Posts Tagged ‘online dating’

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Five Safety Tips for Online Dating


2009
12.10

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Posted in dating, tips | Comments

1. Trust your instincts. As humans, we have all been blessed with a com­plex psy­cho­log­i­cal tool we col­lo­qui­ally refer to as our ‘gut feel­ing’. This tool uses a com­bi­na­tion of con­scious and sub-conscious obser­va­tions and prompts to let us know when to get out of a given sit­u­a­tion. Never ignore your instincts. Refer to your ‘lit­tle inner voice’ every time you read a pro­file, a response to an email, have a phone con­ver­sa­tion or meet in person.

2. Take your time. In the ini­tial stages of online dat­ing, it is best to keep your per­sonal infor­ma­tion pri­vate. This includes your name, sur­name, home tele­phone num­ber and home address. It may seem prud­ish to with­hold this infor­ma­tion but there are some scary things you should be aware of, namely:

· With your home phone num­ber, any per­son could find out where you live, what your income is and even the value of your home.

· Your full name can allow peo­ple to ‘Google’ your name and per­form an inter­net search that may result in them know­ing where you work, what you do and even what your phone num­ber is.

· With both your home num­ber and your full name they can find out basi­cally everything.

3. Use anony­mous com­mu­ni­ca­tion meth­ods. Set up a free email account with Yahoo, Gmail or Hot­mail to facil­i­tate your email com­mu­ni­ca­tion and use a pre­paid cell phone account or Skype for tele­phone con­ver­sa­tions. This will allow you more time to get to know the per­son in ques­tion bet­ter before divulging any per­sonal details.

4. Use a rep­utable online dat­ing ser­vice. There is a say­ing that goes ‘you get what you pay for’ and this is true for online dat­ing as well. Free dat­ing ser­vices are all good and well, but take into account that ‘free’ means that peo­ple who use the site are com­pletely uniden­ti­fied since they don’t need to pro­vide any credit card infor­ma­tion. This pro­vides a greater oppor­tu­nity for poten­tially dan­ger­ous indi­vid­u­als to mis­use the platform.

5. Be on the look­out for odd char­ac­ter­is­tics. Once you start com­mu­ni­cat­ing with a poten­tial mate via email or tele­phone you should be wary of any odd char­ac­ter­is­tics you may notice. Are they eas­ily affronted, do they seem con­trol­ling, etc.? If you notice any­thing that is not above board, that should be your cue to tuck tail and run.

via fix​-email​-errors​.com

I knew a girl who was on Match​.com. She would talk to a guy for a week online, and then go on a date with him. It wasn’t that she did that. What was worse is that she would give her real home address, jump in his car, and have drinks with him. There were so many times that I try to tell her how dan­ger­ous that was, but she didn’t lis­ten. It’s def­i­nitely some­thing that is a big “No No” when doing online dating..

1. Trust your instincts. As humans, we have all been blessed with a com­plex psy­cho­log­i­cal tool we col­lo­qui­ally refer to as our ‘gut feel­ing’. This tool uses a com­bi­na­tion of con­scious and sub-conscious obser­va­tions and prompts to let us know when to get out of a given sit­u­a­tion. Never ignore your in … Posted via web from Love and the City


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Next Attempt: Chem​istry​.com


2009
12.07

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Online Dating Sites

I noticed this past week­end that Chem​istry​.com was hav­ing a free com­mu­ni­ca­tions week­end, so I decided to check it out. If you don’t know, Chem​istry​.com is Match’s ver­sion of eHar­mony, for the peo­ple try­ing to find love. I tried it once two years ago for the per­son­al­ity test, and then never went back on the site. When it first started, I didn’t like the lay­out, and there weren’t that many peo­ple on it, so I never gave it a chance.

This time around, I must say that I was impressed. The visual UI is great and it’s easy to nav­i­gate. Like eHar­mony, Chem​istry​.com goes through a series of steps before you can have open com­mu­ni­ca­tion with some­one, but it’s so much more user friendly and less time consuming.

So far, there are three guys who I like. The one I like the most is geeky (the way I like them), so I am hop­ing that he responds back to the short answers I sent him. I am now ask­ing guys up front if they are emo­tion­ally healthy because the last guy I was into turned out to be a HOT MESS!

Def­i­nitely will keep you updated on how Chem​istry​.com turns out.

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Online Dating vs. Matchmakers


2009
10.16

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Posted in dating, tips | Comments

luv

Online dat­ing can be a daunt­ing expe­ri­ence, espe­cially when you are being intro­duced to dat­ing after a long hia­tus. You sift through tons of pro­files, and respond to the ones you like. You finally decide to meet one of the poten­tials and decide on a meet­ing spot. After one (or pos­si­bly two dates), you never hear from that per­son again. This con­tin­ues until you are ready to give up and crawl into a dark hole. You don’t know what else to do. You are a highly suc­cess­ful sin­gle who has a busy life and hasn’t found much suc­cess in leav­ing it up to des­tiny. Addi­tion­ally, you are selec­tive in who you date and want to find some­one who com­ple­ments you. What other alter­na­tive is there? Match­mak­ing ser­vices are a great way to find high-quality sin­gles in your area. Match­mak­ers pro­vide a per­son­al­ized ser­vice that will elim­i­nate that headache and time caused by online dating.

Prob­lem #1: Fake profiles

You come across the per­fect pro­file. She is beau­ti­ful, intel­li­gent, and has a great per­son­al­ity. You mes­sage her and hopes she responds back. Two things either occur: 1. She turns out to be a porn or strip­per ser­vice try­ing to lure you into using them or 2. You meet her in per­son, and she is a com­plete oppo­site of what you saw online.

Solu­tion: Match­mak­ers meet each individual

By using a match­mak­ing ser­vice, you elim­i­nate these issues because the match­mak­ing team meets each and every indi­vid­ual who wants to use them. They screen and run back­ground checks on every­one to make sure that they are legit. It’s great because you don’t waste time with spam­mers and peo­ple mis­rep­re­sent­ing them­selves, which is a huge relief.

Prob­lem #2: No help in find­ing the right match

If you are being intro­duced to dat­ing, you are pretty much clue­less as to how to go about it. Wouldn’t it be great to have some­one assist­ing you through the entire process? Some online dat­ing ser­vices claim they offer help in find­ing the right match, but they are usu­ally generic advice that is offered to every­one. Not every­one is going to date the same, so it really doesn’t do much in the end.

Solu­tion: Match­mak­ers are your guides

Match­mak­ers are with you every step of the way. They offer you advice on things you are doing well and need some adjust­ing. Their advice is tai­lored to your needs, so you are not get­ting the advice some­one else received. Addi­tion­ally, they fol­low up with you after the date. You never feel like you are going through this dat­ing process alone because there is always some­one they’re check­ing up on you. You are never alone to decide because there is always some­one there to assist you.

Prob­lem #3: Iden­tity theft is an issue

Iden­tity theft is an increas­ing issue in this coun­try. Online dat­ing ser­vices are not able to fully pro­tect you from this crime because there is no back­ground checks run on the peo­ple using them. There­fore, there is no ver­i­fi­ca­tion of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, so you never know who these peo­ple really are. Addi­tion­ally, there are no fed­eral reg­u­la­tions on how online dat­ing ser­vices should be used and who is using them.

Solu­tion: Match­mak­ers make sure they know the peo­ple they are work­ing with

As stated pre­vi­ously, match­mak­ers run thor­ough check on every­one who uses their ser­vice. They want to ensure that they have the best peo­ple in their com­mu­nity. We’ve all heard hor­ror sto­ries about rape that has occurred dur­ing online dat­ing. By using a match­maker, you min­i­mize this tragedy from hap­pen­ing because the match­maker knows whom they are deal­ing with on a per­sonal level.

Prob­lem #4: The frus­tra­tion of deal­ing with profiles

Pro­files can be a frus­trat­ing expe­ri­ence. One thing is that the more appeal­ing peo­ple get flooded with emails, which frus­trates them, and they quit. This causes many pro­files to appear as active, when they really aren’t. There­fore, you never know if the per­son you write is ignor­ing you, or just stopped using the service.

Solu­tion: Every­one you meet is real

Peo­ple who use match­mak­ing ser­vices pay a good amount to be part of the com­mu­nity. Addi­tion­ally, the match­mak­ing team speaks to each and every per­son, so you never have to waste your time check­ing out a pro­file, only to find out that there is no one behind it.

Prob­lem #5: Won­der­ing if per­son wants a seri­ous relationship

With online dat­ing, you never know if the per­son wants a seri­ous rela­tion­ship unless they write in their pro­file. There is also the risk that the per­son is really mar­ried and is try­ing to com­mit adultery.

Solu­tion: Peo­ple using match­mak­ing ser­vices are usu­ally look­ing for a long-term relationship

If you went to a match­maker, then that means you are seri­ous. No one who doesn’t want a seri­ous rela­tion­ship would waste their time using a match­maker, espe­cially with all the other dat­ing ser­vice alter­na­tives out there. You always have a sense of hope using match­mak­ers because many of the headaches caused by online dat­ing go away.