Not messaging back, well, it’s kinda rude, I usually try to get back to everyone who messages me, even if there is zero romantic interest there, but I forgive her. Women get a hundred-fold more messages than guys so it’s easier for me to stay of top of them (heh). I bear her no ill will, these things happen. And would you look at THAT! Why just a click away I see a blond russian kick-boxer chick with a killer body who loves Douglas Adams and Horror movies, graduated from college and has a great job, makes a ton of money and is interested in traveling the world with a new friend (possibly more) on her dime. They just keep on coming, my friend.

So, I hate to say it (and it’s been said before, but it’s worth a repeat… or six) but the object of your perfection hasn’t gotten back to you by now, it just ain’t gonna happen and anything you do from here is only going to hurt your cause further. You’ve sent her two messages already that were not returned. Any further contact is teetering dangerously close to creeper territory. I’m not saying anything about you personally; persistence is normally viewed as a positive by women in the real world. It’s just that girls online tend to be super wary of internet stalking and it’s a huge deal-killer (I’ve been told this by enough female friends to give it serious consideration). Plus you’ve likely built her up so much in your head that she could only be disappointing to you in real life. There are so many other potential “perfect girls” out there it’s not even funny.

And you’re a clever dude. I don’t know much about you personally and I haven’t seen your OKC profile but my limited contact with your posts here on the Dope give me confidence that you shouldn’t have a problem landing a winner. Like a quarterback, your main receiver is covered (or walking off the field entirely). You don’t keep flinging balls at his back hoping he will catch one and be grateful to you for throwing so many. You just move on to the next receiver. And there are literally THOUSANDS of them! That’s how you score, my friend!

(sorry, it’s Football day and I’m excited :wink: )

I’d seriously just block her profile entirely so you’re not even tempted.

Beyond the fact that she’s impolitely ignoring your (I’m assuming) clever, well-intended messages?

Well, I wasn’t going to say anything but I just read somewhere scientific and credible that she recently contracted a dangerous brand new strain of a Super-Mega STD that, while totally dormant in women, will cause both the penis and testicles of any unfortunate male to turn neon green, shrivel up into themselves and then explode in an incredible testicular-penis supernova. Oddest part is, the disease is not necessarily contracted from penetration itself. Seems it can also be transmitted through an unknown telekinetic pathway, meaning that if you even THINK about sex in any capacity while in the presence of this girl, it will make the jump to you. Then once you have it, it creeps both down to your genitals as well as your brain. Yeah, it seems to be able to absorb your emotions and fears, also somehow learning when you are wearing your most expensive pants, and are talking to the biggest group of the people whose respect you most desire. When it feels that the time is right for maximum life-destroying embarrassment, THAT’S when you get the Big Balldicksakian Kablooie. Just plain scary, it is.

So then, I ask you. Do you really want to date a girl with whom a single sexual thought could not only make your giggle-bits painfully explode, but erupt all over everybody within a twenty meter radius? You’d HAVE to give them fair warning right? You never know just when the event is going to occur. So then at every social or professional gathering, you will be forced to inform everyone “hey guys, just a quick little hiccup here before we start. Um… at some point tonight my genitals might turn green and explode and probably cover everyone in this room. So, terribly sorry about that. Yeah, tragic meeting off OK cupid. But man, you should’ve read her profile. This girl was PERFECT! Well, you know, except for the ball-exploding thing. Anyway, let’s get this meeting started, yeah?”

I’ll admit this could all just be a rumor, but is it really worth finding out?

Rala, your profile and picture look good. You could add a head to toe picture for increased success. Nothing sexy, just you standing or sitting somewhere.

@Spoonful (since I don’t feel like quoting that post). I almost sent her another message last night. I had a message box pulled up and her profile up in another tab. But between the terrible grammar and a few other things I decided against it. The way I look at it, if this was the first time I had seen her profile I would have though pretty girl instead of perfect girl and kept moving. I blocked her and in a few days I won’t even remember her. Of course, if she were to reply to me, I’d happily talk to her.