Pick Your Poison

Since I started this blog and confirmed that I am quite the online-dating veteran, I have been asked one question several times from various friends who are thinking about delving into the internets to find love:

Which site is the best?

This question is rich and complex, as everyone will have a different answer.  The opinions below are based on my experiences, and a more lucky lady/fella may have great luck on a site that I would describe as a pit of loneliness.  And trust me, ladies, you will find Captain Crazy and his League of Incredibly Disappointing Gentlemen, just as dudes will find a good amount of daddy issues and crazy cat ladies, on all your options, but I do think some sites have more winners for some. 

I'll start with where I started many years ago:  Match.  For me, Match has seemed to have the most legit characters.  Most of my dates have been with dudes from Match, but based on this blog, that may not be saying very much.  I enjoy that you can search based on height.  The pitfalls?  It's pricey, and more than once, I've forgotten to cancel my account before they've automatically charged my card to renew my membership. 

OKCupid is by far the most entertaining of the options.  Why?  Bulk.  OKCupid is free, so a lot of people use it... and when I say "people," I mean weirdos.  Most of the e-mails I post on this blog are from OKCupid.  To be fair, I have gone out with a dude or two from this site, and I really enjoy the quizzes, which help them match you to potential suitors.  This option also allows you to search based on height, a feature that many short male members don't seem to use.  I get so many messages from guys 5'9" and below on this site.

eHarmony is another popular option.  I am not a fan.  The reason why is a bit selfishly motivated.  You see, eHarmony doesn't consider height to be a dealbreaker.  In other words, even if I rank height above 6'0" as "very, very important," the site will still send me guys shorter than that... much shorter.  My guess is that they assume that height is too petty to be a dealbreaker.  However, it's not petty for little ol' me (pun intended)... it's practical.  Despite my experience, I do know some normal-sized friends who have had good luck on the site.

By far the WORST site I've ever tried was TallFriends.  I really should have known... The only men on this site are short dudes with tall-girl fetishes, which is just not for me.  It gives me the creeps.

As for the other options, I can't weigh in, but I will say that I've heard mixed reviews of JDate.  Part of me really wants to try ChristianMingle, only because the commercials are so corny.

What site do/did you use?  Answer the survey below, and comment on this post with your thoughts.

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

The Short List

I should start this post by explaining that I am a member of both Match.com and eHarmony. I know what you're thinking: "Wow, Jen! You're love life must be REALLY pathetic if you're on TWO dating sites." Well, you would be correct, but there's another reason as well. I forgot to cancel my Match account a few months ago, and the site automatically renewed my membership for another 6 months (a.k.a. robbed me of a whole lot of cash). Since I recently got dumped (waaah waah), I decided to try out eHarmony, especially since I haven't been very impressed with Match.com (e.g., my ex, "the virgin").

Unless you live under a rock or claim to not watch TV (seriously, TV isn't rotting your brain, your pretentiousness is), you probably know that eHarmony matches you on bunch of levels of compatibility or some shit like that. Well, I've decided that that's a load of bull. Here's why I came to that conclusion:

The site keeps sending me short dudes.

As a 6'1", slightly freakishly tall chick, I indicated when I filled out the online forms that height was VERY important to me. I don't hate short dudes or anything like that, but I, like a lot of women I know, enjoy the secure feeling of being held by someone slightly bigger than myself. Plus, most heterosexual dudes don't really want to be towered over by their lover (or so I thought...).

Despite my preference, however, eHarmony sends me dudes under 6'0" about 80% of the time. Really, what am I going to do with a guy who's 5'6", other than look utterly ridiculous or rest my drink on his head. What is eHarmony thinking?

And what's even better is that some of these shorties try to start talking to me. To all those dudes out there who fantasize about being with a girl who's significantly taller than you, let me just me fill you in on a little secret: That ish is creepy and weird and no thank you. I know there are probably a few weirdo tall women out there who are into that, but I am not one of them.