Online Dating Guide

If I Am Shy, Should I Mention It In My Online Dating Profile?

Brad — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:07:20 +0000

This is a question shy men often ask due to the dilemma of wanting to be as honest as possible when dating online but, at the same time, not wanting to hurt their chances with women who may reject a man who mentions this trait. I believe the answer to this question really depends on the severity of the shyness. Due to this, I’ll discuss different degrees of shyness and then give my opinion on what should be included in the dating profile given the degree of shyness.

Note that this advice is intended for men. There are social rules that men are expected to follow that makes being a shy man detrimental whereas being a shy woman, even to a great degree, has little or no affect on the chances for that woman to date or marry (see Dr. Gilmartin’s comments of this for more details). If you’re a shy woman and you want to list being so in your dating profile, that’s fine. If you don’t want to list being shy, that’s fine too. Any woman who is worried that her shyness is going to ruin her online dating chances, there’s good news: it’s very unlikely it will affect your dating at all. This is especially true with the growth of online dating which allows a shy woman to enter the dating scene actively while remaining comfortable.

Degrees of Shyness and Your Online Dating Profile

Introversion
Technically, introversion isn’t shyness. An introverted person will enjoy being alone and will intentionally avoid social situations. This is significantly different from a shy person because someone shy wants to be in social situations but their shyness, to different degrees, inhibits or prevents from pursuing these social activities.

An introverted person may have excellent social skills but prefers not to use them. This type of person would prefer to watch a movie at home instead of going to the bar. They would rather have a few friends over instead of throwing a party. If you’re intentionally making a choice to avoid social situations with no regret, you’re introverted as opposed to shy. I see no reason to go out of your way to explicitly point out introversion in your dating profile. However, you’ll be doing yourself a favor if you are honest and reveal that you prefer small gatherings over large ones or that you value one-on-one quiet time over the social scene.

I see no reason to make an issue of introversion in your dating profile, just as I see no reason for an out-going person to explicitly say “I’m extroverted” in their profile. There are better ways to make this point, most often by simply describing what you enjoy and dislike.

Mild Shyness
Mild shyness occurs around new people and situations and everyone experiences this in some fashion. If your shyness is limited to things like meeting new people, going on a first date, or entering a new situation, then you’re not technically shy. You’re just experiencing what we all feel in new situations. No need to list shyness if this sounds like you. If you experience severe feelings of shyness when meeting people and then it goes away, you could mention in your profile that you’re “shy at first”. You see this frequently in online dating profiles.

Moderate Shyness
The moderately shy person is one who experiences their shyness daily but who is able to overcome it to varying degrees. Moderately shy people will frequently or always experience anxiety when entering social situations. The range of this anxiety will vary from person to person as will the degree that the shyness affects the person’s life. Some people may be able to internalize this shyness to the point where other people don’t even realize they struggle with it. Others will find their shyness affecting their lives more visibly. For example, when it causes a person to avoid a specific social situation even though they desperately want to participate.

If you are a moderately shy person, you will need to evaluate how much this anxiety affects your life. If you are able to overcome your shyness most of the time, I don’t think that you need to explicitly state that you’re shy in your dating profile. However, you will want to emphasize the things you are comfortable with when dating. If you find your shyness ruling your decisions more than half of the time, I believe you should explicitly state that you are shy in your profile. At this point, it is affecting your life enough that revealing this early will be beneficial for everyone involved.

Painfully Shy
Painfully shy refers to someone with Social Anxiety Disorder. People with Social Anxiety Disorder will be unable to fully function in many areas of life. Their symptoms can be severe and can include panic attacks, trembling or excessive sweating. These symptoms can be brought on by many social situations, from having a conversation with someone to entering a room with many people in it to going on a first date. The painfully shy person will find that this anxiety rules their life. Those who suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder will often avoid social situations for long periods of time which in turn can increase the severity of their shyness. If your shyness has been diagnosed as Social Anxiety Disorder or if your shyness rules your life, then you must list it in your profile.

Image by KellyB.

Love Shy
The love shy man will find it difficult (or even impossible) to approach or talk to a woman in informal situations. Strong feelings of anxiety will often be overwhelming to the point that the man will actually avoid a woman he is interested in. Love-shy men, according to Dr. Gilmartin, often have little or no real relationship experience with women. This is particularly troubling for these guys since their goal is to have a strong relationship with a woman but the fact that they’ve never had one causes anxiety and contributes to the continuation of being alone.

If you are a man who is comfortable in all areas of life and social interaction except when dealing with women you are attracted to, then you’re probably dealing with love-shyness. To be clear, if you get nervous around a woman you’re attracted to that’s not called shy, it’s called normal. It’s when your feelings go far beyond nervousness, to point of extreme anxiety, that love-shyness enters the picture.

The good news here is that online dating actually solves many of the problems for the love-shy man by providing them with a formal situation (which they are more comfortable with) to ask the woman on a date. I believe that I experienced love-shyness to some degree. I hadn’t dated for over 4 years when I started dating online and when I had dated previously I was still a teenager. I had dated actively in my late teen years but I wouldn’t say I had any deep relationship connections with the girls I dated. When I started dating online, I was extremely stressed that I wouldn’t know how to interact with adult women and I felt a lot of anxiety regarding this. The good news is that online dating made asking women out easy. I slowly realized that adult women weren’t all that different from the teenage women I had dated (no offense here ladies, just saying) and within six months any sign of love-shyness had totally disappeared. I was even asking women out at parties and the bar.

If you’re a love-shy man, I wouldn’t suggest going out of your way to list this in your profile. If you’re like me, once you get a few dates under your belt and realize that things are going to be fine, I think you’ll find it’s no longer an issue. Online dating provides a very formal way to find dates which make guys with this trait far more comfortable. If now having read this, you realize you’re love-shy, don’t worry about it! Things really will work out fine with some persistence.

Image by hyperscholar

My Experiences Dating Online As a Shy Man

I am quite the mixed bag of shyness traits. I’m definitely introverted as I can skip social interactions happily…I actually find too much social activity very draining. I also experience some “moderate shyness” when I am in loud or crowded places and I suffer from anxiety after a long enough time period. And then I also dealt with being “love-shy” for the first few months of my online dating. Even with my collection of shy traits, I never listed shyness in my dating profile and if I’m honest I rarely experienced it after getting past the “mild shyness” period of the dates.

If you’re shy and struggling to get going with online dating, I think you would find my online dating guide helpful. If you’re not interested in reading all of that I would recommend my article on the importance of comfort.

Finally, if or when you list that you are shy don’t let it rule your profile. Be sure to include something like “I’m a shy man but I enjoy spending time doing x and y and z with those I care for.” Being shy is like any other trait: it may be a part of who you are but it doesn’t define

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What Is the Price of eHarmony Subscriptions?

Brad — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:36:28 +0000

How much does it cost to join eHarmony? eHarmony’s subscription pricing and cost are listed below with promotional codes (coupons) you can use below that. eHarmony is reluctant to give out this information until you’re an official member…and since becoming a member involves a very long personality profile test, I wanted to list them here.

**eHarmony Subscription Prices by Country**
	1 Month	3 Months	6 Months	12 Months
eHarmony – U.S.	$59.95	$119.85	$179.70	$239.40
eHarmony – Canada	$59.95	$119.85	$179.70	$239.40
eHarmony – Australia	$59.95	$119.85	$179.70	$239.40
eHaromny – U.K.	£34.95	£74.85	£89.70	£139.80

Current eHarmony Promotions:
1. Save 20% on a 6 month subscription (coupon code: CJPROMOAAA Expires 12/31/09)
2. Save 17% on a 12 month subscription (coupon code: CJPROMOBBB Expires 12/31/09)

For these promotions, when subscribing enter the coupon code listed. Unfortunately, I believe this promotion only applies to the U.S. and Canada (my apologies to the U.K. and Australia…I don’t make the rules!

Thoughts on the Subscription Pricing at eHarmony
First, the longer you sign up for the more you save. For example, in the U.S. if you sign up for 3 months you’re paying $39.85 a month where signing up for 6 months will cost $29.95 a month and the full year will cost what equates to $19.95 a month. Still, paying for a full year doesn’t necessarily save you money. For example, if you meet someone in 3-months on the 12-month plan, then you’ve essentially paid about $79 a month (assuming you wouldn’t need to use the service again for the remainder of the year you’ve subscribed for).

I think there’s a happy medium to be found for subscribing to eHarmony. Personally, it’s hard for me to imagine signing up for a year unless I loved dating or I was extremely pessimistic. However, if you’re brand new to online dating, it’s uncommon to find yourself in a relationship in the first month. Because of this, I would say that if you’re new to online dating, committed to sticking with it, and interested in taking things slow building a relationship, sign up for 6-months as it will save you money in the long run (especially with the promo which works out to about $24 a month). If you’re experienced with online dating or open to jumping into a relationship quickly, 3 months might be a safer bet (sadly, not coupon for the shorter subscriptions). Obviously signing up for a single month or a full year is fine too but they each have some draw backs (an extremely high price for the single month and the long commitment for the year).

The good thing about signing up for the 3-month plan is even if you did stop using it after two months you wouldn’t have paid any more than if you had been on the single month plan. The same thing goes for the 6-month plan: as long as you can stick with it for 3 months (less with the promo), you’re not out money. When I was dating online I used eHarmony for about 5 months and I used the month-to-month plan. I think I was overly optimistic, each time when auto-renewing thinking to myself that I would meet someone in the next month. There’s nothing wrong with this thinking but I could have saved a lot of money if I had taken a middle-of-the-road approach.

A Warning Regarding Auto-Renewals
One final note: many dating services will auto-renew you at the same plan when your current runs out. When signing up for any dating site plan, be aware of this. For example, if you sign up for 6 months and then meet that special someone after the fourth or fifth, I would recommend canceling your account so it will NOT auto-renew for another 6 months (although you should still be able to access your account until the current plan time runs out). I am not sure what eHarmony’s renewal policy is but this advice should be taken for any dating site you are paying for.

Let eHarmony match you with quality singles looking for a long-term relationship

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Getting a Professionally Written Online Dating Profile

Brad — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:09:14 +0000

Writing a profile that stands out is a difficult task for most of us. When asked to describe ourselves, it turns out most of us sound exactly the same. Whether we’re easy-going or fun-loving, whether we love going out or love cuddling up for a movie in, whether we hate playing games or love the outdoors…putting any of this in our profiles make us sound, well, like everyone else.
Sounding like everyone else isn’t the worst thing in the world. After all, hundreds of thousands of people with similar sounding profiles are finding dates every day. Plus, having a professionally written profile would cost you more money.

Still, is there a situation where having a professionally written profile is worth it? I think there are some cases where this does make sense. As an example, imagine that I write a horrible online dating profile. It’s so bad it actually hurts my chances when women view it. I could pay for an online dating service with this bad profile and spend hundreds of dollars. Let’s assume a professionally written profile would have led me to some dating success within six month. In this case, even though a professionally written dating profile would cost me money, it would save me far more money than it costs since I would have paid for the online dating service half as long.

That said, is a well written dating profile really that different from the run-of-the-mill profile? Would it really cause someone to find someone special that much faster? I would recommend that you take a look at some examples over at TrySweetTalk.com – I’ll let you judge for yourself.

While I did not have my profile professionally written when I was dating online, I can see the value in it. If you find yourself struggling to differentiate yourself, and especially if you’re struggling to get contact even though your profile is getting views, it’s is worth considering.

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11/03 Dating News: Social Dating, When to Meet, and the 6th Sense

Brad — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:09:39 +0000

What Can You Tell From a Dating Profile Photo?
Single Parent Gossip has an interesting article that discusses how we can detect personality traits just by viewing a picture of someone. The implication here is that if you’ve ever looked at a person’s online dating photos and suspected you would (or wouldn’t!) get along with them, you may subconsciously be picking up on some of their character traits. The article is very interesting and if you’re a single parent the entire site is worth checking out.

Facebook…Find More Than Friends
An interesting new online dating service that I’m hearing about is Thread.com. This service is tied directly to Facebook and is based on browsing and meeting friends of friends. In addition to connecting singles, the service will also allow users to play “matchmaker”, which could be fun. Considering the popularity of Facebook, I suspect we’ll be hearing a lot more about this type of service in the future.

Using Twitter to Follow You Next Date?
Facebook dating? Well, what about Twitter? It’s probably no surprise that there’s a dating service there as well. Radaroo uses the social medium to help singles get to know each other. Users create a aseparate profile on Radaroo’s website and then follow (or are followed by) other singles. Radaroo argues that in this way you are dealing with real people with real lives and are able to learn more about potential dates as you follow them.

Online Dating Shouldn’t Stay Online
As I have argued many times, meeting matters with online dating! Fiona Beck covers this topic in an article called Online Love. If you’re still not taking my advice on meeting, give it a read and maybe she can convince you! My favorite bit from the article:

Just remember that online dating needs to get OFFLINE and IN PERSON asap and never EVER invest your heart in someone until you REALLY KNOW who and what you are dealing with.

It’s great advice.

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11/01 Online Dating News: Scams, Advice and an Awkward Situation

Brad — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:17:58 +0000

More Warnings on Dating Site Scams
This article discusses some real-world examples of online dating scams occurring in the United Kingdom (well, they’re occurring everywhere really). I covered this topic recently in my series of articles on identifying and protecting yourself against online dating scams. While the scams don’t appear to be going away any time soon, there are steps you can take to avoid them and enjoy your online dating.

How To Avoid The 5 Most Common Dating Mistakes (for Women)
Deborah Bennett offers some advice to women on dating mistakes to avoid over at HelloBeautiful.com. Most of this advice looks really good to me although I’m not against accepting last minute dates…although maybe that’s because I was always the one trying to schedule that last minute date! I can promise you that it’s not always a case of being “Plan B” when a guy contacts at the last minute. Still, being a little elusive is attractive to guys so it’s probably still good advice. Also, for “Dating Mistake #2: Acting overly chummy”, not only do I agree with Deborah’s thoughts here I’d also like to point out that some guys will see a woman who becomes “chummy” as a woman who is not interested in dating them. We don’t want to find ourselves in what Chris Rock humorously refers to as “The Friend Zone”.

Date My Dad!
Caitlin Kelly discusses her plan to help her 75-year-old dad find love online. Are you looking for award-winning former film-maker, world traveler, athletic, makes a great tagine, skilled artist? Or do you have advice or experience regarding senior date? Stop by TrueSlant and let Caitlin know!

An Awkward Situation
Over at DatingGoddess.com, a story is told how a man, by all appearances, fooled his date into paying for an expensive event that he asked her to go to. The question is asked: “How do you manage some sense of fairness about dating costs when you’ve been dating someone for a while?”

Frusterations with Online Dating
A discussion of how to navigate world of dating offers some insights into the frustrations both men and women experience with online dating. My opinion? Most of these complaints are simply relationship issues, not so much online dating relationship issues.

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Pittsburgh Date Ideas

Brad — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:47:00 +0000

A quick note on these ideas: as I cover in my dating guide, the first date should be used to get to know each other better so there should be as little distraction as possible. Many of the suggested dates below would not make a good first date in most situations.

Find a Great Restaurant
First suggestion isn’t an earth-shaker: have a great dinner at a new restaurant. No need to take a risk picking that new restaurant either! A friend of mine runs a great blog, FoodBurgh, devoted to reviewing restaurants large and small in the Pittsburgh area. Why should his opinion matter? Well, aside from being a #1 ranked blog on the UrbanSpoon, he’s also a great cook himself (which, in my eyes, adds an enormous amount of credibility). Just read a review or two and you’ll see how serious this foodie about his topic!

Hartwood Acres Map
Hartwood Acres is an Allegheny county park that has a large number of events including free concerts, free ballet by the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, mansion tours and around Christmas there’s the celebration of lights. You can see a full list of events at the Allegheny County site.

Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium Map
The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium is home to thousands of amazing animals representing more than four hundred species, including 22 threatened or endangered species. Surprisingly (at least to me), the zoo is open all year round.

Hozak Farms Map
I’ve seen Hozak Farms described as “old fashion Christmas everyday”. Perhaps this place just has a special place in my heart since I’ve been here most years since I was a kid. Hozak Farms is a great place to visit from around Halloween to Christmas and there are plenty of activities going on from hay rides, to pumpkin picking, shopping in the Christmas store or even cutting down your own tree. It’s worth mentioning that some distance from the city proper but if you look at the drive through the country as a part of the date, you’ll have a great time.

Pittsburgh Parks Map
Try visiting one of Pittsburgh’s many beautiful parks. You can find many great suggestions at Pittsburgh Parks. I would also recommend North Park which isn’t listed on the Pittsburgh Parks website since technically it’s not in the city of Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh Museums
Pittsburgh has several great museums to visit:

Carnegie Museum of Natural History Map
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History includes things such as a dinosaur exhibit, an Egyptian exhibit, wildlife exhibits to name a few. There are also unique exhibitions that are always changing.
Carnegie Science Center Map
The Carnegie Science Center is my favorite of the Pittsburgh museums. The exhibits are always interesting (and often fun) and the Omnimax Theater provides and experience unlike any other.
The Andy Warhol Museum Map
The Andy Warhol Museum provides unique collections that frequently change. Many of the art here is quite eclectic and sometimes strange…but it all provides plenty of date conversations.
Carnegie Museum of Art Map
My least favorite of all the museums but maybe you’re more cultured than I am! The Carnegie Museum of Art…well, it provides everything you would expect in an art museum!

PNC Park Map
I would only recommend visiting PNC Park if you’re not a baseball fan or perhaps a fan of a baseball team other than the Pirates. The Pirates set the record for the worst team in history this year by going 17 years without a winning season. Still, PNC Park is a beautiful stadium and spending a day there can be great fun…as long as you’re not emotionally invested in the team!

The Strip Map
The Strip District is a great place to visit on a Saturday morning. The market is bustling and enjoyable. If you’re going to be spending the entire day together, you can use this trip to pick up fresh produce, meat or ethnic foods that you can prepare later in the evening together.

University of Pittsburgh Campus Map
One date idea is to take a relaxing walk together and the University of Pittsburgh is an excellent place for it. Pitt has a beautiful campus with plenty to see while you spend time together. If you’re on campus in the morning or early afternoon, you can visit the Cathedral of Learning which has 24 classrooms reflection each reflecting a different culture and heritage. Tours stop at 2:30PM and cost $3 per person. You’ll also be extremely close to The Carnegie museums of Natural History and Art that were discussed above.

Fun Fore All Map
Fun Fore All is my favorite place for miniature golf in the area. There are two mini golf courses to try, go carts, bumper boats and a pretty good arcade as well. Fun Fore All is located north of the city in Cranberry Township so it may be a drive for some people but if you’re willing to make an evening of it, it’s a great time.

Hofbrauhaus Pittsburgh Map

I normally hate loud, rowdy places but the Hofbrauhaus is one of the few exceptions. The environment is a lot of fun. People of all ages are having a great time, dancing on chairs and doing shot-skis. It really is a great time as long as you’re willing to deal with (or interested in!) a loud environment. The restaurant is split in two with the traditional “rowdy” room and a quieter room. I wouldn’t recommend the quieter room as I see Hofbrauhaus as much about the experience as it is about the food. If you go for the quiet room, you’re only getting the food and if I’m honest the food is fine but Hofbrauhaus would never make this list for its food alone!

National Aviary Map
The National Aviary provides over a dozen daily events such as watching and learning about penguins, feeding time where you can feed the wild birds, and tours with an Aviary trainer. There are also ever-changing special events.

Phipps Conservatory Map
The Phipps Conservatory provides 17 unique botanical experiences. Some exhibits have included glass sculptures, tropical forests with exotic plants, even an exhibit of fine wines and edibles.

Mt. Washington and the Inclines Map
Mt. Washington provides a beautiful view of the city. The easiest way to enjoy Mt. Washington at most times of the day is by parking at Station Square and riding the Mon Incline to the top. Station Square has plenty to do in its own right so an entire evening can be had here quite easily.

Gateway Clipper Map
Also located at Station Square, the Gateway Clipper Fleet offers many cruises, from day trips to formal dinner cruises to Halloween cruises. The fleet is believed to be the largest inland riverboat fleet in the United States. The Gateway Clipper Fleet also provides shuttle service to the stadiums when there is a Steelers, Pirates or Pitt game.

Did I miss a great place for a date in the Pittsburgh area? Feel free to share it here.

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The Worst Dating Site In The World

Brad — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:46:15 +0000

While researching other dating sites, I stumbled upon PoorMatch.com. At first glance I thought I must be reading something wrong…but then I realized it was a big online dating parody. A really, really funny parody at that (we’re talking The Onion kind of funny). If you’re frustrated due to online dating, check out Poor Match for a few laughs to lighten the mood. Every page has great jokes, some that are harder to spot than others.

A few of my favorites joke include:

The relationship options when trying to do a search.
The How It Works page which has a little too much truth hidden in some of the jokes
Just about all of the profiles

Give it a browse and have a laugh…and if any of the profiles remind you of your own it’s time to write a new one!

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Chemistry.com Is Looking For A Few Good Men

Brad — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:06:55 +0000

Apparently Chemistry.com has been running promotions to increase the number of women using their site. I would assume this is because the ratio of women to men using the dating service needed improved. Well, it looks as if they were a little too successful. Now they have a much higher female to male ratio and they’re in a position where they need to try to correct this.

Here’s the current message they’re sending out to guys:

Online dating sites very rarely reveal information regarding the ratio of men-to-women using the service (try Googling it sometime). The fact that Chemistry.com is revealing this means that there must be a very, very large discrepancy in the ratio. Any moderate difference between the male versus female subscriptions and they would remain quiet about it as normal. For any guys out there this is a great incentive to try the site as the numbers are going to be on your side (both in that there will be more women to contact and less competition to deal with). It’s extremely rare to have this kind of knowledge!

Interested in giving it a try? Sign up for a 7-day free trial and see if the ratio works in your favor.

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10 Dating Profile Headings for Software Engineers

Brad — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:41:06 +0000

I’ve been thinking about doing some online dating profile heading testing (that’s a mouthful!). I’m hoping to share the results here as I currently have a theory that weird or hard to understand headings may work as well as any other. At any rate, while thinking of a good profile heading to test out I came up with first in the list below. I thought it wasn’t too shabby and thought I could come up with nine more for a good post on developer type headings. Here’s what I’ve come up:

1. Software Developer Tired of the Singleton Pattern
I think this one is my favorite that I’ve thought of since it can be understood even if you’re not familiar with development patterns.

2. SELECT * FROM OkCupid WHERE Girl = ‘Great’;
I suppose the more romantic amoung us could add a LIMIT 1 (or TOP 1 for those Microsoft DBAs). Hopefully it goes without saying that OkCupid would be replaced with your service of choice!

3. C++ Girl Looking for A++ Guy
This one’s not that great for non-developers since you don’t want to suggest you’re a ‘C’ level person looking for an ‘A’ level partner!

4. Date GreatTime = new Date(WithMe);
For those confident individuals among us.

5. DBA Looking for Relationship Normalization
Aren’t we all looking for a little normalization in our relationships?

6. if (single) { profile.contactme! }
Perhaps this invitation is a little too open! You could always make your condition a little more strict. If you hate Ruby you can always drop the bang. Obviously Ruby works nicely here.

7. if greatGuy goto myProfile
I know, I know…using a goto is such a bad practice!

8. require ‘date’
This one’s about as simple as they get. More ruby syntax here (C#’s ‘using’ and Java’s ‘import’ just don’t work as well!)

9. Web Developer with a Great Sense of Style(sheets)
Geeky yet playful.

10. Open Beta – Looking for Some Good Testers
I don’t really like this one but I couldn’t stop at 9!

Let me say that I’m just having fun with this and I’m not suggesting anyone would have more success using these…well, maybe at Geek 2 Geek they would!

Think you can do better than this? Feel free to share it here.

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Online Dating News And Advice, October 22 2009

Brad — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:11:04 +0000

Today in the world of online dating…

As If You Needed Another Reason To Want A Great Dating Profile

OKCupid is current running a contest called Who Has the Best Online Dating Profile? Both members and non-members can vote on the profiles they think are best (it’s split into several categories). The winner will end up with $250 which is not too shabby considering you’d want a great profile regardless! If you want to enter your OKCupid profile inot the contest or if you’d like to join so you can create a profile to enter, you can do so here.

You’re Not That Busy
YourTango offers 5 Dating Tips for Busy People. This seems especially well suited to those people who believe they’re too busy for dating. A lot of the advice here is common sense but it’s well worth reviewing if you’re convinced you don’t have time to date (because you do). Big surprise, my favorite is #4.

But…You’re Only 36!
A woman who is clearly not too old to date is worried that life has passed her by and asks Am I Too Old To Date? Fortunately, she’s given good advice from the Answerology community (I love the 91 year old man who talks about his ladies). I hope she’s realized that the question was silly. Finding love is not limited to a particular age group!

Jealousy And Cheating…One In The Same?
Evan answers the question “How Can I Make My Boyfriend Less Jealous?” and true to his normal form tackles it aggressively. Evan’s answers always seem so black-and-white to me. In this case he suggests with extreme confidence that if the boyfriend is worried that his girlfriend is cheating on him then he’s the one who’s cheating. Really? Couldn’t we be dealing with some pretty serious self-esteem issues here? It is so clear that he would is cheating? Isn’t there a chance he’d be burned by this in the past? I know a woman who’s afraid of dogs because she was once bitten by one. I’d never think to accuse her of wanting to bite dogs because of her expressed fears! But that’s just my opinion. Check out Evan’s thoughts and make up your own mind!

Time For a New OS?
Finally, in some off-topic news, Windows 7 has been released today. I’ve been using the Windows 7 Release Candidate for a few months and I’ve been loving it. The launch of Vista was a huge disappoint for me but this time around it feels like they’ve really gotten things right.

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