For all you single people looking to change that...

A lot of people out there seem to be kind of apprehensive about internet dating. I think a large part of that is the fact that you feel kind of dumb spending money so you can meet people. I mean, you should be able to meet people without having to pay for it right? The other problem is that you can only meet people who have also paid for the service, at least with most of the sites.

The best free internet dating site that I think there is, is craigslist. (you have to be 18 to use it though) It's a really cool idea, and the people there are sort of a combination of weirdos and interesting people.... there's a fine line there. A good portion of the personals section is devoted to guys looking for one-night stands, often with other guys. So for that reason, you don't see a lot of conservative types there. But it's still a great place to meet people, and you won't get spam from it or anything. It's completely confidential.

Still, most of the posts at craigslist are kind of generic. Girls will do the whole "I like to have fun! and I want a guy that likes to have fun and will make me laugh!" bit, and guys are often a bit too descriptive of their genitals. So here's some free tips for posting on craigslist:

1. Be interesting!
You get to write as much as you want about yourself, and post pictures if you want. Try and make yourself sound interesting. Throw in some funny anecdote about yourself. Post while you're high. If you have some dopey picture of yourself, post it, then tell the story behind the picture. If you're fat, joke about it. Anything creative or funny. The quality of what you write is directly proportional to the quality of your responses.

2. Post a picture
If you're trying to meet people, eventually they'll find out what you look like anyway. If you don't post a picture, the assumption is usually that you're indescribably ugly. Also, a lot of people only click on the ones with pictures. Cute or funny pictures are a bonus.

3. Talk about yourself
This should probably go without saying, but there are far too many people who only post their sex and age, and maybe an incomplete sentence. Give some indication of what type of personality you have. If you can describe it, good. If you can make it evident in the way you write, even better.

4. Be a detective
If someone emails you, look up any information you can glean on them in google. Full names and the part of their email address before the '@' sign will usually turn up something. If that's too generic, try adding the name of the city you live in to the search. I've found myspace pages, photobucket accounts with pictures, amazon reading lists, bulletin board accounts with associated posts, and college clubs. Anything you turn up will save you a lot of time in learning about them. Plus, a lot of time you feel kind of bad emailing someone back saying "sorry, I'm not physically attracted to you at all" after you find out what they look like.

Because it's free and you don't have to invest anything to browse, I've found you can get a lot more responses there than any other dating site. The last time I used craigslist, I got about 15 responses before I took my ad down, and 3 of those were girls I wanted to go on dates with. A bunch of them wrote back with responses like "I normally only look at craigslist out of morbid curiosity but I was actually interested in yours..." It's nice, because you start off emailing, which is a lot easier than talking if you're the nervous type. It's also a lot easier to avoid putting your foot in your mouth when you can proofread. :)

So yeah, you've got nothing to lose, go for it! :smokin:

Forums arnt really a place to copy and paste stuff from other websites.. and I would rather do it the old fashioned way by actually going out and meeting someone new its more interesting and direct am i the only one? :wtf:

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Originally Posted by cannabis campbell

I would rather do it the old fashioned way by actually going out and meeting someone new its more interesting and direct:wtf:

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:thumbsup:

Damn it, i wrote all that myself; give me some credit. I work as a technical writer and write all professional-like out of habit. do i hav too rite like a noob b4 u beleive its actualy me riting it?

Seriously, craigslist is a great site for people that are having trouble getting dates. You guys obviously are not in that category, so this doesn't apply to you.

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Originally Posted by cannabis campbell

Forums arnt really a place to copy and paste stuff from other websites.. and I would rather do it the old fashioned way by actually going out and meeting someone new its more interesting and direct am i the only one? :wtf:

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hahah I couldnt even read it to much blahhblahh blahh but good thread main hahah keep the hope alive

Haha I love your avatar khronik

I thought it gave some good tips, so, um, yey for you. :thumbsup: Dunno if I'd ever try the whole internet dating thing but those are some good things to keep in mind, I'm sure.

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Originally Posted by Veratyr Star

Haha I love your avatar khronik

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haha, thanks :)

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Originally Posted by LuckyG

I thought it gave some good tips, so, um, yey for you. :thumbsup: Dunno if I'd ever try the whole internet dating thing but those are some good things to keep in mind, I'm sure.

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I never actually paid money to do the whole internet dating thing, and like a lot of people, I started off browsing craigslist for sort of the same reason that people watch Jerry Springer. But eventually I figured it'd be best to just swallow my pride and try and get a few dates, and I was right. :D