Yep, I believe this too. My best boy friends have always been friends first, men/boys with whom there was no initial pure chemistry.

Ok, so that was fun! I just found my perfect match! :rofl: And he lives in my town! How weird is that? Seriously though, I just laughed through all his responses and they were quite similar to mine. Hmm...

Oh, he's recently lost 15 pounds...we all know what that's like!

I'd like to give another unlikely online tip for dating - web forums! :P I met my guy 6 years ago on a all-purpose conversation board. We started out as best friends then met a year later in person. It takes time but the bonus of getting to know someone online is you can usually weed people out far quicker than going on a slew of dates and wearing down a good pair of heels walking away a lot. :D

I wish you so much luck and good fun on this new segment of your life. :)

I can recommend two sites that worked well for me. Match (paid service) and Plenty of Fish (free). Glad I had been on Match first where the fact it is a paid service automatically screens out many before I tried POF which was a bit creepier. However found the love of my life on POF so the sorting process was worth it.

Side story: I had not dated for 18 years prior to the last 18 months. I work from home so decided on line dating was the only way I'd ever even find a single guy my age. What do you know, after I became involved with the current beau, two men I knew socially turned out to be my age range and single. They didn't realize I was single either.

I used plentyoffish before I met my fiance. I agree it was a little scary. A lot of the guys want to talk by instant message (msn or yahoo) so I would suggest setting up one separate from what you usually use (different login) so you don't end up with a bunch of people blocked.

I have a profile on Plenty of Fish, but I keep it hidden (I like participating in the forums occasionally). I had quite a few men contact me, but they were often too young, too old, or live way too far away (I am a student with very limited funds and am not able to travel to sustain long distance relationships). One local guy noticed I was a student and contacted me to hook him up with "cute students". Tacky!

I have friends who have found relationships and marriages through POF, though, so I might give it a go again one of these days.

I hate okcupid. I'm on Plentyoffish. A lot of douches are on there but I've met some cool people including a guy I'm seeing right now. :p

I'm on plentyoffish too. Still haven't met anyone but looking has been interesting.
One guy sounded really nice, and we chatted on the phone. He was put off when he heard about my job. He said, 'I went out for a coffee with a lady vicar before. When I put my hand on her breast, it didn't feel right.'
Then I was put off - coffee cups on the first meeting: yes; boob cups: no.
I think I'm looking to meet a prude!

Just so you know, my husband laughed his butt off at the phrase "crap fishhooks" and will probably start using it! :p

i met my ex on a music forum, ok so we split up but we were together for 5 years, maybe you could try something like that rather than a dating site?
about a month ago i joined a dating site on a whim (i think i was bored!), its one where people can type in their postcode and find the people closest to them. so... the first person to contact me was my sisters (married!!) boss! i nearly died, needless to say i closed the account and wont be reinstating it.

My husband and I met through an online dating service back in the day!

I did set up a separate email account and used my middle name only to help protect myself. My husband was the only person I met in person, but I did talk to one other guy on the phone.

I will say that the questions weren't creepy, but this was back in 1999, so maybe things have changed.

I hadn't dated a lot before that and learned a lot about what I was and wasn't looking for by just going through the process.

Good luck if you go through with it.

I'm learning that you do not have to answer all the questions. I figured you did. Apparently members make up the questions themselves. This is why some of them are creepy!! And I mean bad. I answered about 250 of them before I realized these well may be endless! And frankly, with some of those questions, I don't want to know the other person's opinion!

I met my live in boyfriend online as well as a really good guy friend. I had a few dud dates, but oh well, it is no worse than a dud you meet through a blind date or "out" what ever that means to you.

I did plenty of fish, that one was a bit creepier, but I ignored the creeps. I met my guy on Match. Don't be afraid to send a message to someone who catches you eye, you just never know.

You can always put the creepers on ignore/block. Meet in public and share where you are going and what you know about the person with a trusted friend.

In retrospect, I'm done with this. I gave it some thought and with my job, it's really not wise to have publicly answered some of those questions. It's pretty easy to connect a person with their picture up, especially when you're talking to people in your own town! :yikes: I shudder to think if a parent ever came across my page.

So, it's coming down. I did make contact with one guy and I gave him my email. Can't believe I did that! I'm not sure he's real interested though, and frankly, I do not care. I'm not as ready as I thought, but I will be. It's more that I really need to know it's possible. Now I know.

Yeah, I had a couple creepy men. Based on a picture, one told me "I'd sure have liked to be your date at that wedding. You're hot!" He boosted my ego, I'll give him that. I felt he could have presented himself better in his own picture...I'll just say that. ;)