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Particularly one that's free and won't have any charges tied to it or sell my details on. But one where plenty of people in the north east of England still use it.

Match.
Plenty of Fish.
e Harmony.

There may be some subscription model or fees to access better content.

Think of it this way - if you pay to use you are more likely to be seen as genuine or find more genuine dates who pay.

Check the T&C's before signing up anywhere.

Internet Relationship Providings is worth a shout.

You get what you pay for.
I used Match.com.
I had to pay, but it was worth it.
(I've been married for nearly 4 years, so it worked out for me)

Hey OP, would you consider retitling this to a more general "single dating advice" thread? It would include the same subject matter you have in your original question and would be a nice counterpart to the "where did you meet your girlfriend" thread, which had a few single people in there who perhaps would like a thread to discuss their travails and ask for advice and tips.

I didn't have much luck with Match.com.

OKCupids worked well.

Edit: When did Dakka become gamer dating advice central?

 kronk wrote:
When did Dakka become gamer dating advice central?

We can't all just walk into a bar, point across it at a woman, slowly point at your crotch, and then walk out for a night of guaranteed sex the way you can.

I've used plenty of fish and okcupid.

The layout of okcupid is much nicer and more user friendly in general. However, I never had much luck with it. I found it generally had a more artsy/indie crowd where as I'm..... not those things. Another thing unique to okcupid is that they match you based on questions that you answer randomly (they can be about anything) and you can view other users answers. So you can sometimes get too much information and other times you will want to rip out your hair (example: Catholic - Very Serious About it, meanwhile questions show them to be the kinkiest/sex crazed beast lol)

PoF I've had much more luck on with meeting up for dates (and a 3.5 year relationship out of it) - it has a large number of users.

I'm 25 by the way, as age plays a factor in the experience you will have with these sites. It seems like people 22-25 just want flings, cars, and muscles where as 26-28 the girls tend to be more serious and looking for smart/successful guys. Hope the info helps a little.

Note: reddit has an okcupid subsection, they are fantastic at critiquing profiles (went from getting zero responses to 1/3 people replying to my messages).

 Ouze wrote:

 kronk wrote:
When did Dakka become gamer dating advice central?

We can't all just walk into a bar, point across it at a woman, slowly point at your crotch, and then walk out for a night of guaranteed sex the way you can.

Oh.

Poor bastards.

 kronk wrote:

Edit: When did Dakka become gamer dating advice central?

Just now. We need a Dakka Dating sub forum!

OP, are you interested in a free service so you won't have to explain odd line items on your credit card statement? Because if that is the case then the site Ashley Madison might be for you.

 kronk wrote:

 Ouze wrote:

 kronk wrote:
When did Dakka become gamer dating advice central?

We can't all just walk into a bar, point across it at a woman, slowly point at your crotch, and then walk out for a night of guaranteed sex the way you can.

Oh.

Poor bastards.

Allllllllllllllllllllllright.

So Match.com isn't a scam?

Okay, I already have a free profile on match.com. Is it possible to receive emails from people if you have not subscribed. I can see that people have viewed my profile but nothing else. Not sure if that's the reason or if I should go back and change my profile.

Only reason I ask is that some sights are scams and have fake profiles view your account to make you subscribe and take your money.

Don't pay for it. Waste of money IMO and a lot of the girls who are on the pay sites also have profiles on POF.

IMO it goes Tinder > POF > OKC.



Tinder is ideal because it's the most "fun" IMO. You aren't going to meet girlfriend material online, most likely, but for a FWB? Why not.



My best advice is this: Shave, get a haircut, don't look like a serial killer, and take pictures that involve either animals or other human beings. If you're a naturally funny person you'll have much better luck. Sometimes you just happen to run into crazy slutmuffins and it's your lucky day. There are times you get messages from girls who are completely straightforward, "I'm not meeting up with you unless I'm gonna get some action," or, "bring over a 6 pack...my place 30 minutes. I'll text you the address." Then you'll have a great conversation and they'll fall off the face of the earth. Don't be dissuaded. Sometimes you hit a dry spell and end up talking only to weirdos. It's not about how many times you swing the bat on these things, it's about how many times you hit the ball. Don't worry about batting averages - a takedown is a takedown.

My best advice is this: Shave,

But... my neckbeard...

get a haircut,

But... my neckbeard...

don't look like a serial killer,

Damn, that's my best look. =\

and take pictures that involve either animals or other human beings

Eww, socialising.

POF and OKCupid appear to have users all over the world. My cousin actually met his wife (I think it's going on 6 years now) on eharmony. It's certainly possible to find someone on any of those three sites.

Met my wife on Match.com (will be two years in June). It can work, but you have to be patient/persistent. Be ready for disappointment. But with luck, you can find that special someone.

POF

Beware. A friend of mine used one of these, which turned out to be more like the "Find the baby a daddy dating service".

Plenty of Fish. It's free and I had no issues, had about 5 dates that didnt work out before I met my current GF.

If you're sensible you should be able to weed out the nutters. Oh and do specifiy you're not interested in anyone with kids. It will save you allot of time wasting and hassle.

To be fair, the girl I dated from MDC was a psycho-Hosebeast.
Fun though, especially when she pulled the footlocker of "toys" out from under the bed...


Didn't last though.....
Probably just as well.

 snurl wrote:
Beware. A friend of mine used one of these, which turned out to be more like the "Find the baby a daddy dating service".

That's anywhere. Bar, church, online dating, subway, etc.

Keep your wits about you. I met more than 3 but less than 12 chicks through online dating. Only one was a fething nuts (she took her bipolar medication with a 7 and 7 on date one, which had immediately followed her group therapy session for depression related with an abusive father and exhusband...). That's not bad odds.

It's all about being choosy. Don't just go for the nice ass or 36DD.

Kronk...you are so Crixis.....

Don't get me wrong. Ignoring a nice ass or 36DD would be dumb, but only dating for that gets old...

 kronk wrote:
Don't get me wrong. Ignoring a nice ass or 36DD would be dumb, but only dating for that gets old...

I agree, I've done this and it isn't worth it in the long run - I'd been subjected to listening to Pitbull and random Portuguese music for too long :(

I've tried both PoF and OKCupid...

PoF is not at all user friendly in my opinion, the interface is clunky and looks like it was designed in 1992 by an amateur computer programmer... the girls on that site (at least in my area) tend to not really be the kind of girl you would wanna date (unattractive, overweight, don't have their gak together etc.). I quit within a day just because it was so user-unfriendly before I really tried it out.

OKCupid is sleek, sexy, and fun, the girls are of better 'quality' for the most part, BUUUT there are lots of scummy guys on the site who spam girls inboxes with requests for boobpics/dtf? type gak. I've managed to strike up quite a few conversations, but they typically fall flat within 2-3 messages and don't go anywhere... I did once manage to get a date (and later a relationship from said site)... the girl in question turned out to be underage and totally psychotic, and I swore off the site after that both because of that experience, but also the general frustration of pretty much every girl having the same exact profile (which is usually pretty useless for the purposes of actually trying to start up a conversation on some sort of common ground). My general opinion of the sites users is not unlike the common misogynistic view that you hear guys espousing (i.e. - "She says she wants a ncie guy that will treat her right and has a future, but only dates ex-cons and losers who abuse her" thing).

Some of my friends have had some more 'success' on the site... the girls they end up meeting and/or dating etc. are all unstable on some level or nothing to really write home about.

As for Tinder, I've tried it, the only matches I ever managed to get were with cambots (i.e. bots that try to get you to go onto a webcam site to pay for a show or whatever), so it didn't really do me any good.

In any case, the key to success on any of those sites is to have REALLY damned good photos, and I don't mean selfies/anything taken with a smartphone.

Match.com worked for me

When it comes to free stuff I think you get what you pay for. it shouldn't be hard to set aside some of your army men cash to find someone if you want to be serious about it.

Match was pretty dodgy when it comes to trying to stop it... There was a number of investigations / reports done about it. - I think they turned up on BBCs Watchdog a number of times.

You can disable, delete your account and they'd still take direct debit money off you. Only way to be completely sure was to go into your bank and tell them face to face.

Another for Match.Com.
I'd say you get more from a site you (and they) have to pay to use. I avoided free sites for that extra level of effort to get onto it.

I had no problems with billing.

But, Sods Law worked for me. I'd sent a message to my to-be wife, and she had to re-sub to read it Luckily she signed back up for 3 months, not just the one, or it wouldn't have worked out.

I think some sites are better for some people than others.
I found MDC had more older professional types on it, at least in my area. since I was in my early 30's and looking for that it suited me.

Now if your just looking for tail
Adult Friend Finder