Online Dating: Part 2

In Part 1 I admitted to my knowledge and participation of the online dating phenomenon. Now it's time for specifics. As a minister, I like there to be at least 3 of everything. But to be honest, I have only encountered 2 websites that I found interesting to any degree.

2nd Place
The award for 2nd place goes to eHarmony. When you visit Neil Clark Warren's site you are greeted by happy faced couples and their wedding dates. Match-making sites are supposed to produce married couples. It seems eHarmony does this better than anyone by using a system of 29 Dimensions of Compatibility.

You start by taking your free personality test and then the matches come flowing in. As you scan through the profiles of your matches you can do 1 of 2 things. 1. You can add contact info to your profile (probably not technically allowed) or 2. You can pay for their EXTREMELY expensive subscription ($50 for a month).

My experience on eHarmony has been OK. I've contacted a few girls who included their emails and was bored to death. But a few contacted me and that has been more fruitful. One such girl and I have since had 50+ conversations and may even meet in April at Houghton College or something. We'll see.

1st Place
I may get made fun of for this, but the gold goes to HotorNot. I was told about this site as a joke while attending Bethany. But it's really pretty effective. It has a reputation as a very superficial site (and it is), but the beauty of this site is more than skin deep.

It's not JUST pics. I mean, sure you can rate people's pics and be rated yourself. But there's actually a lot to do on the site. You can filter your search by keyword (ie-Christian) or by location (ie-Buffalo). You can contact people who agree that you are incredibly interesting. You can send them cheesy pre-made notes or even virtual flowers (although, unbelievably, at a cost). And if you want to get real contact information, it's much more affordable ($5 for a month).

My experience on hotornot has been pretty good. I've talked to some neat people and made some good online friends. Once again, with one of these I've had over 50 good conversations and even though I'll probably never meet her, feel like I know her pretty well. Plus, it's not a BAD thing to SEE a person's pic before deciding your level of interest. Physical attraction certainly isn't EVERYthing, but it definitely is SOMEthing.