Just when you thought it was safe - OK CUPID PART 3: The Return of the WOO!

But I would imagine that it creates this unnecessary monetisation of the decision to response, as in "is this person really worth paying £30 to continue conversing with?" Which is a ridiculous decision. Because who is? Or, rather, who can you tell who would be worth splashing out for, based on a profile and a facetious opening message?

(Good god, now I've had a good opening message and a frankly terrible one, I'm starting to put more importance on writing a good first line.)

I should stop overthinking this.

well yes it can lead down that road, but it actually didnt work out that way - i was interested in very few, so the ones that did seem worthwhile really stood out (caveat: i have unrealistic expectations about all aspects of life)

good first line is important! tenor is difficult, what is good for person A not necessarily for person B!), personal opinion is opening message should be on the short side, just enough to open a door - and the shorter the message the more that opening line is going to stand out

I googled this person and found their Facebook. Which is almost meaningless if you do not have one yourself, as it's just a list of... stuff. Liking Philip Glass, Excalibur, Carl Sagan, Tesla, Moore & Morrison etc. etc yes you have impeccable taste my friend but you also don't have a single woman in sight. Which is always a worrying sign to me. And a Facebook page looks even more impersonal and sterile than a dating site and contains even less information about what a person is like.

Stop pursuing the Impossible Thing because it's impossible, WCC. This way lies trouble.

The opening line is important, but what is most important is that it should be tailored to the individual, and show that you have read their profile carefully and noted something personal about them, but also express yourself. Impossible, if someone has a dull or tedious or impersonal profile, in other words.

I guess one lesson to learn, yet again, is that most people are unbearably boring. (And yes, I include myself in that observation.)

Not that I'm down on stuff, stuff is important. But lists of ~stuff~ say nothing about a person's emotional life. Except that they like stuff, and, well, who doesn't like stuff of one kind or another? I think less and less of taste in ~stuff~ as meaning anything any more.

hmm, im not a fan of the fb route - flickr (or similar) seems a lot more appropriate/suitable (but obv only if they have one)

lots of people are boring

but lots of other people only appear to be boring because they don't know how to present themselves to strangers - the 'list of stuff' thing is a case in point, and the longer the list the more impersonal it gets! keep that list shit short or say something about it imo!

I don't think that is the fault of a person on Facebook. I think it's the way that Facebook presents itself to non-members because they, too, want you to sign up for their services to find out anything about a person.

A Flickr is much better at getting across how a person sees the world and/or themselves. I've just been v v careful not to give anything too searchable on this site because, well, personal safety.

You're probably right about people appearing boring because they don't know how to present themselves, that's a very salient point. Perhaps writing an interesting profile shows only the skill of being an engaging *writer* rather than an interesting person. Because let's face it, being the former is not guarantee of being the latter.

Also some people appear to be boring until you get to know them, people can be slow burners too

By that time, they will be bored with me. I'm very shallow, remember. ;-)

FB is a different case imo as I see it as essentially for people that have already met and there is no necessary reason to present anything about self - sites like flickr have a presentational aspect, whatever that might be, in that there it is implicitly going to be looked at by strangers

I kinda forgot that Flickr shows your favourite photos to the world on your profile, but not your own.

So I just had to take a moment to clear a slightly embarrassing amount of photos of Thom Yorke out of my favourites so that it showed the normal photos of Cornish coastline, Wheals and purple paisleys to the world again.

This has probably been a very boring diversion for this thread to take. I do apologise. But it's good for me to learn things about how people perceive you/how you perceive others based on web presence as well as dating sites.

Most of my highest matches are looking for "a partner in crime."

and that crime is public lewdness?

My Croatian ex used to say that their translation of that is "someone to steal horses with."

I am going to put that in my profile right now.

Most of my highest matches are looking for "a partner in crime."

this is an epidemic in dating profiles! (i read them in the weekly sometimes, just to see what people say about themselves. i used to watch love connection for the same reason. don't judge.) anyway, the partner in crime is a common request.

"let's go for a coffee. and all the cash in the register."

I am soooo tired of 'partner in crime' and 'living life to its fullest'

i wish there were love connection dvds tbh
i loved that show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT5T2gyyAIg

Anything about living life or having "adventures" is an automatic dismissal, for me, on top of which people just write some wack shit! One guy was like, "Don't be someone who is always busy." Ooo---kay? So...someone who was just sitting at home until you called, that's what you're looking for?

xpost me too! i went on a youtube love connection binge a few weeks ago, i couldn't stop.

I am fine with "partner in crime" to describe a relationship, but I am surprised it is so prevalent. Maybe I will say "I am looking for someone to be my partner in a private detective agency. As a metaphor for our relationship, but also you should be open to accepting a few actual cases."

so, date tonight, ended up making out in my car for so long the bar staff surrounded my car and gave us a round of applause. sort of flattering, I suppose?

Blimey! Well done!

Just Like Heaven came on the jukebox, and I took her hands in mine and we sang along. So, the universe on my side for once.

Aw, that sounds like a lovely moment. It's nice when music and your mood align like that! Are you going to see her again?

I got my teenage dream, I just had to wait twenty years. Quite pleased, to be honest. (yes I shall see her again)

Ah, music framing the moment is always the lovliest <3 Good to hear, fhazel :)

And I know what you mean haha I'm a sucker for that happening too. (it did with this last guy - alas, sigh. Still happy memories and all that).

hopefully the bar staff wasn't doing the *slow clap*

unless it was this slow clap

I seem to have a date on Sunday. I'm rather dreading it to be honest. Trying to make it not a date, but a pleasurable activity I would do anyway that just involves meeting a stranger in the middle of it.

I'm just getting more and more discouraged. The gulp between "people I'm attracted to" and "people who are attracted to/or even look at me" is just disheartening. I'm just using "like" as a way of bookmarking people I think are astonishingly attractive but would never in a million years look at me. I'm trying to work up the courage to even message people but I can never think of anything to say. I have promised I will stick it out the month but it's sliding from "exciting" to "tedious" fairly quickly. And I've not even been doing this a week.

a million years is a long time and anyway if you've got a date obv someone looked at you

xp that's a pretty good representation of what hooking up can feel like actually

Maybe it will all go to hell tomorrow, but yeah that was just about perfect. In pop music terms, which, if I'm honest = my life. People here will feel this. Mark my words, beyond sex and romance and what have you... that was just about perfect.

I am extremely drunk.

Really enjoying happy sparkly drunk f.hazel. You are an inspiration to the curmudgeons of the world. Pop music really can make magic.

I'm just getting more and more discouraged. The gulf between "people I'm attracted to" and "people who are attracted to/or even look at me" is just disheartening.

However! This is, to be quite honest, where I started from about eight hours ago. Please do not... discount yourself. Any of you.

xpost :)

Thank you for correcting "gulp" to "gulf." I'm not even drunk, I just haven't had my tea yet.

Before I pass out, let me proclaim my undying love... for Cool Runnings.

oh yeah np and congrats

you earned it

but it's sliding from "exciting" to "tedious" fairly quickly

after about three days i'm going to agree w/ this, and i hate to say it but i realized that after oh, about a day, that i'd run through most of the available matches i was actually attracted to and at this point i'm kinda just window shopping which i can do IRL anyway and probably w/ more chance of success

like this is just basically speed dating w/o the being in a room part and w/ extra, uh, gamification or something

it's like putting a tight structure on something i already do/ at first it looked this great way to streamline the process but it's already kind of become a boring routine, check okcupid, see the same people at the top, hide a bunch of people, nope, didn't hear back from anybody, oh man how do i deflect these emails while still being friendly, etc

I thought "gulp" was a nice typo! Like "eep, gulp" :)

i should be spending this time just walking around my neighborhood and saying hi to every pretty girl with a small dog i see

i'm glad to hear it's working out for people though and it was cool to see everyone's profile

Window shopping IRL just feels impossible at my age. Most people are already partnered and I am horrendously bad at telling if they even have the right orientation for me.

I know I should get a decent haircut and fix my tooth and get some nice clothes instead of going around like a dirty dronerock schlump. The problem is, none of these things mattered when I was thin, but once you are no longer thin, being a dirty dronerock schlump is no longer a charming affectation and now an actual character flaw indicating severe laziness.

I've always been lazy and scatterbrained, it was just somehow more acceptable to others when I had less body fat. IDGI.

thanx for summing up my life WCC

except, y'know, not the dronerock bit

Also, that thing that Laurel said a while ago, about only really being attracted to people who make you nervous and give you the little flutter of nerves and "can I really pull this off?" in your stomach like looking at a cliff path you don't really think you can climb (until you find yourself on top of it) - OK, maybe that wasn't the exact metaphor she used. But something like that. It's very hard to shake that "I don't deserve this" feeling.

But it's like guilt, in that it's a negative emotion which is actually strangely pleasant to experience.

Really need to grow up and out of this.