Online dating seems to be shedding its taboo status in recent years; people are completely shameless in their pursuit of happiness. Advertisements for Match.com and the like are saturating television screens across the country. Despite the boom in online dating, there must be some experiences that put people off it forever. And yes, there are, one of which happened to myself in the mid winter of 2006, at the tender age of 18.

MySpace had been a cultural phenomenon, the first social networking website to accumulate an astronomical number of members. I had just signed up, and within a few days I had been added by a delightful looking creature. She added me, as she “liked my pictures”. The only picture I had of her however was the small thumbnail that graced her profile screen, and a very elegant picture it was: brunette, shocking blue eyes and a voluptuous curvature of the lips; this picture alone was justification for talking to her.

Over the course of a year we chatted online and still this was the only picture that kept me going. Our conversation was healthy, and we very much enjoyed each other’s digital company. There does however come a time when this alone is not sufficient, and the next step needed to be taken.

She invited me to her house, a very forward invitation I know, but I accepted. Winter can be a very lonely time for a young single man; this effectively quashed any negative thoughts that arose from my conscience. I had never met this girl before in my life, or even heard her voice. Unluckily for me, my shameless desperation succeeded.

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In walked Van, wearing a beret, looking squeaky clean behind the ears, and ready to deliver something or another.

“Why don’t you come out of the shadows? What do you really look like? You’re afraid of something, aren’t you?”

Why did this sound so familiar? Where had I heard this before? I thought for a few minutes and finally twigged to it. He just quoted from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance verbatim. I smiled vaguely and felt the heavy burden of knowing we had an entire meal ahead of us.

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I am a 28 male software engineer from Gujarat, India. It was recently when I gave in for marriage after resisting it for years and my parents started searching a girl for me, and as expected within a few weeks they fixed my meeting with this girl who was, according to my parents, a good wife material. My parents were really impressed with her and they were repeatedly saying “the girl is very beautiful” but is it just the beauty you look for in your life partner? I knew there is a lot more one wants. So like any other educated, wise man I decided to spend some time with this girl to know her better and then take the most important decision of my life.

People who don’t know much about Indian culture and the way matrimonial things work here. Here is some insight. It is being considered taboo if you are above 25-26 and still single (however this trend is changing these days thanks to the youngsters like me). We still have a system of arrange marriages, our family looks for the suitable boy/girl, once they find someone appropriate, they usually fix the meeting of potential bride-groom and leave the final decision to them but some families don’t even allow boy and girl to meet before marriage, and the family only takes the final decision.

I could just thank the god as my family falls in former one. People from western countries may find it absurd but that’s the way things work here.

After plenty of efforts, my dad managed to get one hour of time from the girl’s family. Being a rebel I protested as I knew one hour would not be enough but eventually my parents convinced me and I decided to just go with the flow, as somewhere back in mind I knew that I always have an option of saying “No” for the marriage after meeting.

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Ok after many month of hard work our new site is finally up and running!  In addition to the existing video chat function of our site we’ve also added couple of new features :

• Video Introduction : Each member can record an introduction video of their own up to a minute, which becomes part of each member’s profile.
• Video Flirt :  Each member can send video flirt message to another member that they like.

You can see an example of how the new features work on our home page www.15minutedate.com.  Happy 15 Minute Dating!

As a transfer student at the University of Minnesota, I was always looking for ways to make new friends. I decided to take a Tae Kwon Do class where I could meet people while also tucking a new skill under my belt.

One of my girlfriends in another class of mine urged me to say hello to her friend “Bob.” I decided to wait until we were sparring each other so as not to seem to eager.

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The date was going pretty well thus far. My partner had not yet screamed at the sight of me and run off into the night (always a good first indicator) and here we were, moving on to our second venue of the evening.

I had one problem: this girl was a Christian. The reason this was a problem was twofold. One, she was highly unlikely to let me get my hands on her sumptuously gigantic breasts at the end of the evening, no matter how well I thought the situation was progressing; and two, she didn’t drink alcohol.

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I thought I had seen it all. During my years of on-again, off-again online dating, I felt as if I had earned an honorary phD in dating psychology (or should I say a purple heart?). The upfront-leech, the alcohol-pushing leech, mama’s boy, social odd-ball, bitter misogynist, you name it, I’ve dated it. Albeit not for long.

“Tony” had seemed charming on the phone, and his Match.com profile seemed refreshingly honest. The photos were obviously scanned in, the quality of which wasn’t the best, but he had a full head of hair, warm smile, and an athletic physique. A sales manager at a high volume sales firm, he regaled me with stories of a quick ascension up the career ladder and remodeling his home no expenses spared. Having dated a career pothead in college for a year and a half whose idea of planning for the future meant having enough money left for the next stash, Tony impressed me thoroughly.

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I just heard a funny story from a friend of mine that met a girl on a popular dating site. We’ll call it yardmatch.com. You’ll see why. My friend, we’ll call him Gerry, received a response to his ad on yardmatch from Cindy (not her real name). They arrange an early lunch at a romantic, yet casual little restaurant in Boston. Gerry tells me that there wasn’t any uncomfortable silence at lunch, which can sometimes happen on a first date when you find the person’s real life persona differs markedly from their online personal ad. Gerry did note, however, that Cindy kept bringing the conversation back around to yard work.

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“I dated a guy who was a bit of a handful. His emotional stability varied hour by hour and often swung wildly between loving euphoria and numbed depression. We broke up, got back together, broke up, got back together ad nauseam for more than a year and a half. It only recently ended when I received several text messages asking for my hand in marriage.

“Taking new course, trying somethin new. Marry me. I love u, want 2 be with u 4ever.” Sent 6/22/08 at 3:32 A.M.

My response:

“Um. How is that helpful? We can’t even talk without fighting.” Sent 6/22/08 at 9:15 A.M.

His response:

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Importance of Being Earnest… or at least the importance of using proper table manners as a way to get the date off to a good solid start.

I happened to be in Chicago this weekend for a writers workshop at Second City. While I was there I wanted to play around downtown. Shopping and running around the beach are not occasions where a play date is absolutely necessary but for dinner, I require company.

Its far too depressing to think I would have to eat alone, ordering room service while I am trying to enjoy a new city.

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I was 12 years older than him, but we didn’t know it. It was a long time ago, and I’ll always think I almost married him - white picket fence and all.

I met him in a computer store, in the early days of computers, when I was an actress writing screenplays, and he made his living pulling the backs off computers and switching the parts around inside before he closed them back up.

On our first date, the chemistry was through the roof, but the conversation was stiff and almost weird, as though we were in two different Universes trying to discover a common language.

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Anyone who’s dipped their toes into the murky waters of the on-line dating scene will sprint away from the tide after learning that while there are plenty of fish in the sea, there are also plenty of nets. While learning about how the seamy underbelly of electronic dating is really manipulated, this investigative journalist found himself expelled from Match.com after going deep undercover into the popular Internet dating service.

I enrolled at Match.com using the pen name of “MrMarvelous” to judge the waters for myself. After blowing off an entire day’s work perusing the women within 100 miles of my zip code, seven major metropolises and all of the neighborhoods I’ve ever lived, it became readily apparent that of the 40 million single men and women who subscribe to on-line dating services, most are looking for the same thing and their profiles all read the same. So, to leverage myself against my male competitors and attract more than my fair share of the lovelier sex, I decided to create the following original member profile to flaunt my rapier wit. After all, isn’t that what women want: a man with a sense of humor?

Dating headline:
Tom Selleck Look-a-like In Search of Love

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As a 28 year old living in Chicago, I admit that I absolutely use text messaging to communicate with friends, family, and co-workers. For me, texting is great for sending and receiving short messages to and from people I already know. It’s perfect for corresponding with basic questions: where are you, what time are you picking me up, who is this weirdo that is talking to me, how did I get home last night? It’s also ideal for sharing funny moments that aren’t worthy of a full conversation; such as, “You will not believe that hot tranny mess I just saw on Belmont and Halsted.” Believe me; I have been swept up in this texting whirlwind. It wasn’t until recently that I discovered how much texting has slithered its way into the dating world. It seems that out of nowhere, text messaging has somehow become a dating norm. It got me thinking: when did text messaging take over for a good old fashioned relationship?

I recently dated a guy who we’ll call “Mr. Text,” who used text messaging as his primary form of communication. Mr. Text truly lived up to his name: he was aloof, brief, and hard to understand at times.

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In my last article, “The Dealbreaker,” someone posted a comment suggesting my next one be about “DealMAKERS.” I thought that was a great idea. Instead of being so negative, and discussing how guys can turn us off, I wanted to show some ways in which guys can turn us ON. So now, I give you “Dealmakers,” otherwise known as 50 things guys can do to make us smile, make us sit up and pay attention, make us think twice about them, or even make us fall in love with them.

He has great teeth

He opens the car door for you (even if you’d rather get it yourself, you have to admit it’s a sweet, old-fashioned gesture.)

He asks your drink and then gets one for you

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Charles was one of those friends like dried meat; he will last forever if you keep it right. It was no wonder that when I told him I was back in the city he excitedly invited me to his birthday party. I had really wanted to finally meet his fiancé. The day he asked me I was sitting in my room, naked as usual, and made a decision right there. The path to recovery meant getting out and continuing my life where it left off.

The meal was uneventful except for Charles who ate a 32 oz steak single handedly after demolishing the appetizers. Charles was always this excited guy and the fact that he had not slept more than 3 hours in 3 days meant he was manic. His constant aerobic demonstrations made the rest of us who were out of shape and well rested feel jealous. Afterwards we ended up in his place, with me ignoring many phone calls wondering when I would get home.

We broke into two splinter groups, one that enjoyed World of Warcraft far too much and the rest of the people trying to be social by talking over Resistance: The Fall of Man as we passed the controller amongst ourselves. Charles and me started talking and eventually the topic returned to my current ‘funk’ as I describe it that way at most three times a month. “Man, you aren’t doing well” he said. I did not respond, I was tired of hearing myself say it. “How about I find you a girl?” he suggested. I laughed, probably a second too long judging by his reaction. “Maybe you should, all I know is that I’m oscillating between horny as hell and depressed.” I said. I picked up the beer bottle and took a long drink from it. Charles had that concerned look on his face. “You’re taking this pretty hard aren’t you?” he said in that slow tone that was unusual for him. I did not want to say anything, and I did not have to.

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Are you interested in becoming a guest writer for our blog?

Do you have an interesting (or just plain crazy) dating story that you would like to share? We are looking for original, funny, and potential shocking dating experiences from you.

If your story gets published, you will get to link to your own site (or blog) and also receive full credit as the writer of the article. There is no maximum word limit to the blog entry, but please try to make it interesting

If you are interested, please Submit your story to info@15minuteDate.com

To say that internet dating has changed being single is an understatement. Heck, it’s even changed cheating. One searches the other’s email, text messages, voicemail, IM, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, whatever, and busts them.

Online dating harbors little of the stigma it once did. One is no longer labeled a loser for using the net to hunt/shop/forage. As craigslist has undermined newspaper classifieds and travel sites have dealt a blow to travel agents, online dating sites like match.com, nerve, eHarmony, et al. have unraveled traditional face-to-face dating. Are you ashamed to tell family and friends how you met your latest mate? Speaking of which, how honest are you online when you described yourself? How honest were they?

Ladies, if you’re going to use craigslist to shop for a man (or any other dating site for that matter), please take a moment to read my advice for women and craigslist. Being a free country, you’re free to ignore part or all of what I have to say. Otherwise you may find yourself guilty of these known craigslist sins. You may, just may, find that heeding some of my suggestions will aid in your search for Mr. Right (or Mr. Wrong if that’s your kink. See “samsara”.)

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Hey guys, did you ever take a date out to a restaurant and an hour later you knew that the girl was not for you so you decide to do the gentlemanly thing and dump her and dump her ass fast but you were stumped on how to do it?

Guys relax, because help is here! I’m gonna’ tell you two surefire ways how to dump a girl in a restaurant, fast!

SUREFIRE WAY NUMBER 1:

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“It’s Okay to Look.” Only in certain contexts and situations could this slogan be construed as a truthful notion in the dating scene. In everyday conversations this phrase gets tossed around by men and women in relationships talking amongst their friends about the “hottie” they saw the other day in the parking lot. “Hey, it’s not cheating. It’s okay to look.”

There’s a fine line, however, between the hottie you saw by happenstance in the parking lot the other day and the hotties you’re looking at on the internet via dating websites. I’ll give you an example and we’ll see if you can distinguish the difference. To embody yourself into a setting, I was in a seemingly steady relationship for a year already. Ostensibly things were heading down the path of taking things to the never-ending “next level” and the sensation that I found “that one” was embedded in my thoughts.

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Wow! Not only is your online date good looking, suave, well-dressed, but a rock star/investment banker/rocket scientist? Sounds too good to be true — and, chances are — it might not be true at all. From my year or so of online dating, I’ve learned how to sort the good apples from the bad and I’d like to share some of the tricks I’ve picked up to background-checking potential dates.

It’s human nature to inflate our accomplishments, pat ourselves on the back, and brag a little, especially when you’re speaking to an attractive member of the opposite sex. In the context of online dating, it’s even easier to create a false persona, to portray ourselves in just the right light. It’s so easy to change a B.A. in English to a M.A. in Physics with just the switch of a single letter. It’s even easier to add an extra zero added to your yearly income. And when the time comes, it’s still easy to carry out this persona. A rented car to impress a date? Just make sure the Budget sticker is inconspicuous. A borrowed apartment? Not to worry, just insure that your date doesn’t notice the Metamucil in the medicine cabinet or the six bottles of vodka in the recycling – “it’s not mine! I swear!” might not cut it.

White lies are fine, we all want to impress our dates, but I want to give you the advice that I’ve learned for some good back-ground checking to make sure your date is really who they say are. On my first online date, after an hour of good conversation flirtatious eyelash-batting with “David,” the “stable Physics graduate student,” it leaked that he had been a “graduate” of college for ten years without a job, without a relationship, and was currently couch-surfing between friend’s pads. I’m not here to pass judgment on those couch-surfing unemployed guys – for all we know, they could be the one! – but I am here to pass judgment on liars. An unemployed creep with a thing for feet could be disguised as an upright investment banker and I’m here to tell you just how to distinguish the two.

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