Well personally it seems like the best option for me as I don't tend to go to many places on my own where I'm likely to meet people. Then when I am out & about, i think not meeting people is just down to a lack of confidence
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Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without one.

Personally I've started doing it because nothing else has worked so far. I'm just too respectful to try any of the guerilla tactics most guys seem to employ in bars and clubs.

2 escape i recon, its a whole new world where u can be adventurus n feel no pressure n if somethin eva came ov it its a bonus. 4 me i have no gay m8s so goin out alone isnt an option.

Well i tried it because I rarely get the chance to be in situations where i would meet single women. My friends are just too boring/old to go out now. It has become clear that the real reason they went out to bars is to meet women..once they met the woman they stopped going. Which is of little use to me as i am single. So basically I spend most of my life either working, sleeping or online.

I have been on one date..that 'relationship' lasted about three weeks.
I still have hope.

I'm giving it a try because I dont know anybody at all out here aside from my roommate. It feels weird to me going to a pub or something by myself to meet people, so this seemed like the best option

in my experience most genuine people are here because there's some reason why its hard to get a date out there.

i've met 4 women from dating sites
1 had 5 kids!
1 was messed up in the head over dead soulmate
1 was generally messed up in the head
1 couldnt find the right sort of person, but luckily that turned out to be me

i've talked to women who I would have met but lived too far away, ones that lived closer that I almost met but i chickened out in the end. Ones that I'd just want to be friends with. Im in the catorgory of people who's generally wont talk to people i don't know never mind flirting with them. Thats my reason.

Oh I missed this topic originally.

My reasons:

1. I do not date within the industry I work in! (long story!)
2. I never meet anyone other than the people who work in my industry. (an even longer story!)
3. What an astonoshing amount of interesting people you meet when you try on line dating .... I have made some genuine frineds over the years as well as dating and I would never have met those people otherwise as our paths would just not have crossed!

So I agree with Toby on this ....... why are people NOT internet dating?

i've recently become afraid to online date. i started chatting with this one guy i met on another site. we really seemed to click and i started thinking i had "met" the one. then he couldn't make up his mind how many kids he has. i asked him why the discrepancy and instead of saying it was a typo or that he wanted to test the waters before saying how many kids he has (both understandable) he lied and said he had never mentioned how may kids he has.

i knew this was an out-and-out lie because i remembered the exact email he said this in and mentioned this to him. again he lied and denied it. long,long story short, he said he wasn't ready to date and that he was giving up online dating, it's not me it's him etc, but i noticed that he was online for quite a while after that - another lie. now i don't trust men to be straight with me so i've stopped looking.

Karen,

Sorry to be argumentative about this but.......

What makes you think that he would have been any different if you met him in a bar?

Bastards are bastards (male and female) and on or off line makes no difference!

The good thing about online is that you have the e mails instead of trying to rack your brains to remember if you suspect it is a lie!

the sad fact is, by all accounts, there's a lot of dodgy men, whereas women seem entirely genuine and at worst confused about what they want.

Online rapport is no substitute for real life rapport. technology removes guilt, distances emotions and simplifies people. people simplify themselves. You never see the complete picture. You can msn or webcam or chat on the phone but these are all separate parts and a person is much greater than the sum of these parts. That is why its dangerous to fall into the idea of thinking you've "met" the one online. The best you can say is that online rapport is a test and that guy clearly failed.

according to a non free dating website "Online dating is for the shy people who prefer to communicate through email and getting to know each other before they meet (and it gives you time to think of what to say unlike meeting them in person first).

all i'm saying is that i really fell for that guy HARD. I admit to being really naive but he seemed so genuine, and equally reluctant to move too fast. the fact that he claimed to have children was a big part of it as it made him seem responsible. Looking back (hindsight is 20/20 after all) i can't believe i fell for it, especially since with all the pieces put together i suspect that he's married with/without children.