After reading the scathing reviews at this site, I decided to conduct my own 'scientific' experiment to find out what's really going on in the world of Online Dating (OD). Here's my story:

Last year some friends suggested I look into OD since I wasn't having much luck in the real world. So I read an OD book and some websites and got excited - it all sounded so good! I was ready to jump in right away, but then I happened upon eDateReview - I was astounded at the number of battle- scarred casualties! Oh, oh, brake-time.

Now I was on guard and devised a new plan. Instead of recklessly joining these OD sites, I decided to play smart. First I reviewed dozens of OD sites and selected 3. Next I read a book on how to create a great OD profile (written by an OD insider), constructed a 'perfect' profile (complete with a clever headline and photo), and had it critiqued by a female OD veteran. I posted my profile for free at Yahoo. I waited a week and nobody responded. So I scanned Yahoo and found 16 female prospects. I prepared customized letters for each one, injected some light humor seasoned with hints of intelligence, signed up for Yahoo's free 7-day trial promotion, quickly sent out all of my prepared letters, then terminated my subscription just before my free trial expired. Wow, I was so proud of myself! :-O

Result: After 3 months, I received NO letters! Amazing. However, I did receive unsolicited junk-emails from Russians, foreigners, and spammers (none of whom had a Yahoo profile).

During this time, I did a similar process with 2 other OD sites during their free-trial period. I sent about 20 different letters and also received nothing in return.

I know what you're thinking: I must be too short, ugly, broke, old, etc. Ok, so let's test it out. I went to another major OD site and copied the photo of the hottest-looking Caucasoid male I could find and manufactured a profile that fits the classic salivary mold of most every OD female (ie: tall, slim, handsome, 20-something, sporty, beach-front residence, yada yada), then posted it at Yahoo. I then prepared myself for the expected deluge of letters that would confirm my inferiority simplex . . . .

Result: After 3 weeks, nothing. After 2 months, my 'dummy' guy didn't get 1 single letter (but did get 4 impersonal icebreakers). What's going on here?! This 'perfect' guy was not getting much more attention than I was!

So here's what I've learned:

1. I subsequently talked to 3 real OD girls and they confirmed to me personally that they were deluged with letters weekly, did little of their own searching, stopped responding to most emails, and then dropped entirely out of 'site'. :-P

2. I'm sure that some of the females are confederates or fakes due to their undistinctive profiles, but I know that at least some are real people because I actually recognized some of them from real life.

3. Admittedly there were lots of scrumptious girls that could easily entice a mere mortal male into giving up the Big Bucks, but these hollow girls with their hollow profiles may as well be 'hollowgrams' in a 'hollowsuite' for all practical purposes because your letters will disappear into webspace oblivion and the girls will never materialize in your real world.

4. In every letter I wrote, I asked for at least an acknowledgement from the girl that my letter reached her and was read by her. That seemed the least I could expect in deference to the obvious literary effort I put into each letter. That minor courtesy was never granted. So I confirmed the general lack of consideration of the USian female as reflected at this site (or did ALL 3 OD sites withold ALL my outgoing mail? - I don't think so).

5. The highly touted 'sense of humor' and 'intelligence' factor that girls ostensibly ask for is in reality meaningless to them.

6. The girls complain about receiving generic letters and icebreakers, but they don't recognize the dilemma that the boys face: These custom letters take a LOT OF TIME to create and write and to do so is like a full time job! It's demoralizing to do all that creative work just to get blank stares after 3 months. So should we boys spend a lot of time just to get nothing OR spend less time to get nothing? You do the math.

7. Most every complaint posted at eDateReview was confirmed by me personally. It appears that the high male/female ratio problem is valid and that females don't initiate letters and seldom respond to letters.

8. If I would have met just 1 real person from all the letters I wrote, I would have gladly paid for a subscription! That didn't happen.

Epilogue: So I took the advice of a previous post and merely left my profiles at the OD sites, but won't waste time initiating contact anymore. I'm just sitting back and monitoring my mailbox every 2 month or so (saves a lot of time). :-)

The Internet and computers are theoretically ideal tools to filter and conduct mate-selection. OD is a great concept, but just like the idea of emails, it fails miserably when the other side doesn't participate.

I want to thank the reviewers at eDateReview for saving me $ with your dire warnings. Sure I lost time, but I can chalk that up to learning experience. I agree that some ODers will find someone, but that's like saying you should invest in the lottery everyday because somebody wins. No thanks.