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An Evidence-Based Approach To Online Dating

HughPickens.com writes Rachel Nuwer writes in the NYT that Dr. Sameer Chaudhry's online dating persona was garnering no response from the women he reached out to so he synthesized 86 literature studies on the subject of online dating in the fields of psychology, sociology, and computer, behavioral, and neurocognitive sciences.in hopes of improving his odds. As it turns out, success begins with picking a user name. While men are drawn to names linked to physical traits (e.g., Cutie), the researchers found, women prefer ones that indicate intelligence (e.g., Cultured). Both sexes respond well to playful names (e.g. Fun2bwith) and shy away from ones with negative connotations (e.g., Bugg). User names that begin with letters from the first half of the alphabet do better than those from the latter half. "As human beings, we have a tendency to give things at the top of a pile more value," says Khan. As for your profile photo, pick a photo with a genuine smile, one that crinkles the eyes, and with a slight head tilt (it's linked to attractiveness). And if you're looking for a male partner, go for that photo of you in siren red—a color that enhances men's attraction to women. "For those attracted to browse into the profile, a description of personal traits increased likeability when it: showed who the dater was and what they were looking for in a 70:30 ratio; stayed close to reality; and employed simple language with humor added. Invitations were most successful in obtaining a response from the potential date when they: were short personalized messages addressing a trait in their profile; rhymed with their screen name or headline message; and extended genuine compliments." And finally, don't wait too long before arranging a face to face meeting.

172 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Rule #1 for successful dating by greg1104 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do not spend your time synthesizing literature studies.

    1. Re:Rule #1 for successful dating by war4peace · · Score: 1

      What else would you expect from someone called Sameer Chaudhry who lives in Dallas?
      I'm fairly sure he would have gotten plenty of responses on an Indian dating site.
      (disclaimer: this post isn't racist, I would expect close to no responses if I tried dating on an Indian site)

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  2. Instead of fixing his online dating profile, by PerlPunk · · Score: 4, Funny

    He should have just gone for an arranged marriage.

    1. Re:Instead of fixing his online dating profile, by fraxinus-tree · · Score: 3, Funny

      Arranged marriage: worked for me. But failed for a lot more. So the online dating is not that bad - you can fail on your own.
      Well, I had a dishonest advantage: My mother is a perfect offline dating service. She is a teacher in a high school. So she knows A LOT of young people very well and develops closer relations with clever ones.

    2. Re:Instead of fixing his online dating profile, by PerlPunk · · Score: 1

      Worked for me, too.

    3. Re:Instead of fixing his online dating profile, by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Arranged marriage: worked for me. But failed for a lot more

      I guess it matters who's doing the arranging. One of the happiest couples I know were an arranged marriage, but the parents who did the arranging were some extraordinary people with great sensitivity, understanding of their young people and remarkable wit.

      I shudder to think who my mom would have arranged me with. Certainly not with the woman I've been married to for 27 years, that's for sure. Don't get me wrong, I love my mom, but she didn't know what I like in women. And my wife's parents certainly would never have chosen me.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    4. Re:Instead of fixing his online dating profile, by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      I shudder to think who my mom would have arranged me with too. Either a bunch of women who wouldn't have been interested in me at all, or some homely and utterly boring religious women probably.

  3. Thank you by ls671 · · Score: 1, Funny

    Thank you, Thank you.

    I do not know how to thank you enough for this advice, I am going to make use of it from now on.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    1. Re: Thank you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Are you changing your nicknames to As671 ?

    2. Re: Thank you by Lennie · · Score: 1

      I would suggest: _Aardvark007

      --
      New things are always on the horizon
    3. Re: Thank you by Redmancometh · · Score: 1

      Why are women concerned so much with the heap? The stack is equally important.

  4. Thought it would be different by BlueTrin · · Score: 1

    From the title, I thought someone would have tried to compile all of this info in a bot who would use machine learning to find the potential matches.

    --
    Don't you know it is now both immoral and criminal to think beyond the next quarterly report?
  5. Bad Advice by StormReaver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Anyone who follows this advice deserves what they get.

    The age old advice still stands: be yourself.

    If someone wants you for who you're not, rather than who you are, you are better off just moving on. Here's what I posted on my blog years ago after marrying a wonderful woman I met on Plenty of Fish:

    I was recently reading the front page of plentyoffish.com, a dating web site where my wife and I first met (we recreated a joint account to submit a testimonial), that provided a very long, detailed opinion piece to a young man about how to behave in order to win a girl that he was very attracted to. It was from a so-called dating expert, and contained some of the worst drivel that men cling to in hopes of landing a wife.

    The given advice was to act distant, indifferent, and aloof; that showering her with affection made him look desperate and goofy. We men turn to this kind of garbage when we're not having much luck with women. We turn to this crap when we actually do become desperate.

    It took me a long time to realize what should have been self-evident all along: the old advice of just being yourself is, by far, the best advice you could possibly get. Being yourself isn't intended to improve upon the quantity of women you attract. It is intended to improve upon the quality of women you attract. Not surprisingly, the exact same advice applies equally to women. Don't follow those stupid "rules" such as not making the first move. All those rules are complete and utter crap, and will just make you even more miserable than you already are.

    All the little head games and misdirections that you have learned are intended to achieve one thing: a brief relationship. They are not the doorway to a lasting marriage, but rather just the path to multiple meaningless disappointments. You will not be able to maintain the charade you have built, and will always fail in the long run. She will always see through you eventually. You will eventually slip up and expose yourself for the fraud you are, and you will be back to square one.

    If she is not interested in who you really are, then you do not want her (regardless of what your hormones may tell you). It doesn't matter how pretty, gorgeous, sexy, or otherwise desirable she may seem. If she is not attracted to who and what you are, then any meaningful relationship with her is doomed. She will eventually (but usually quickly) tire of you, and move on to the next guy.

    I am a software developer, and spend most of my time in front of a computer. When I was dating, I tried hard to hide that from my dates. All the advice I had been given was that women were turned off by the kind of geeky guy who spent that much time with his computer. I tried to list other interests on the dating site (tenuous as those interests were), tried focusing on what I thought women wanted, and every other trick I could think of that was even remotely true (and some that were very much not true when I reached a certain point of disillusion). Maintaining the illusion was very difficult, as that isn't who I am.

    In the end, it was those very traits that my wife tells me were the most attractive to her. It turns out that her life had been full of too much stress, anxiety, and drama. An easy-going, caring, intelligent, homebody of a man is exactly what she had been looking for, and couldn't find, for a very long time (we were both in our late 30's). She would not have been at all interested in the man I had tried pretending to be, but was hopelessly in love with the man I actually am. Who we really are is what allows us to connect on a very deep, lasting level.

    It took us both a very long time to find each other (strictly speaking, she found me), and we both suffered some horrible emotional scarring in our prior lives apart, but that scarring is what allowed us to appreciate what we have together.

    So although it may hurt in the short term, it's better to be rejected by women for who you are than to be accepted by women for who you are not. You will eventually find that woman who will love you for who you are, even if you have to go through many painful rejections along the way. The women who accept you for who they want you to be will always desert you. No exceptions.

    1. Re:Bad Advice by Livius · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The age old advice still stands: be yourself.

      That's fantastic advice if "yourself" is in the top 1% of the most awesome prospects. Those people don't need any advice at all.

      The best the rest of us can do is to be ourselves after first improving ourselves.

      Unfortunately you can't get to the long term without short term and in reality, being fake is phenomenally successful for the short to medium term. It generally works as long as the plausible deniability lasts.

    2. Re: Bad Advice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You didn't say if you met your wife, initially, on a 'lie' in your profile though.

    3. Re:Bad Advice by BonThomme · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "...after first improving ourselves."

      This.

      This. This. This.

      If you put all the free time you have not-dating toward this, you'll suddenly see all your free time disappear in the most wonderful ways.

    4. Re:Bad Advice by bmo · · Score: 1

      All the advice I had been given was that women were turned off by the kind of geeky guy who spent that much time with his computer.

      >in facebook
      >online acquaintance who knows I'm a geek opens chat and is frustrated with her computer
      >she trusts me enough to log in remotely through Teamviewer.

      She proceeded to ask me questions, because all she really knew about me was my facebook page. No, I'm not gay, but I have a lot of gay friends thus the gay rights stuff on my page. I'm older than your sister and closer to your age. Yes, I'm single.

      >get to seriously talking
      >get to the point of trading THESE ARE THE THINGS WHY YOU SHOULD RUN THE HELL AWAY
      >both reach the conclusion "that's not a big deal"
      >my plans for a weekend fall through. "Hey, why don't you come down and we hang out in Boston?"
      >meet
      >hit it off immediately.
      >skedaddle off to Concord NH.

      and we both suffered some horrible emotional scarring in our prior lives apart, but that scarring is what allowed us to appreciate what we have together.

      This is why the "you should run away" stuff didn't discourage either of us, and in practice, the baggage is recognized for what it is. "Like old boxers comparing scars."

      it's better to be rejected by women for who you are than to be accepted by women for who you are not.

      I consider it an idiot filter. It's useful. Plus "keeping up appearances" is far too much work anyway.

      It's been over a year with no end in sight, really.

      >finding love later in life
      >hopelessly in love with each other

      All the previous bullshit was worth it in the long run even if a lot of it was unnecessary and stupid.

      --
      BMO

    5. Re:Bad Advice by umafuckit · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Anyone who follows this advice deserves what they get. The age old advice still stands: be yourself.

      The summary provides suggestions on choosing a user name, what sort of photo to take (which it suggests should have real smile) and to include real personal traits in the description of yourself. How is this in contradiction of the age old advice?

    6. Re:Bad Advice by Livius · · Score: 1

      Being yourself has far more to do with actually being honest in not only who you are, but the kind of people you want to hang around with.

      This works if you are already the "right" kind of person. It is counter-productive for everyone else.

      And you can't fool the people who have already tried it.

    7. Re:Bad Advice by bmo · · Score: 1

      It's like I'm really on 4chan /pol/.

      >dissing honesty and self awareness

      Good luck with that.

      --
      BMO

    8. Re:Bad Advice by StormReaver · · Score: 1

      How is this in contradiction of the age old advice?

      Is that representative of who you are? Are those things that represent your personality, or are you just doing those things because someone told you to do them? What happens when you are on your own? Or are you going to look on the Internet hoping to find an answer to every one of your life choices?

      If it's not how you would have portrayed yourself, you're going to lose when you're on your own and have to stand on your own personality. You will eventually expose yourself as a fraud.

      Make your own decisions about how to show who you really are, and be true to who you are and what you want in a lifelong mate. This article is a "Getting Started In Gaming The System" guide, which is the same as projecting yourself as a liar. I wouldn't have wanted any woman who was attracted to that, regardless of how much I thought I would have been happy with a woman who was attracted to that.

    9. Re:Bad Advice by umafuckit · · Score: 1

      If it's not how you would have portrayed yourself, you're going to lose when you're on your own and have to stand on your own personality. You will eventually expose yourself as a fraud.

      That would be true if the advisor were putting words into people's mouths (telling them exactly what to say). But my impression is that this isn't the case (beyond thing such as "wear red", which seem innocuous enough to me). Maybe you're right that this advice borders on "gaming the system" (e.g. username choice) but it's not right, IMO, to say that following this advice will cause you to present a fraudulent image of yourself. It just helps you maximise what you've got.

      The advice in the article is no different from the role make up plays on a woman. It makes a heck of a lot of difference but it's not fraud.

    10. Re:Bad Advice by heldal · · Score: 1

      That's fantastic advice if "yourself" is in the top 1% of the most awesome prospects.

      It'll work quite fine for everyone looking for a partner within their own league.

    11. Re:Bad Advice by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      I once read a book about martial arts or Zen, don't remember.

      As it is with those books it was full with anecdotes.

      One was about a teacher and his unhappy student. When the student asked how he could beat a guy in a competition, the teacher took a piece of chalk and drew a line on the ground, telling the student: 'this is you'.
      Then he drew a parallel line, a longer one, besides it and said: 'This is your competitor.'

      'You have to make the competitors line shorter than yours.'

      The student did not really grasp it and after thinking a long time he tried to wipe out a part of the competitors line with his feet, which did not work so good.

      Seeing that, the teacher came again, took the chalk again, and extended the students line, so that the competitors line was shorter than his.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    12. Re:Bad Advice by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      The summary provides suggestions on choosing a user name,

      Studman69. What else?

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    13. Re:Bad Advice by Your.Master · · Score: 1

      Real personal traits are, in fact, representative of who you are and what your personality is.

    14. Re:Bad Advice by Slashdot+Parent · · Score: 1

      The age old advice still stands: be yourself.

      If "yourself" is someone who doesn't know how to make interesting online dating profiles, then you're not going to have much luck. There are 1,000,001 ways to present yourself. You're the same person for all of them. It's just that some will generate more interest than others.

      --
      They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
    15. Re:Bad Advice by BobSutan · · Score: 1

      "The age old advice still stands: be yourself."

      WRONG. Be your _best_ self.

      --
      "On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
    16. Re:Bad Advice by Heart44 · · Score: 1

      Yes, exactly. If you are truly yourself, as you are, good and bad then you can have a true relationship. If it starts out with less than truth there will have to be adjustments later on.

  6. Re:Boring by alen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    yep, women makes lists of features they want in a mate. 70%- 80% is about not only what they settle for but what they want since they want a lifelong project to change a man into their image. 100% perfect is too boring

  7. Re:Define "success" by ifiwereasculptor · · Score: 2

    If it's for a life partner, it's the result of a gross misconception. Your profile in dating sites is supposed to restrict your responses to those from people you might get along with, not to maximize responses. Of course you want to maximize responses from people suited to you, so you might want to refrain from posting pictures in unflattering lighting or of, say, your penis being inserted into a meat grinder (even if well lit). Unless it's really important to you that your would-be partner approves of that kind of thing, I suppose - in this case, it might be justifiable. At least you'll be getting messages to ask if the grinder was turned on. And you could respond with "no, but you'll be". You know what? Screw my hasty reproach, it sounds like the best idea I ever had.

  8. Re:Only important Online Dating rule. by r_a_trip · · Score: 2

    Sounds like a match...

    --
    # touch universe # chmod +rwx universe # ./universe
  9. Re:Define "success" by fraxinus-tree · · Score: 1

    ...unless you spend too much time and resource, you know, choosing...

  10. Re:Only important Online Dating rule. by fraxinus-tree · · Score: 1

    You are somehow similar to the potential partner. Looks like a good start.

  11. Rule #1 for successful dating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Rule #2. Just don't do online dating. Even if you can improve your odds from 1 in 100 to 2 in 100...is that really worth the effort?

  12. Most important parameter for men: height by blind+biker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I perfunctorily looked at TFA, and it doesn't mention height at all. This is ridiculous, and any man with even the most basic experience with online dating knows that height is perhaps the most important number in your online profile. The higher that number is, the more likely one is to receive invitations from women. I actually made an experiment, once, where I created to fake profiles that were almost identical, except for height, and the profile that had a height 10 cm larger than the other, got about 40 TIMES more contact requests (175 cm vs. 190 cm).

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
    1. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      the profile that had a height 10 cm larger than the other, got about 40 TIMES more contact requests (175 cm vs. 190 cm).

      I hope you did not also quote 'maths' as one of your skills...

    2. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      man below 165cm will probably have close to zero chance

      Thankfully you are wrong. Look at the averge height of women in many asian, african and latin countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

      That 165cm dude just needs to try out all the flavors of the ice cream shop buffet!

    3. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by Zibodiz · · Score: 2

      Wear cowboy boots. They're basically pumps for men, and a lot of people find them sexy.
      That having been said, I'm 5'7", and I was always intimidated by women who were taller than about 5'4". My wife is 5'2". If I had lied about my height to get more dates, I would have wound up with plenty hot chicks who would make me feel uncomfortable the whole time. As it is, I'd rather only get replies from a few girls I find attractive, who at least won't intimidate me when we go out.
      I tried online dating for a while. I tried in-person dating for a while, with girls I met at work (I was a young guy working in the food services industry.) In the end, the girl I fell in love with and married was someone I met by accident and became best friends with. We met over the Internet, but not through a dating website, and I was rather disinterested in dating when we met. After years of friendship, we realized that we had something more than just friendship, and started making plans to meet in person (she's from Canada, I'm from the USA.) We knew each other for about 4 years before getting married, and we've now been happily married for 7 years. While trying to find girls to date, I met some who were somewhat interesting, and who I might have had an okay life with, but the girl I married is so much better of a match; it's not even a contest. Contrary to what Hollywood teaches you, your friends are the best candidates for love; they like being around you, and share your interests and probably your personality.

    4. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by blind+biker · · Score: 2

      It was a honest typo :) But it made me laugh when I realized it (thanks to you pointing it out).

      --
      "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
    5. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by umdesch4 · · Score: 1

      Glad somebody came here to say this, as I was going to point out the same obvious fact. Even being relatively well off, a "nice" guy with a diversity of interests, etc. matters little when you're 5'5". I know this from +40 years of experience. I have so many amazing lifelong friends who think I'm an awesome guy, but during the periods where I was single for years, I was very cognizant of what the "deal-breaker" was. Study after study after study has proven this.

    6. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      No. You missed the boat, so to speak.

      Since you write as someone from the USA, plenty of your fellow citizens and immigrants are from those countries. And I forgot to mention also the UK countries where average height below 165cm, meaning half the women there are even shorter.

      So all the flavors ice cream buffet, from double choco-fudge to custard to mango to vanilla, are just a short hop away for you, and they speak English, and long term relationship possible.

    7. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by wiredlogic · · Score: 1

      The worst part is that all the women assume you're lying and have inflated by 1" / 3cm. It just shows how shallow they are when choosing a mate.

      --
      I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
    8. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by rmdingler · · Score: 1
      There are things you can change about yourself, and things you cannot.

      If being less than average height in your era is the biggest deformity you have, you got a pretty good package.

      Besides, being born tall, lean, athletic, and beautiful often leads to coasting through life. Being born short, ugly, and pudgy often leads to overachieving.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    9. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      You use phrases and wordings in both your posts only a U.S. writer would use.

      And those OTHER english speaking countries in UK, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, UK all have the "shorter than 165 cm average" going on, PLENTY of women 5cm or more shorter than that.

      Those women of other (shorter) ethnic backgrounds will be in online dating in US and Canada (if you want to claim just over the river), so your point is invalid

    10. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by umdesch4 · · Score: 1

      I don't know about online, since I haven't tried it, but I'll tell you, there's nothing like sitting at a dinner party, having three women arrive and sit across from you, have an engaging 2+ hour conversation with all three of them practically competing for your attention, all but ignoring the other men at the table...and then when it's time to leave, you all stand up, and you see their smiles fade just the slightest bit, and know that none of them will be calling you. I can't even count the number of times something like that had happened. I did manage, after many years, to find a woman who doesn't care that I'm short, but to say that it's an invalid point, well...I'm glad you think so, but I beg to differ.

    11. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by Your.Master · · Score: 1

      And those immigrants are already counted in the statistics for the US height.

    12. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 1

      Wear cowboy boots. They're basically pumps for men, and a lot of people find them sexy.

      And some people find them as gay as the indian in the Village People.

      Wearing work apparel on a date is a double-edged sword. For every bit of macho it conveys it also conveys a sense of "Why the hell is he wearing that on a date!?" Unless you're going two-stepping or actually are a cowboy, it's probably best to leave the boots home. Just sayin'.

      --
      That is all.
    13. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by Zibodiz · · Score: 1

      That's a fair point; Out here in the cowboy-western region of the US where I live, *everyone* wears cowboy boots, with at least 25% of the people wearing them exclusively. Then again, the only locally broadcast radio stations we have are country, and full-sized trucks make up nearly half the vehicles on the road*
      I imagine, though, that most big cities would be an odd place to see someone wearing boots on a first date. Unless your dating profile says you're a grammy-winning country star, in which case, anything goes.

      *Slightly related tangent: Being both a geek and a gearhead, I've used the downtime at my shop to conduct various car studies. My shop has large glass windows pointed directly out at a busy highway that melds into Main Street in my town just a few blocks away from my shop, and I've tracked all of the vehicles coming & going for multiple days. 46% of the non-commercial vehicles were trucks (as defined as any vehicle with an open bed), and while I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, I believe the ratio of SUVs/CUVs/full-sized vans to cars & minivans for the remainder of the vehicles was about 3:1. Pretending to be macho isn't even optional here, it's mandatory. Being a fan of small Japanese imports puts me in about the smallest automotive minority; I think there are even more European cars in our town than Japanese.

    14. Re:Most important parameter for men: height by RyoShin · · Score: 1

      Here's an article about how your listed height can affect your chances. There's a "ceiling" for women and a "floor" for men, according to this study (though that link is Daily Mail, so don't bet your life on this info.)

  13. We're nerds by penguinoid · · Score: 2

    The age old advice still stands: be yourself.

    Certainly, but most people want to make a good first impression. And most people here are willing to study how to do that. Or are you suggesting that people here should not be true to themselves, that in this special case they should go with their gut instead of studying and learning from more knowledgeable people like they would any other issue?

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    1. Re:We're nerds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's exactly what I was going to say. To ignore scientific data would be the exact opposite of being myself, and I guess that's true for most people here.

  14. Gender is not the real issue... by fraxinus-tree · · Score: 1

    If you need an overnight relationship it does not really matter, as long as it fits the need. If you look for a long, probably lifelong one, you generally get to know a lot more for the other person, besides the tiny gender issues. And no, you did not come from the simpler time. You just had luck. These gender uncertainities are in no way new.

    1. Re:Gender is not the real issue... by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      Biological gender a huge issue for most people, your viewpoint is in the minority. Natural disorders in biological gender are farily rare, 0.1% or less

      Not XX and not XY one in 1,666 births
      Klinefelter (XXY) one in 1,000 births
      Androgen insensitivity syndrome one in 13,000 births
      Partial androgen insensitivity syndrome one in 130,000 births
      Classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia one in 13,000 births
      Complete gonadal dysgenesis one in 150,000 births
      Vaginal agenesis one in 6,000 births
      Ovotestes one in 83,000 births
      Idiopathic (no discernable medical cause) one in 110,000 births

    2. Re:Gender is not the real issue... by fraxinus-tree · · Score: 1

      Biological gender a huge issue for most people:
      Yes, I know. So is for me. Exactly that much important is the sexual orientation. It is still not an issue in online dating.

    3. Re:Gender is not the real issue... by Beeftopia · · Score: 1

      I think I have an insight on homosexuality and transgenderism ("Oh boy, this should be good," you're thinking - no, no, I'm respectful and support their pursuit of happiness): So, I know this lesbian couple. One female is petite, very feminine, big boobs, quite traditionally attractive. The other partner is a more blocky sort, more male, big, has kind of a beer belly sort of female. She looks like a friend of mine, who's a guy, a former top high school athlete who's let himself go.

      I thought - interesting how the petite woman is attracted to a shape that is reminiscent of a male, yet the target of the attraction is a female. I'm guessing there's got to be a pheromone that the petite one is attracted to - one part of her brain likes the male shape and image, but she's "turned on" by the female scent. And I suppose similar holds true for the bigger, more male partner, except she likes both the scent and the image of the female.

      Coming back to the thread subject, I don't think a pure hetero male is going to be attracted to a transgender female, because the transgender female (XY chromosome) is not generating the female "scent". It might work for a bi male, but I seriously doubt it could for a pure hetero male.

      Homosexuality I think is about a person being attracted to the "scent" of his own gender, first and foremost. Secondarily, what seems to differ is whether they're attracted to the image of the opposite sex represented by their own gender, or whether they're attracted to image of the same sex as well. Two separate channels, scent-attraction and image-attraction.

  15. Or... by drooling-dog · · Score: 1

    ...you could just ask someone out that you meet in person, thus avoiding all of this investment of time and effort before you even know that there's going to be a basic mutual attraction. You're going to have to interact face-to-face eventually anyway.

    1. Re:Or... by Shados · · Score: 2

      As someone in a relationship of 11 years and going (about half of that married) with someone I met online... The thing with starting with someone you know meet face to face, is that the first criterias that got you together is physical location and possibly physical appearance. The former is definitely convenient, the later is necessary to most people, but neither are usually the first thing of importance for a potential long running relationship.

      If the first thing that gets you with someone is some kind of mutual interest (in my case, it was videogames and computer science interests), you start from there, there happens to be physical appeal too, and then you fix the location, things are much more likely to work out.

      You can do that in person to with specialty interest groups (ie: I could have met someone at PAX or something...), and things can go wrong if you do it wrong (pick someone by their picture on match.com), but generally, it seems to be by far the easiest way to go, meet online by interest.

    2. Re:Or... by nukenerd · · Score: 1

      ...you could just ask someone out that you meet in person, thus avoiding all of this investment of time and effort before you even know that there's going to be a basic mutual attraction. You're going to have to interact face-to-face eventually anyway.

      Care to offer any advice how to meet this "someone" in person? Because I never found out. Almost the only girls I saw around when I was of potentially courting age were ones that happened to be walking past in the street. The very few social occasions at which any girls were present they were outnumbered by men at least 5:1, and in a room of 25 men and 5 girls there were bound to be at least 5 men more charming than me (usually the married ones in fact as they were used to dealing with women). I did try to start a conversation a few times but was told to fuck off, or words to that effect. Never bothered again, I kept to dating clubs (this was before the Internet).

      You could invest a lot of time and effort joining like art or poetry clubs in the hope of meeting girls (they don't join model engineering clubs in my experience) only to find that any you find there are already-married/have-a-boyfriend-already/not-interested/joined-only-because-they-actually-like-art-or-poetry/ugly/lesbian/ten-years-older-than-you/6ft-tall/dont-like-you-anyway. All that shit can be cut out by joining a dating organisation.

      Of course you are going to have to interact face-to-face eventually; that's the point. Online-dating critics for some reason seem to think that they are about relationships that are confined to being online. That game exists too, but it is a differnt game; don't confuse them.

  16. The Rosie effect by dhaen · · Score: 1

    Anyone who thinks this is a good idea should read: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Ro... Possibly the funniest read I've ever had, especially as I saw elements of myself in his character... Oh and if you thinks it's a bad idea I still recommend the book.

  17. Can confirm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I am diagnosed autistic, balding, stack shelves for a living, have a huge comics web site and my favorite topic is tax reform. But I am also 6 foot 6. So I was never short of dates on OKCupid.

    (All of that is true BTW)

    And I am currently engaged to the most wonderful woman in the world, thanks to the aforementioned site: She is beautiful, sexy, intelligent, capable, funny, incredibly kind, etc. and was only single because people found her own height intimidating (she is north of 6 foot). She replied to my initial contact specifically because of my height. Since then we found other things in common, but not until the 2nd or 3rd email.

    So is height one of the top reasons for dating? HELL YES.

    1. Re:Can confirm by wiredlogic · · Score: 1

      Rare is the American woman who will settle for a man who doesn't bring them status. Height is the easiest to go for with the usual requirement that he still be taller when she's in 4" heels. Some will settle for social status like Dennis Kucinich's wife but rest assured he wouldn't have her if he was a garbage man.

      --
      I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
    2. Re:Can confirm by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      But he speaks the truth, for this is a much-commented on phenomenon. Look through some profiles. How many men put a height requirement in their profiles? Now look at how many women.

      My own solution to this problem was a radical one, and is not for everybody, but it definitely worked: move to Japan.

    3. Re:Can confirm by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      Despite all my dating in Japan, it happened that my eventual wife came from a totally unexpected third country. The universe has a habit of doing the unexpected.

  18. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by 50000BTU_barbecue · · Score: 2

    That's why I always start with penis pictures. I'm still single.

    --
    Mostly random stuff.
  19. Re:Boring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    So *that's* why I'm still single!

  20. rhymed with their screen name or headline message by Arancaytar · · Score: 1

    wait what? Is that a thing people do?

  21. online dating by alisamsun · · Score: 1

    So keen for online dating as well

  22. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm not sure it's possible with current machine earning algorithms, but attempting a match without a computer is disasterous. For instance, I married a beautiful 23 y/o with an education and a good job and now 10 years later she's a 48 y/o crack whore. IDENTITY FRAUD IS SERIOUS. Keep your systems patched.

  23. In other words... by tompaulco · · Score: 2

    In other words, don't be yourself, try to be something you are not in order to attract someone who then hopefully will be willing to settle when they find out who you really are. Brilliant! Just start the whole relationship on the basis of deception.
    This works great in business. You get somebody hooked on your product with a bunch of promises and by the time they find out they are too deep in to back out. Not sure how well it works in relationships. Oh, wait, the divorce rate continues to rise even though there is a huge jump in the number of couples living together and not getting married at all. Huh, I guess founding your relationship on a lie is a bad idea after all.

    --
    If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
  24. Re:Define "success" by rubycodez · · Score: 1

    or simulating with pr0n and a hand

  25. Re:Define "success" by vux984 · · Score: 1

    Good question about the study, but I'd suppose that the larger the sample you get to meet, the more likely you'd find either.

    So you should check off bi-sexual? The logic being that we suppose (for the sake of argument) the female response rate might drop off a bit as a result, but you'll more then make up for it with the additional male responses increasing the gross total, thereby improving your odds of finding that special someone!

    Hmmm....

  26. Re:Smart men avoid marriage, period. by rubycodez · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Gee, you've made me realize my 18 year old marriage will go up in smoke any minute now, I'm so scared. Shoulda stayed single. Should never have had those children.

    Marriage can work if both people want it to work.

  27. Re:Boring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Women lie about what they want. They even lie to themselves what they want. When they think they have found what they want, they change the lie to themselves so it is completely different.

    You will never win. Never bet half your lives earnings on a woman. She will end up taking it every time. It is just too tempting of a quick get rich scheme for them not to do it.

    Oh, did I mention that women lie about what they want?

    Captcha: congress

    Who makes this $#!T up.

  28. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

    Unless the "female" you've been talking to is actually a male and has themselves convinced that you'll accept them anyways once you get to know them.

    I've seen this happen on more than one occasion, and oddly enough the gender changer wonders why they get a violent reaction because they have themselves convinced that the whole world thinks your actual gender is just whatever you decide it is.

  29. Re:What most people's filters really are by wwphx · · Score: 2

    When I met my wife online some 12 years ago my profile photo was me in my renaissance festival garb, complete with a Cyrano mask, so she couldn't see what I looked like. We'll be celebrating our 10th anniversary in a couple of months.

    Looks change over time. If you are that fixated on appearance, I would doubt that you're going to have a happy marriage as you get older.

    --
    When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
  30. Interesting concept by wwphx · · Score: 3, Informative

    I met my wife online some 12 years ago, our 10th anniversary is in June. Prior to her I had mixed results with online dating, I followed the 'to thine own self be true' model and had a very honest profile. I think that my takeaway from my experience was that it takes time and doesn't give instant results. My wife found me: I lived 500 miles away from her at the time and wasn't searching that broad a radius, she was running in to little but ignorant rednecks and broadened her search radius, finding me. It looks to me like you can keep your profile honest by following the FA's advice, you're just optimizing a bit to try to improve results. If I were looking, I'd definitely give it some serious consideration.

    I'm definitely forwarding this to a friend who lost his wife a bit over a year ago and hasn't been having much luck with online dating.

    --
    When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
  31. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

    What I'm most confused about these days is how, when engaging in online dating, the two people involved determine the actual gender of the other.

    Gender is irrelevant, use 'sex'.

    Me and my wife came from a simpler time, when you could tell somebody's gender based on their genitalia.

    That's their 'sex'.

    So when one engages in online dating, how does one know the actual gender of the people they are dealing with?

    One doesn't need to know. It's irrelevant.

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  32. Did you read TFA? by ranton · · Score: 2

    Anyone who follows this advice deserves what they get.
    The age old advice still stands: be yourself.

    There is nothing in this article recommending what to lie about or how to trick someone into dating you. It is about how to put your best foot forward online. It is no different than telling someone to dress nice when you first meet someone or don't talk about yourself too much on a first date.

    It has advice like "ask open questions", "respond promptly", "introduce humor", "do smile", "pay genuine compliments", etc. Oh how manipulative these recommendations are!

    --
    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
  33. Re:What most people's filters really are by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

    There's more to looks than the face. Maybe it was the codpiece?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  34. Re:Boring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Women lie about what they want. They even lie to themselves what they want.

    Some women. And from the discussion here, some men are equally likely to lie.

    When they think they have found what they want, they change the lie to themselves so it is completely different. You will never win.

    You've been dating the wrong sort of women. Try finding those with whom you have some common feeling. If none exist, the problem is with you.

    Never bet half your lives earnings on a woman. She will end up taking it every time. It is just too tempting of a quick get rich scheme for them not to do it.

    I "bet half my life's earnings" more than 20 years ago. We're still going strong, with teenagers at school and university.

  35. Re:Define "success" by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

    If it's for a life partner, it's the result of a gross misconception. Your profile in dating sites is supposed to restrict your responses to those from people you might get along with

    No, this is a gross misconception. A profile tells you almost nothing about whether you will get along with that person. You just want to meet as many people as possible that meet your basic qualifications. I am happily married, and have two kids with a woman I met through match.com. There was nothing about her profile that said "this is the one". I didn't know that until we met, and a coffee at Starbucks was extended into a dinner and a long walk in the park. At that point, I had been using match.com for about a year, I had sent hundreds of invitations, and met more than 30 women face-to-face. Many of them were nothing like what their profile described. A few of them were a bit out of my league, and didn't respond to my followups. Three of them led to relationships that lasted at least a few weeks, and one of those led to a family.

    As a successful user of on-line-dating, here are my suggestions:
    1. Be honest, but highlight your good points.
    2. Avoid anything that could be perceived as "creepy".
    3. Mention that you like dogs or horses (unless you don't).
    4. Put up multiple pictures of yourself, doing active stuff, especially if it involves dogs or horses.
    5. When you send an invitation, mention some things from her profile, and compliment her on something specific.
    6. Move as quickly as possible to a face-to-face meeting, usually within a few days.
    7. Keep the first meeting short and simple. A coffee at Starbucks is good.
    8. Go to the gym right before your date.
    9. Have realistic expectations

    When I would send initial invitations, I got about a 30% response rate, which I have heard is very good. Early in the week, I would send about 10 or 12. I would get 3 or 4 responses. We would send a few messages back and forth, and then I would suggest we talk on the phone, and send my number. If she called, and sounded like a nice person, I would try to set up a face-to-face. I would usually meet one or two women for coffee dates over the weekend. If we hit it off, I would sometimes ask to extend the date into dinner, and I would followup with an email or phone call later that night. But for every invitation I sent, I had only about a 10% chance of meeting her, and only a 1% chance of anything beyond a single meeting. You need to cast a big net.

  36. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You've been dating the wrong sort of women. Try finding those with whom you have some common feeling. If none exist, the problem is with you.

    I don't know about the OP, but I'm an engineer, and women interested in dating engineers don't seem to exist. Maybe I'm the problem, but I don't know how to not be an engineer, and how to change myself into a salesguy or a marketer or a CEO, nor do I think it's realistic to think I could completely change my personality that way.

    The main problem I have in dating, truthfully, is actually meeting women to date. I've always had this problem. As an engineer, I just don't come into personal contact with women very often in life: women don't go into engineering majors in college, or into engineering jobs afterwards. So I'm limited to meeting women in just a few ways: 1) hope to meet them at work somehow, among the few non-engineers I run into (which doesn't happen much), 2) run into them IRL somehow, like when standing in line (how often does this happen???), 3) meet them at some kind of singles function, or 4) meet them on a dating site online. None of these are particularly great ways to meet compatible people; #4 is theoretically the best, but in practice doesn't work out well because so few women actually use such sites, as they have no trouble getting picked up IRL somewhere, so the women who do use such sites are usually the leftovers who can't get a date any other way. Now throw in that I'm not so young any more, and women in my target age range (30s) are mostly married with kids (or divorced with kids and nearly unable to date because they have no time away from their kids), and the situation is very bleak.

    My advice is to find a really good partner when you're in college, and don't graduate until you do. Go for a Master's or a second degree or something if you haven't found someone. After you leave college, it's all downhill.

  37. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    To claim that there's a significant number of transgender people out there like this is simply ridiculous. They are out there, but they're a tiny, tiny minority. Most of them state quite clearly in their profile what their situation is.

    Also, if you're having trouble telling a born-female person from a MtF transgender, you might want to get your eyes checked. There aren't very many who actually "pass" that well. Tip: look for an Adam's Apple.

  38. Re:Boring by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

    yep, women makes lists of features they want in a mate.

    Technically 100% true, because so do men. If someone claims not to, they are almost certainly deluding themselves. However, your choice of ascribing a universal human trait only to women makes me susspicious that you have a strong "us versus them" attitude, and almost certainly a lot of misplaced ideas based on what all of womankind wants. That is of course doomed to failure since to a very good approximation there are no universal truthes about "all of women".

    70%- 80% is about not only what they settle for but what they want since they want a lifelong project to change a man into their image.

    Well, that's bullshit, in that it's not universally true. Unless of course you consider any compromise at all to fall under that.

    100% perfect is too boring

    No one's 100% perfect. If you try to wait for someone 100% perfect you will never find them.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  39. Re:Boring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    but in practice doesn't work out well because so few women actually use such sites, as they have no trouble getting picked up IRL somewhere, so the women who do use such sites are usually the leftovers who can't get a date any other way. Now throw in that I'm not so young any more, and women in my target age range (30s) are mostly married with kids (or divorced with kids and nearly unable to date because they have no time away from their kids), and the situation is very bleak.

    To me it doesn't sound like you are quite the catch yourself at this point, so perhaps those "leftovers" women might just be up your alley. Perhaps going for a divorced with kids, but above average is also an option.

    Not trying to be an asshole, but it sounds like you are being picky, and that is why you don't have much to choose from.....

  40. Re:Boring by penguinoid · · Score: 1

    .yep, women makes lists of features they want in a mate.

    Yes, but few people have the self-awareness to list what they actually find attractive rather than what they think they ought to find attractive. And it's further complicated because the traits that would be attractive for a short-term relationship aren't the same as the ones for a long-term relationship. This is exactly the sort of situation where you want to use science to find the truth.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  41. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    No, I'm not being *that* picky, I just don't want to date someone who's 250lbs and who's idea of fun is watching NASCAR.

    Divorced with kids isn't a deal-breaker, but I did try to date one woman like that not long ago and it fell apart quickly; she just didn't have any time to meet. It's workable with a woman with teenage kids maybe, but if the kid(s) are under 10, forget it. She'll never have any time to put into the relationship, and will never be able to get away with you alone.

  42. Re:Boring by umghhh · · Score: 1

    I think this is changing at least in civilized countries it does - for years now German couples that split have to support the financially weaker side independently of gender thereof. There are also limits for how much a side that takes kids can ask for help - courts tend to believe that if a kid is healthy and kid caring parent too then if there are no other obstacles this side can go to work thus reducing financial strain on the other. This of course does not mean you go off the relationship scot-free. If she did trick you in producing offspring you are out of luck - you have to pay. Having offspring is a risky business. If you did not produce one then it is easy. Especially if you had a premarital agreement. If things are that uncomplicated you can even save on a lawyer and take one the last one time together.

  43. Re:/. nonsense by Obfuscant · · Score: 1
    Oh, this gets even better. When I started to post the previous comment, I was told I was posting as Anonymous Coward. When I post, it shows up as if I were logged in -- but I'm still not logged in when the main article page is displayed, and I have none of my configuration being used for display.

    I am/am not logged in and can/cannot disable ads, and can/cannot access pages. This is fun. I just realized -- run by Dice, controlled by dice.

  44. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by umghhh · · Score: 1

    I actually tried. What I found out is this: time and money spent do not justify the results.At the end if a hooker does not do a blow job well I just wasted a good hour and 50E. Most of traditional dating sides require a fee from males (and lesbians). You also invest time into finding and negotiating a date then you go on one. There are different people of course - some will score every time they want and they want every time - I would not turn to dating site if that were my case. Thus after some time I concluded that instead of frustration and rejection I can go for hookers. If one pays well one goes above the level of misery - that is of course if hookers are legal in your country. For me they offer the best deal. Again for me the dating BS is for people that have too much time on their hands and interest in fellow humans that justifies the risks and costs. OC this approach does not suite some. I tried all the other options except abstinence and this seems the best. ymmv of course.

  45. Re:Define "success" by fraxinus-tree · · Score: 1

    That's what bi-sexual people actually do. At least those knowing that they are bi-sexual.

  46. Re:Define "success" by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

    Yup! Internet dating... where the odds are good, but the goods are odd :-)

    --
    I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  47. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yeah, probably.... :-(

    Honestly, when I think about it, and considering the 50+% divorce rate and the huge number of children raised in broken homes and by single parents, it seems like our society's model for creating and building relationships is utterly broken.

  48. Re:/. nonsense by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Delete the browser cache and/or the cookies.
    But you are right, the site is quite buggy.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  49. Re:Boring by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 4, Informative

    Perhaps try a 'better' or different dating site?
    I recommend http://www.okcupid.com/ plenty of women there who like engineers.
    Regarding dating women with kids, there is that invention of a baby sitter. You could help her organize one. Sure, you might be asked or feel obliged to pay for the sitter.
    Also you might find it possible to 'date' her including the kid, like going into a zoo or a circus (cinema only works if you have time before or after the movie).
    Another way to meet women in RL is to make sports. Go dancing. Best sport ofc is martial arts, some where groups are mixed gender. Karate, Aikido etc. even Judo is usually mixed gender. Or Caipoera, Escrima, Silat ... or simply do something exotic. There are plenty of sports where women train together with men. And like in everything: the amount of divorced or otherwise solo girls is in such an area just the same as everywhere else. Benefit: even if a women is slightly overweight, if they do sport they usually are attractive nevertheless (better muscles, more charisma, more self confidence).

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  50. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    Perhaps try a 'better' or different dating site?
    I recommend http://www.okcupid.com/ [okcupid.com] plenty of women there who like engineers.

    Um, yeah, that's the one I'm on. (I did briefly try Match.com, but I quickly concluded that it's a total scam and most of the women's profiles are fake. I get emails from Match.com every single day telling me I've gotten so many emails from women, when all I did was hastily put up a profile and never followed up when it became apparent they just wanted me to subscribe for $$$.)

    The problem I currently have is the area I'm in, which is a rather conservative east-coast metro area with a large military presence. All the women here seem to love: country music, big dogs, Jesus, horses, "muddin'", and guns. My theory is that all the educated women from this area moved out when they went to college, and never came back.

    My current plan is to move to a better metro area as soon as feasible given what's going on in my life. I'll spare you the story of how I came here; it was never intended to be a long-term move.

    I'll keep in mind your idea about martial arts; that's a pretty good idea. I did that years ago when I had a girlfriend and did have some really cute girl hit on me; too bad I wasn't available.

  51. What about mine? by antdude · · Score: 3, Insightful

    AntDude is a turn off? :(

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  52. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    Wrong, wrong, wrong! This may have worked in the past

    Well, to be fair, I went to college in the mid-90s and graduated in 1997, so that's where my mind is. I haven't really been on a campus much after that. It was kinda bad back then too, but I'll also admit that, at the time, I didn't make that much of an attempt to get out and meet non-engineering majors after I moved out of the dorms.

    The moment you step out of the STEM cultural ghetto into any part of campus where women are to be found, your every dating attempt will be interpreted as rape and you will constantly be pestered to 'check your privilege', whatever that means.

    You sure you aren't completely overblowing this? I don't really know, as I said I haven't set foot on a campus for quite a while, but it sounds hysterical to me. I'm sure there's a few man-haters, but that's true anywhere.

    Be that guy who helps the women at work with their computers.

    I'm an embedded software engineer with an electrical engineering background, not a Windows IT worker. I really don't know any more about dealing with Windows PCs than the next guy. This is kinda like expecting a neurologist (or a podiatrist for that matter) to be able to help a single mother with her kid's ailment. Or expecting a jet engine mechanic to help a woman with her Chevy that isn't running right.

  53. Re:Define "success" by Beeftopia · · Score: 1

    Is this for a fuck or a life partner?

    It doesn't even have to be "life-partner" - it could just be a partner or companionship. It's a big fork in the road - Is one looking just for sex, or is one looking for companionship in addition to sex.

  54. My tips by fyngyrz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't know about the OP, but I'm an engineer, and women interested in dating engineers don't seem to exist.

    What you do isn't likely to be a draw unless it is exotic, either by virtue of rarity, or by virtue of publicly visible achievement (CEO of a major company, etc.)

    Who you are, on the other hand, is something you demonstrate with everything you do. Worthwhile women (as opposed to self-destructive barflies and NASCAR fans) are most often looking for several things, usually in the following order.

    First, looks and character. You don't have to be a beautiful man, but you will do best if you carry yourself with confidence, and no matter what you should be clean and smell good or at least not smell bad, you need to groom your hair, keep your fingernails and sweaty parts extremely clean without telegraphing obsession, and you should dress like someone who can afford to dress well, because...

    Second, security. You should project the sense that being with you is a better state than being without you. A nice car, a nice ring or watch, clean clothes in excellent shape, these send two messages: that you will spend for comfort and that you can spend. Most women of breeding age (even if you're not interested in having kids, I assume you're still interested in going through the motions) are looking for a fellow who is able and willing to make that nest. That's true even if they say, and if they really mean, they don't want kids themselves. Security is a very good thing, and they've been seriously tuned up by evolution to seek it out. Also, as a life goal, a great nest is an excellent thing to aim for, to achieve, and to share.

    On the subject of security, kill any debt you have if humanly possible. You'll have more money in the end. A debt-free person is a lot more attractive than one who brings such things to a relationship. This isn't always achievable, but if you can get out of debt and/or avoid it entirely, you definitely should. Financial rule #1: You don't want to pay interest. You want to charge interest.

    Once you are interacting, STFU and listen. You can initiate conversations, and steer them, and you should, but you need to be a good listener more than anything else. Let her speak and encourage her to speak more, and visibly enjoy the experience (don't fake it -- build a mindset where you are interested. It's entirely a good thing.) The time for you to speak at any length is when you are asked a question. Which you answer carefully and in the most interesting way you can. Otherwise, short and sweet is the rule. This aids in making you intriguing and in projecting interest in her.

    I speak from a lifetime of experience, and a great deal of success in courting the women I went after, ultimately, finding and keeping someone of such profound worth and compatibility that to this day, after decades, I am still deeply in love with her, and she with me. I'm almost 60, BTW. And yes, I am an engineer and a geek, and I am not a beautiful man. However I am confident and I am extroverted but can listen well without having to interrupt with my own take or story (one of the most obnoxious conversational failures ever, IMHO, is to interrupt, or answer, a story of someone else's with a recitation of something similar or related that happened to you. Instead, ask questions about the story and as it is told, respond to it within its own context. You can take that one right to the relationship bank. No matter how strong the urge, don't tell stories about yourself except when explicitly asked to do so. Mystery trumps bragging every time.)

    When the day comes when you're trying to seriously figure out if a particular lady is "the one", watch out for serious areas of conflict that the rush of romance has (temporarily, I assure you) pushed aside: religion, politics, impingement of extended family fuckarosis, drinking or drugging habits and seriously divergent philosophical outloo

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:My tips by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      The basics you list at the beginning aren't much of a problem for me. I'm not debt-ridden and poor; I am an engineer after all, not a minimum-wage worker. I drive a nice Volvo. I frequently get confused for someone 15 years younger; I'm tall, fit, and I think I dress well enough (nothing fancy, but not baggy crap or anything) and am pretty meticulous about my grooming.

      Some women do seem very interested, but I'm just not interested in them as they look like the NASCAR fans hoping to score someone who can give them a set-up.

      Once you are interacting, STFU and listen. You can initiate conversations, and steer them, and you should, but you need to be a good listener more than anything else.

      Honestly, I am pretty good with conversation when I meet an intelligent woman, and I am very good at listening, and always have been. My problem is getting to this "once you are interacting" point; this has *always* been my problem: actually meeting women I have some kind of interest in, and then getting to that "interacting" point (i.e., a date). My problem has always been a lack of opportunities to meet worthwhile women, probably largely stemming from my career field and also my lack of interest in things like bar-hopping and church-going. (I actually do go to bars once in a while, but nothing ever comes of it; I'm not a drinker (besides a glass of pinot noir maybe), so I just don't really mesh with anyone in the crowd at all.)

      Honestly, if I could move to Manhattan, I'd probably do really well there, between the surplus of available women there, and also my cultural tastes (I enjoy things like Baroque music, and don't care at all for things like NASCAR and 4-wheeling). There's probably a good number of attractive women there with similar tastes. whereas where I am now I don't think there's any, despite this being a metro area of 2M population. Unfortunately my career and other factors make moving to Manhattan impossible for me.

      I do appreciate the advice (though it's probably a good dissertation for anyone with this STEM background, not just me), and you're the second person in this thread who suggested martial arts.

    2. Re:My tips by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

      I enjoy things like Baroque music, and don't care at all for things like NASCAR and 4-wheeling

      Ah. Well then... concerts; recitals; record stores (now re-appearing); CD stores; instrument shops; look for clubs and charities where you can contribute; if you can, start a small scholarship fund and otherwise make yourself useful to a music academy; another thing you can do is enquire at a music school if anyone is in need of an instrument purchased for them, repaired, or restored; host a dinner for one or more quartets or other music aficionados and invite at least one likely, lovely suspect to join in. Find some events with a nice string quartet and hang out near them, just enjoy yourself. If you're comfortable leaning up against the canopy post or relaxed on the grass, others will join you. Sometimes those people will be of the female persuasion. And if not, hey, string quartets are magical anyway, so you really can't lose. And of course, there's obvious -- music lessons. Also, make sure you have a good audio-only system or a theater system with great sound. If you're a headphone type, ensure you have dual-output capability and two of the same type of 'phones. You want anything you share to reach the other person's ears just as it does yours. But headphones... keep 'em in a box until you're well into the relationship, unless you're just sharing something of a few seconds duration. Rare or fine audio recordings (check out TELARC) make fine gifts, too. If you're dating a musician and you really want to pull out all the stops, shop for a rare manuscript or document penned by a musical luminary in their line ($$$.)

      The opportunities associated with your interest are broad, and the best part about it is that this particular vector will do a great job of pre-filtering for you.

      Just out of curiosity -- you mention Manhattan -- can you get there on weekends? I did quite well bringing some of those ladies out into eastern Pennsylvania back in my prowling days. Some beautiful sights to share, plus caving, rafting, canoeing on the Delaware, mansions, estates and historical landmarks to look over (including a few great pubs in NY state and north) some great dining... It's very easy to put together a short day trip with some music you both know you'll enjoy... Do you have a good or great sound system in that Volvo? If not, why not? If so, awesome.

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    3. Re:My tips by nukenerd · · Score: 1

      Some women do seem very interested, but I'm just not interested in them as they look like the NASCAR fans

      I think you should be more charitable; you sound a bit snobbish. They say women like intelligent men, but that's rubbish. What they like is "entertainers". I am bright, but never found it an advantage at all. Women of similar intelligence, or a league or two down, seem to resent it. I deliberately act less intelligent when I am with women.

      But in my courting days I got on best of all with really dumb girls. They would not at first even realise that I was particularly intelligent, because to them, everyone else was more intelligent anyway. They just floated through life best they could. The type of girl I am talking about, the type I liked best, were demure, sweet, pretty, submissive (ie. they would let me choose where to go and what to do, and were happy), did not start arguments.

      Best of all, they would do girly things like cooking and sewing and leave me to do the things like mending cars. They also tend to be more attractive, because that was their main strength - they were never frumpy. This is all very non-PC of course.

      As for their liking NASCAR, the girls I am talking about tended to like what some previous boyfriend had shown them to like. They would soon adapt to anything else though, like standing on the side of a football pitch, or sitting in a classical concert if that's your thing.

    4. Re:My tips by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      I think you should be more charitable; you sound a bit snobbish.

      I'm not trying to be snobbish, I'm just expressing that I do not care for, or really even respect, Southern redneck culture. Do you like Middle Eastern Arab culture or northern African culture, where Islamic fundamentalism runs strong and little girls have their vaginas sewn shut? I don't, and I don't think it's "snobbish" to say I look down on that culture. It's the same with Southern culture for me, just to a much, much lesser degree. So I avoid women who appear to be products of that culture.

      I deliberately act less intelligent when I am with women.

      Ok, there's something really wrong with this. Not necessarily with you (you gotta do what works for you), but with our culture. I guess this is another example of America's extremely anti-intellectual culture. I don't even consider myself that much of an intellectual or even all that smart, just someone who aspires to it and tries to keep as educated as I can, but much of this country (and not just the Southern rednecks who like NASCAR and pork rinds) seem to actively dislike anyone who seems more educated than them.

      Best of all, they would do girly things like cooking

      Chef Gordon Ramsay would like to have a word with you (as would Chef Puck and many others).

      As for their liking NASCAR, the girls I am talking about tended to like what some previous boyfriend had shown them to like. They would soon adapt to anything else though, like standing on the side of a football pitch, or sitting in a classical concert if that's your thing.

      Sorry, I don't buy it. People are largely products of their upbringing, and get set into their ways by their mid-20s, more or less. They can (if they're smart and adaptable; "dumb girls" by definition are not) grow and change after that, but only so much. You're not going to take a redneck gun-loving, pitbull-loving, NASCAR-loving girl and turn her into a sophisticated NYC-type woman who likes classical concerts when she's already 35-45. Maybe you're talking about 20-year-old girls, but I'm not young enough for girls like that.

  55. Re:Smart men avoid marriage, period. by Neo-Rio-101 · · Score: 1

    Marriage was ancient man's idea of being able to buy and own women like property - so then women in response, decided to increase the prices for access to her womb..
    In other words, it's reprehensible all around.

    Still, marriages can work as long as the man keeps the funds coming in, does whatever the wife tells him to, and sacrifices his sex life.
    That's what it takes to "make it work" men!

    The problem is that many men entering marriage usually are blissfully unaware of what it involves, and what the wife hopes to get out of it, and then are disappointed when what they find doesn't match expectations.

    The real problem is (of course), that if you have to "buy" a woman, then it's prostitution anyway, and she doesn't really love you.
    So why bother with marriage at all?
    Face it, if she really loved you, she'd stick with you without needing your money, or needing to be married. However, we all know how that works out :(

    --
    READY.
    PRINT ""+-0
  56. Re:Define "success" by Oxygen99 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So. Er. Be pleasant, polite, engaged and confident? Perhaps that's what attracts a potential partner rather than pseudo-manipulative mind tricks?

    --
    I had a dream, bright and carefree, but now there's doubt and gravity
  57. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Care to explain for what to look?
    I for my part don't see a difference in a female adams apple or a male one. Both have it, no idea why people prefer to call the male larynges an adams apple and the female not.
    Sure, the male one is often a bit bigger, but often not at all. Mine one you wont really see, and trust me, I'm not female or have any feminine looks (nor am I fat, I have like 140 pounds).

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  58. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Of course it is not irrelevant.

    Call me what ever you want, but I find the idea to have sex with a 'woman' that was a man before so disgusting I likely would vomit on her bed if she told me.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  59. Re:Boring by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    The problem I currently have is the area I'm in, which is a rather conservative east-coast metro area with a large military presence. All the women here seem to love: country music, big dogs, Jesus, horses, "muddin'", and guns. My theory is that all the educated women from this area moved out when they went to college, and never came back.

    Oki, I understand you.

    If you don't know where to move too yet, or lets phrase it the other way, if you have no strong preferences, I know a few extremely high qualified american Aikido teachers (that includes obviously Asian immigrants). Considering if you would give it a try ofc.
    Problem with Aikido is, some dojos attract mainly hippie like girls and guys, that might not be the right thing for you (not only girl wise but also martial arts wise).

    Unfortunately I have no connection to Karate or other Dojos in the US.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  60. Don't wait too long to ask for a date... by dohzer · · Score: 1

    ...or ask for a date too early.
    And different women have different dating time requirements. Good luck! ;)

  61. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    It's not one single feature, it's a bunch of them. Men usually have more pronounced Adam's Apples with bony ridges, women do not (men with a lot of neck fat won't show it as much though, and not all men have a really pronounced one). Men have bigger hands and feet. Men have a squarer jaw line and a heavier brow (which evolved for taking punches to the face). Men have wider shoulders and a bigger torso, while women have wider hips and narrow shoulders. Obviously, none of these factors are 100% for either sex; some men have smaller feet, etc.

    Yes, many trannies have rather feminine bodies for men, but they usually still have too many male features to totally pass as female, even if they're on hormones or have breast implants (or have gotten their Adam's Apple surgically modified). Usually, one look at their face alone is enough to tell; something just looks "wrong", because our brains are hard-wired to look for certain features in men and women's faces.

  62. Re: Boring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That's why I gave up dating and started hunting unicorns. It is a thousand times easier to catch a unicorn than to find a woman who is not fat, has no kids, and isn't bat shit burn - your - house - down insane. Maybe it's just kansas women but I doubt it.

  63. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

    To claim that there's a significant number of transgender people out there like this is simply ridiculous.

    I've only encountered 3 in my life, and two were from people I know who had the exact situation I described happen. I think for both it was just kind of a date that didn't last longer than a few minutes.

    Tip: look for an Adam's Apple.

    That's just cartilage, isn't prominent in all men (and is even prominent in some women) and even failing that it's not terribly expensive to have trimmed. Considerably less expensive than a boob job and even less expensive than bottom surgery.

    In my actual experience, hand size is the biggest giveaway, followed by voice, and occasionally you see that their breasts look too far away from their shoulders (because their shoulders are too broad.)

    I remember going to this bar and this tranny with really big tits walked by, but then he spoke as I watched him grab his drink and my first thought was "no."

    Neither hand size nor shoulder width are terribly apparent in pictures though. I guess it's like buying a used car that looks good in the picture, but when you get up close to look at it, it has a shitty paint job.

  64. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    I have some experience in Aikido; I attended a dojo about 12 years ago for a while, got up to yellow-belt. That dojo definitely didn't have any hippies; that's funny. I might have to check this out again now that I'm back on the market.

    My only worry is that any dojo here (Aikido or otherwise) would be heavily dominated by (ex-)military types. My prior dojo was run by a couple of them. I'm not a big fan of anything military these days (which really doesn't help me, living in an area where it's a big part of the economy).

  65. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    That's just cartilage

    No, it's not, it's a bone called the Hyoid bone. It's a unique bone in that it it isn't rigidly connected to other bones: from the article: "Unlike other bones, the hyoid is only distantly articulated to other bones by muscles or ligaments." It does start out as mostly cartilage, but turns into bone with adulthood. But you're right, it isn't prominent in all men, and can be trimmed surgically.

    I agree about the other factors though: hand size, voice, and shoulder breadth.

    Neither hand size nor shoulder width are terribly apparent in pictures though. I guess it's like buying a used car that looks good in the picture, but when you get up close to look at it, it has a shitty paint job.

    Unfortunately, this is true for everyone, not just trannies. Most people try to find photos of themselves that look best, and avoid posting photos that don't look so great. Back before I got married and was meeting women from online for dating, this happened to me a few times: a woman looked good in a single photo she posted, and then in person she was not attractive at all.

  66. Re: Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    Well that's my impression too now that I'm on the market again, but the place I'm living in probably isn't too different culturally than Kansas, and that, I think, is the #1 source of my dating problems.

    Do you have any plans to move out of Kansas? I'm already working on planning my exodus from this place.

  67. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    It's hard to understand an American who's unhappy where they live on account of it being too American.

    This shit isn't "American culture", it's Southern culture. The South is not representative of America as a whole, thankfully.

  68. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Perhaps because I'm a fan of androgyny looking girls I have a hard time to find such marks.

    While you are right in your generalizations, it is just generalizations. I live in germany, and while the girls have female hips here, they usually have broader shoulders than hips. Just like males. And actually a girl with broad shoulders looks really attractive to me, at least from behind.

    So bottom line I doubt you could figure a Thai or Brazilian trans gender from a true female.

    Does not really make clear what is up with the adams apple. So you mean the male one is just bigger in average?

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  69. I prefer ASIAN women. by hackus · · Score: 1

    Simply because:

    1) They all have ON/OFF buttons. That comes in handy every once in a while.
    2) If they get an attitude problem RESET fixes it.
    3) Made in USA is good, Made in China is better.
    4) They play some of the best music, videos (Especially Lord of the Rings) and you know, they love it!
    5) They provide excellent feed back on my code. If it sucks they let me know.
    6) Excellent life partner and teacher. It seems she knows everything.
    7) Even when she gets old I can upgrade.

    Yeah, Asian women. Love'em.

    --
    Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
  70. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    On average, yes, the male one is larger and more prominent and bony. Mine for instance has a very sharp, protruding ridge on it, which probably wouldn't look out of place on a Klingon. I can't shave it because the razor would just cut it open.

  71. Re:Boring by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Well, as I said, I know a few nice dojos.
    Washinton DC, some Saotome Dojos, New York, Yamada and Donovan Waite, somewhere in Collorado, Dave Duran, in Portland, Oregon is a Dojo where the (former?) husband of Yoko Okamoto is teaching. I can dig a few more out, but that was what I have on my mind. Hiroshi Ikeda is mainly traveling right now and giving seminars. No idea if he still has a 'home Dojo', but I can ask him. I have an address in Florida, but forget the name, have to ask a student of mine. Then there is SF ofc. claimed to have more Daitoryo Dojos than whole Japan. Ofc, that does not say much about Aikido :) But Saotome Sensei once had a Dojo there.
    If you have set up your mind, send me an email, I might be able to give some hints.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  72. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

    Call me what ever you want, but I find the idea to have sex with a 'woman' that was a man before so disgusting I likely would vomit on her bed if she told me.

    Gender wouldn't identify this, so this is an irrelevant argument.

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  73. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    The culture I described was never the culture of New England or the rest of the northeast, among many other parts of the US. You're seriously deluded if you think that San Francisco, LA, or NYC have ever been places where NASCAR, guns, and 4-wheeling are popular pasttimes.

  74. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    I don't care if you call it gender or sex, read my parent. It is perhaps irrelevant for you, not for me, though.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  75. Re:Smart men avoid marriage, period. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

    Still, marriages can work as long as the man keeps the funds coming in, does whatever the wife tells him to, and sacrifices his sex life.
    That's what it takes to "make it work" men!

    The real problem is (of course), that if you have to "buy" a woman, then it's prostitution anyway, and she doesn't really love you.
    So why bother with marriage at all?
    Face it, if she really loved you, she'd stick with you without needing your money, or needing to be married. However, we all know how that works out :(

    Works out fine for me. Sucks to be you, I guess. If you assume all women are massive raging assholes, and go through life as such, then you will never find one who isn't.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  76. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by Blymie · · Score: 1

    http://www.davidbrin.com/neote...

    Brin explains the differences....

  77. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

    I don't care if you call it gender or sex

    Gender is what you think you are, sex is what you physically are. Neither of these identify being once being some other sex and now a different sex.

    read my parent

    I did, and I identified to you that gender (or sex) would not reveal this information to you.

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  78. Re:Boring by nukenerd · · Score: 1

    5). Make some friends in IRL. A friend will know someone else who is single.

    Haven't you been reading these comments? How?? FFS. Personally, I have never "met" any girl IRL, by which I mean having a social conversation lasting more than about 20 seconds, the conversation usually being terminated by her walking away or being interrupted by some other guy and her turning her back on me. Yet I an not ugly or fat, if that is what you are thinking. God knows how guys get on who are.

    I met around 100 girls through dating clubs (a bit before the Internet) and it is only by girls being in a "captive" situation that some seemd to find they actually liked me. About 1 in 5 led to second dates, and 1 in 20 became longer affairs - but bear in mind we had already been through a selection process of exchanging letters and photos. If we assume that of people chosen at random only 1 in 3 would pass that preliminary selection process, and that must be squared because the selection is both ways, it means that I would have needed to approach ~200 girls IRL to get as far as regular dating; and even that assumes that they had not got a boyfriend already. That would have been impractical; I would have needed to have collared them in the street, and I'd have been arrested for molesting. If it had not been for dating clubs I think I would have settled for seeing escorts; looking back, perhaps that is what I should have done anyway -I could afford it, and some of them are suprisingly nice, much better than many IRL girls.

    As for friends knowing someone else who is single, I have always had friends of the same sex, but none has ever introduce me to a girl - why would they? Usually, they haven't been able to find girlfriends themselves, and they weren't poor and ugly either. Something has gone wrong in our society.

  79. Re:Boring by Tom · · Score: 2

    After you leave college, it's all downhill.

    Because you will rarely enter a comparable environment again. What makes college special is that you live in a place where you spend a lot of time, are basically forced to meet new people regularily, in a shared environment with shared interests and a higher interest in cooperation than competition.

    It's rare to find that after college. Work usually has more competition and less overal interaction, clubs and hobbies offer less time exposed and (after the initial phase where you are the new guy) a lower turnover. Other social settings (family meetings, neighbourhoods, etc.) often lack the shared interests.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  80. Re:Boring by Tom · · Score: 1

    it seems like our society's model for creating and building relationships is utterly broken.

    Or our assumptions about relationships. For example that they have to last for life. Don't get me wrong, I know from my own experience how right Nietzsche was when he wrote "Alle Liebe will Ewigkeit" (all love wants eternity) and I certainly want to grow old with my girlfriend. Subjectively, that is what love tricks us into wanting and believing in.

    But reality teaches us that relationships usually last some time. Sometimes a hundred years, sometimes ten. The problem is that we see one as a success and the other as a failure. But why should we? In the words of queen: "Just one year of love. Is better than a lifetime alone".

    We consider relationships investments (you want to get back more than you put in), that's another problem.

    So yes, there's a lot broken in the land of love, but don't fall for the mistake of thinking our ancestors were so much better. Sure they didn't divorce as much, but in many cases that was not because they didn't want to. If you're in Europe, visit a castle and take a tour. They'll explain you that there were so many bedrooms not only because of the constant guests, but also because man and woman sleeping together in the same bedroom (let alone the same bed!) was highly unusual and risque, and the lower classes did it simply because they had to, as soon as people had some money they got seperate bedrooms.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  81. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 1

    If you've seen this more than once or twice and it disturbs you, you probably (a) checked some wrong boxes somewhere on your survey or (b) you should be using a site other than TransLove.com.

    --
    That is all.
  82. Re:Boring by Talderas · · Score: 1

    Well, having talked with a number of people who are divorced with children I found two interconnected central themes to most of them. Money and stress. Two young people dating living a high life because both have their own incomes, then they get married and within two years a child is born. The mother, typically, stops working to care for the child and then another child comes along a bit later. This eventually stretches out into 7-10 years where the family has gone from living high as DINKs to adding three dependents (1 adult, 2 children) onto a single income. Often times the extended vacation from working is justified under the pretense of "day care is just as expensive" and "let's me stay home with the kids". Which is fine but the motiviation for the parent that quit to seek out new work 7-10 years later once daycare shouldn't be needed and the children are more capable can be significantly sapped. Thus, try going from a high lifestyle to sustaining a lower lifestyle while a lot of your financial plans are pushed back and delayed and see how much stress you undergo and that stress is partially caused by the non-working spouse.

    --
    "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
  83. Re:Boring by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    After you leave college, it's all downhill.

    That is truly pathetic.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  84. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I'm sure there's tons of well-read women in Manhattan going to NASCAR races every weekend....

    News flash: NYC is nothing like the rest of NYS.

  85. Re: Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    I think you need to reconsider. If you want to have the whole family-and-kids deal, you don't have that much time left to find someone worthwhile; women can't have kids past 40 usually, remember, and the longer you wait, the worse your dating pool is (more women are divorced and already have kids as you get to older ages). Don't wake up when you're 40 and realize you should have made a move earlier. Get out of your comfort zone; there's a better life out there than what Wichita has to offer. If you're anything like me, the problem isn't you, it's the area you're in: you're just not a fit for that area and the denizens there. The women you're looking for probably all left that town when they went to college, and the women left there aren't ones you're interested in, amiright?

  86. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    I'm really wishing I had gone into medicine instead of engineering.... you're absolutely right.

    However, my mother was a hospital nurse for a while, and I think that turned me off to that a little. But it definitely would have been a better profession than engineering, that's for sure.

    However, what can an outsider like myself do to get in there? Some kind of volunteer work I guess?

  87. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    Exactly, this is excellent and highly insightful.

    So what can we do to try to get back to something approximating this environment? Maybe we need to try to make some kind of social change in this direction.

  88. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    I don't know about this. With the upper classes back then, marriages were usually arranged and had nothing to do with love, only property rights and strategic alliances and such. So of course they didn't want to sleep together, they really didn't even like each other much.

    The lower classes weren't so much like this; they were just peasants, so they married people they liked.

    However, I do think you're right about relationships not lasting a lifetime any more. There's also good evidence that monogamy really isn't natural for us either, and many people in non-monogamous relationships are happier and have stronger relationships than typical married monogamous people. Many older cultures were completely non-monogamous, such as the Hawaiians before European contact.

  89. That's assuming a low percentage of bs by whitroth · · Score: 1

    Let's start out by saying I have grown children. 15 or so years ago, you could meet people. Now.... not so much.

    Half a dozen years or so ago, I went on several sites, including craiglist and match. I said that I was looking for someone *over* 40.

    And I got... a bunch of responses, claiming to be from women who were allegedly between 21 and 26. And claiming they'd read my profile.

    Right. I think I found *one* woman who actually existed, and went on a date or two. The rest... as I said, in annoyance, to several, "no, you're not; you're a fat 47 yr old guy claiming to be a hot woman, the kind you'd like to date, but who will never give you a first glance, and you're trying to make money out of this. Unfuck off.

                        mark "and added them to my killfile"

  90. Attitude by Slashdot+Parent · · Score: 1

    Women do like engineers. Engineer = stable + money. You've not found dating success which has given you a negative attitude, and unfortunately, the negative attitude will further hurt your chances. Women also kind of like men that they enjoy being around.

    I am not personally an engineer, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so I will provide you with an algorithm for dating so that you know how it's done.

    1. Find female human that is attractive to you. Where you find her is unimportant. Maybe it is at work or standing inline or at a singles function or online. Or maybe someplace else. Who cares?

    2. Smile and strike up a short conversation with her about something you suspect you might share a mutual interest in. Context should give you an idea. If you're in line at the grocery store, you could ask her how she likes that particular brand of health pellets that she has in her cart. If it's online, something from her profile that you also like. That type of context.

    IF (she isn't trying to escape the conversation && she doesn't say anything that disqualifies herself) {
              Ask for her number. (if she says no, don't throw a tantrum.)
    } ELSE {
              close out the conversation gracefully
              GOTO 1
    }

    3. Call that evening and ask her out on a short get-together (coffee, a walk through the park, something low-commitment)

    4. During the get-together, see how the conversation flows and how you both are enjoying each other.

    IF (she doesn't appear to be trying to escape ASAP && you are enjoying your time with her) {
              Ask her out on a more substantial date and/or try to hook up with her
    } ELSE {
              Gracefully tell her that you had a great time but that you don't see any further dates in the future or just do the "Fade away" (i.e. don't call her anymore).
              GOTO 1
    }

    Hopefully you can take it from here.

    By the way, you should be asking out a lot of chicks while you're single, and definitely should be executing this pseudocode in parallel until you're exclusive with anyone.

    Good luck!

    --
    They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
    1. Re:Attitude by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the advice! I've never really had much success in even seeing any women I have much interest in IRL, which is part of my problem (and was back in my 20s too; it hasn't really changed much). I just don't see a lot of available, attractive women in the grocery store. But much of this isn't too different from the approach I take with online dating.

      Maybe I should try staying at a Holiday Inn Express though....

    2. Re:Attitude by Slashdot+Parent · · Score: 1

      Maybe I should try staying at a Holiday Inn Express though....

      Meeting women in a hotel certainly would make some things more convenient now, wouldn't it!

      --
      They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
    3. Re: Attitude by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Um, I don't think that's going to help matters unless most of us decide to try being gay.

      Slashdot dating tips, sure; surely I'm not the only one here who needs advice. But a dating service? Unless it's homosexual, you need to actually have a good mix of both sexes for that to work. There is not a significant number of women here who are looking for a relationship. (I imagine what very, very few women we do have here, are all attached and not looking.)

    4. Re:Attitude by Quirkz · · Score: 1

      You've posted a lot here and keep saying things that resonate well with my youth. I don't have any answers (met my wife by coincidence of having the same birthday and both being out celebrating) but I can commiserate a little. I've written a novel about a guy resembling you (or young me) struggling to meet people in the wrong environment, who wants to pick up and move to a more likely location. It's humorous, and might be something you'd appreciate. Not trying to drum up a sale, here - if you're interested I'll get you a free copy just as a sort of "I know how it feels" gesture.

    5. Re:Attitude by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      I'm not that young any more (which doesn't help); I'm about 40. I'm separated, not single, but that means I'm back in the dating game and looking to meet new women obviously. But I'm finding that, for me, nothing's changed much since my late 20s when I was last in the dating game. The biggest difference, I guess, is that my dating pool does seem to be a bit wider, in that there are a lot of late-20s women interested in dating men up to my age (but that's about the cut-off), so my range is from about 27 up to 47, whereas in my late 20s it was narrower, probably only about 23 to 31. And of course, I've now been through one marriage so I'm a bit paranoid about making sure I don't hook up with someone that I don't think is really right for me, as I feel I rushed into it before, so now if I see a woman's profile online and it has too much commonality with my current wife, I pass.

      Your novel sounds really interesting, and does sound a lot like me (now, not when younger; I didn't consider the location factor much back then, which in retrospect I think was a big mistake; I was in a (different) big metro area then and thought that was good enough). I would be interested in reading it and providing feedback if you like. Thanks!

    6. Re:Attitude by Quirkz · · Score: 1

      I don't see an address for you, but feel free to email me with the address listed in the header, or use the contact page in my URL (a completely different project) and I can email in your preferred format. Feedback is definitely welcome. Thanks.

    7. Re:Attitude by Quirkz · · Score: 1

      Don't want to pester you, but I still haven't seen a way to send you the book. Just let me know.

      I think you and I are nearly the same age. The novel's set in Chicago in the late 90's during the dot-com boom and bust, just when I got out of college. The dating scenarios may be appropriate to you now, but the tech world ought to be familiar to you, too.

  91. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by Slashdot+Parent · · Score: 1

    Tip: look for an Adam's Apple.

    There are plenty of cisgendered women who have a more pronounced Adam's Apple. Personally, I think that you can tell the best by the person's gait. Adult cisgendered women's hips make a very specific movement that comes from the pelvic area's development to accommodate childbirth. Transwomen won't have that, or they'll try to fake it, which looks very comical.

    Of course if you still aren't sure, the absolute easiest way to tell if someone is trans is to "accidentally" refer to them by the opposite-gender pronoun. If they don't react, they are cisgendered. If they absolutely lose their fucking shit, then they are trans.

    --
    They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
  92. My take on this. . . XX here by liber+ine · · Score: 1

    I'm kind of blown away by the responses to this blurb. It sounds like there are a lot of really boring, shallow women out there. Same goes for dudes, sadly. But a common thread I keep seeing in the posts is that many of you feel like all women care about is your salaries, but that many of them are so classless and unrefined as to be undeserving.

    I guess I'm pretty lucky to live in Seattle where if you asked anyone about NASCAR they would ask you what sort of IT-related acronym to which you are referring.

    Maybe there's something else you might want to look for. Let me explain.

    Having been called a unicorn by a good dozen people, I can tell you that what I am interested in is someone who can engage in rapid-fire intellectual sparring/ verbal pachinko, matches my sense of humor (dark, dry, frequently absurd, referential), *and* is into being healthy and active--*as a baseline*. I would never ask my partner to make more of an effort here than I do (yeah, I'm looking at you, 100+-mile hikes, various marathons, and >10k-foot mountains). Of course there are some other things that are nice to have but not mandatory. I am bisexual, nonmonogamous, absolutely do not want kids ever, and make a pretty decent salary, especially for a generation in which many still live with their overly supportive parents. I feel that, as a woman, I have more or less found the cheat codes to life by choosing not to marry or have kids. I will never be dependent on anyone. I will never sacrifice my career, my sense of self, or my body to having kids or adopting. I can date people for the sheer pleasure of their company rather than ever needing to 'size them up' as a potential mate. I will never be dragged into isolating breeder hell in some generic suburb. I should not ever need to make excuses for not wanting kids, as it's my choice anyway.

    There's a search variable on OKC that lets you search for women who don't want 'em either. It sounds like many of you are feeling exploited. Maybe you should search for women who don't want kids and have salaries of at least 60k to remedy this. And if that's not cutting it, you may want to look in the mirror.

    Just my two cents. And good luck with the dating.

  93. Re:Boring by Tom · · Score: 1

    From what I've gathered from my history studies, the ancient world had a lot more open social events than we do today. I don't mean festivals and such where you're anonymous in a crowd. In ancient Athens, men would meet to discuss and make politics, for example. Today, we delegate all this shit because we're too busy with our lives.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  94. Re:Boring by Tom · · Score: 1

    Frankly speaking, very few people these days are really monogamous. There's a lot of cheating and there's serial monogamy, where you have one partner at a time, but switch them fairly often (i.e. many short-term relationships).

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  95. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    Well, we also delegate our politics because we have societies with more than a few hundred or thousand people now. These days, a group of 1000 people is a small town, and a small city has 50k. In the ancient world, that was a very large city. I imagine the Romans probably did a lot of innovation as far as cities, by bringing us aqueducts to improve sanitation, easily the bane of human civilization.

  96. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    True, but we still hold monogamy as the ideal, and then when someone doesn't live up to it, then the relationship is ended, frequently involving the court system and some expensive lawyers.

    If you're openly non-monogamous, you can avoid all that.

  97. Re:simple by nukenerd · · Score: 1

    You will get x% of response rate. y% of conversations will turn into first dates. z% of first dates will turn into something more. Sure, you can tune the x, y and z values, and if they're really low you should. But once you're out of the single digits, raising the amount of input will result in more gain in output than tuning those numbers.

    I can put some figures to that. I got about a 5% response rate to my first contact; 2.5% (ie half the previous) response to follow-up message (my proposing a meeting); met 2% face-to-face; had second date with 1%; met regularly afterwards with 0.5%; had sex with 0.3%; married 0.1%.

    Bear in mind that I only contacted ones in the first place if their profiles seemed well matched to me (eg I didn't contact ones who demanded men over 6ft or had tattoos, because I didn't). So imagine if I had approached girls at random (like at a dance) - you could divide those figures by 5 or 10 again. And I am well off and not bad looking.

  98. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Sex reveals the information.
    I'm organic appearing as a female: that is his/her sex.
    I don't want an operated ex male sex who is now of female sex.

    No idea what is so hard to grasp about that.
    The parent claimed my concern would be 'irrelevant', I pointed out: it is not, I would find it disgusting.

    So, what exactly is your point? That the other person needs to give the additional info, that he changed sex? Wow, that exactly was obviously the topic! Parent claimed that is irrelevant, I claim it is not.

    What you think is up to you. To add to the gender sex confusion, I doubt I could live with female sex male gender woman who is gay, regardless how hot and loving she towards me is.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  99. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

    No, it's not

    What?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Chondrolaryngoplasty (commonly called tracheal shave) is a surgical procedure in which the thyroid cartilage is reduced in size by shaving down the cartilage through an incision in the throat, generally to aid men and women who are uncomfortable with the girth of their Adam's apple.

  100. Re:Boring by mcswell · · Score: 1

    But Dilbert had a girlfriend! (http://branders.name/dilbert-the-perfect-girlfriend/695)

    All seriousness aside, you might try #5: meet them at church. I believe the single women in church outnumber the single men. Of course, if you're not a Christian, that might not be to your taste.

  101. Re:Boring by Tom · · Score: 1

    Well, we also delegate our politics because we have societies with more than a few hundred or thousand people now.

    Even on the local level, we don't have even nearly the amount of involvement that the ancient world had.

    But yes, of course, the pure size is a big factor.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  102. Re:Boring by Tom · · Score: 1

    The main problem we have is the default assumption.

    From my perspective, anything that everyone involved is happy with is fine. Hetero- or homosexual, two, three or however many partners - it may not be for me, but who am I to judge the happiness of other people?

    Society as a whole, however, has a concept in its mind, and even with a stronger tolerance for variety, it still very strongly sets this concept as the default assumption, and everything that deviates from the norm needs to justify itself.

    All of this is true outside of sex and relationships, btw. -- there are also default concepts of a man and a woman, of a couple and a household. How you should be, what you should do. There are acceptable and "strange" hobbies, interests, professions, lifestyles, homes.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  103. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

    Sex reveals the information.
    I'm organic appearing as a female: that is his/her sex.

    Not legally, which is all that matters when you identify your sex.

    So, what exactly is your point? That the other person needs to give the additional info, that he changed sex?

    No, that you need to ask something other than sex or gender to get that information.

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  104. Re: Boring by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

    It happened about 2000 years ago when Christianity was born. When women became property.

  105. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Sorry, then what should I ask?

    I mean if one says on a dating site he is female and a transgender then everything is clear.

    He has femal 'pseudo' organs and was a man before ...

    I don't get your point.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  106. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

    Sorry, then what should I ask?

    I'm saying asking 'What sex are you?' or 'What gender are you?' won't cover it, not that I'd particularly ask that question either.

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  107. BOOK: Why Men Are the Way They Are by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1

    Read the book, Why Men Are the Way They Are by Warren Farrell.

    Summary: Don't blame yourself for everything. Maybe your problems are at least partly due to the worsening dis-functionality of the entire U.S. culture.

    I'm writing a book that provides far more detail, but it will be perhaps 2 years until my book is published.

  108. Re:Boring by AlanBDee · · Score: 1

    I always said I would rather be single and happy then married and unhappy.

  109. Re:Define "success" by AlanBDee · · Score: 1

    I did very similar things but with a slightly different outcome. Meeting women online helped give me the experience and confidence that when I met the woman I would marry in real life I was far more confident and better prepared. In the past I had always screwed it up, said the wrong thing, or whatever and the girl would run for the hills. My wife now insists nerds make the best husbands.

  110. Re:Marry pretty girl children. (Bible allows) by airdweller · · Score: 1

    Can you be any more disgusting?

  111. Re:Boring by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    Catholic priests and ISIS fighters are good examples of why male celibacy is a very bad thing.

    Of course, being in a sexless marriage isn't much good either...

    My solution to this: we need to genetically engineer people somehow so people don't have to be single.

  112. Re:Smart men avoid marriage, period. by rubycodez · · Score: 1

    It won't work if I don't want it to work either. so there! ha!

    I'm supporting the kids already and they're teenagers....

    really, you need to up your FUD game, I'm worrying about nothing over here

  113. Re:Boring by Heart44 · · Score: 1

    Grishnakh, you didn't mention your own age. If you are in your 50s and looking for somebody in their 30s you may be asking for a lot. If you had to find somebody reasonable for life in the next 7 days - where would you look?

  114. Re:How do you confirm somebody's gender online? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Well, if I ask both it should cover it.
    I still don't get your point.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.