well stop being picky ... whisper to me who you like ... i wont tell anyone

A date would be nice I guess, but its very unlikely as Im far too picky and forever living in the vain hope that I'll find someone special, which Im probably not going to find (plus the probability of this person, if she exists, not wanting to go on a date with me would be fairly high, Id imagine).

Im looking for just friends at the moment now I am taken, but I wouldn't mind should I revert to being single.

8legs u rock couldnt have put it better myself

The one thing I would bemoan is that all the peeps i click with on here, even if its 'just friends' tend to live miles and miles away! K, so for miss right i'd probably move, but what about all the cool peeps i chat to who i'd like to just go for a coffee with?

The net is an unknown community. Its better to meet people face to face, but this is where you can get to understand a little bit about people that you would like to maybe meet in the future. Who knows what the future holds? I for one certainly dont.

I don't have a problem approaching women in real life. If I'm honest if they have a pulse (or not, if they're particularly attractive) they're fair game. The trouble is at my age, and in my social circle, meeting anyone who pushes all the requisite buttons, and who is single themselves, is extremely rare. This is the bit where you say 'get out more!' 'go to interesting places!' etc. I'm way ahead of you though. Been there, done that, and nearly dozed off mid-conversation. So in order to find someone who can get the cogs ticking I've resorted to the internet. I figure that the odds of finding someone genuinely interesting will be better if you're looking at a few hundred (thousand?) people rather than a couple of dozen, at the very most, at any given social event.

Of course, the trouble with the internet is that you have none of the stuff to work with that you would if you're face-to-face. So non-verbal stuff is out of the window for starters. All someone has to work with is your first message and your profile. So unless your first message is a blinder, and if it isn't, your profile isn't appealling, then guess what boys and girls – you're shit out of luck. I don't blame people for being shallow at all. Like I've said; you're deprived of a lot information when you're working online. So it's understandable that people only go off whats in front of them.

Okay, so lets say you've made it through the first round and you actually get a response. Woo and/or hoo. Now you have the tinfoil hat factor to cope with. A lot of women online seem to equate an email address or mobile number with rape, or so it would seem. Granted, there are a lot of freaks out there, and it pays to be cautious. But this is a dating site. Sooner or later someone is going to want to take things a step further. Of course there are tools out there who shoot their bolt early and hand out their personal details in the first message, but really, after 2-3 rounds of message pong, does it really come as such a shock if someone wants more than 800 characters of poorly formatted text? An email address doesn't always mean a 419 scam, and a mobile number doesn't always mean they're going to pop out of your wheelie bin with night vision goggles and a rhohypnol-tipped umbrella.

Some of us are genuine. No really. It's true. Honest. Quit with the Bacofoil millinery for just a few seconds and you might not be so quick to tar us all with the sex-pest brush. We know you get scammers and perverts from time to time, but surely by now you've learned how to distinguish the wheat from the chaff?

So yes. Online dating breaks your balls. Well it breaks mine anyway. Especially when it would be easier to steal the crown jewels blindfolded than get beyond the message stage with the more interesting people on here. I'm all for the 'friends first' gig, but thats usually as far as it goes, and if I was after that I'd be bullying people on Victimsreunited. Theres a film in here somewhere: 'Dr. Nolove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Friendbomb'.

Too many syllables for you Elitious?

oh that made me laugh out loud

he does talk sense sometimes