Internet dating stories ?

[MummyAbroad]

I'm giving it a whirl, I have signed up and put myself out there. Feels really scary and so far is bringing disappointing results. Anyone had any really positive experiences internet dating? Equally if you have had bad ones, post it too so I can see how it really is....oooh no on second thoughts, post all the funny stories to cheer me up... go on... there must be some good'uns between you all. :-)

(Apologies if I am not back for a while, I'm not in the same time zone as the UK)

oh wow! so many success stories, that's encouraging! Couldnt be better timing either as they only person I have chatted to so far has just admitted he is in open relationship so I'm not having much luck yet. I think I need to read the red flag thing, hadnt seen that yet so thanks for the tip off.

JonSnow, I am on okcupid. would love to be on guardiansoulmates as there are lots of people I fancy on there, but none in the country I live in.

Met my DH online, its our 2 year anniversary next month (valentines day actually Pah ha!)
Had to trawl through a LOT of absolute idiots to find him though.
I have to say being on there did make me see a whole new side to men and tbh not for the better and I do find I am quite stand offish with men since that experience.
Not that there are not lovely ones but WOW what an eye opener!

Two brilliant couples I know, one set married last year, the other engaged to be married- both sets met on Match!

I haven't dated online, married 17 years so I'm in the previous dating generation! But know two very happy couples who met on-line. One is my cousin and she and her partner have a young baby. The other was my neighbor in the US, who met her husband on-line.

What, no horror stories?

Ah yes, I found okcupid to be an interesting experience

elaborate please tea!!

First one told me he loved me and asked begged me to be his girlfriend within days of meeting, but forgot to mention that he had no intention of either coming off the site or to stop messaging other women telling them he was completely single, very honest and genuine and looking to settle down. He was completely single within minutes of me finding out!

The second one was an absolute love. A very nice man who I'm still friends with now, but who just wasn't right for me. Again, he told me he loved me within days of meeting and proposed within a couple of months, which made me feel sick and confirmed for me that it just wasn't happening.

The third time was because I'd been given five days free membership to get me to sign up again, so messaged someone whose profile was similar to mine. I wasn't holding out much hope because he was so far away, but travelled to see him. We hit it off instantly, he moved in after six months, proposed after a year and we're now very happily married.

Good luck, there are lots of lovely men out there. My only piece of advice would be that if someone is telling you that you're amazing and that they can see themselves really falling for you, they are 98% likely to do a vanishing act within days. Don't believe anything until their actions have matched their words.

Met someone online about 5 years ago. Short 'relationships' but boy did he pack it in, in that time! Was abusive (in retrospect I was probably raped?) tried to make me move in with him/move abroad, was two (or three, or four) timing me, was married (married his Ethiopian friend for money, to get her into country) and attempted to persuade me to marry one of his friends so that they'd be able to live here legitimately.
I met his sister and mother who both seemed lovely. All very odd!
Oh and his housemate tried to pull me in to some sort of drug dealing thing. Which resulted in me being in a car when a large gang of people started smashing windows with baseball bats.
I could have done without all that!

Although that all sounds terribly negative, I think the fact that I endured the above means there's less chance you will? There can't be many men like that floating about! I've taken one for 'the team'.
I think the only relevant bit to online dating was the two timing thing. That's probably how he found the other women.

Eventually we broke up, he kept £300 of mine he had (a lot considering I was doing my A levels and he was a professional with plenty of money) and harassed/threatened me for a month or two longer, sent me a video of him having sex with someone (hilarious but also disgusting). I wish I had reported him!

I met some nice people online, too, though. I still talk to two of them in a friendly capacity. Both lovely!

No positive romance stories though, I'm afraid.

I think as long as you set out your rules and stick to them you'll be fine. If you know what to look out for, you just have to make sure you don't end up 'making exceptions'.

Click and Flirt was a disaster. Apparently all free sites aren't much good.

Met my second husband on line. He was only one without cock picture.

My success story is downstairs watching cricket, together 10 years. Best partner ever.

Yeah dating site photos where the guys' attitude is, 'if I show you my cock will you meet me and be instantly turned on' is nothing more than a demand for sex.

Shitty blokes with shitty attitudes have always been around. Some just group themselves on dating websites these days.

dirtybadger that sound horrendous! i hope you got the support you needed, what an utter wanker!

I havent come across the cock photo phenomenon (yet), thanks for the heads up!

I used one of the free sites was quite lucky. ignoring the smutty messages I received I went on 2 dates. the first was nuts, also bragged how he made his money illegally and got the massive hump when I ended the date early. the second date us now my dp and been together 3 years with a ds and who I believe was fate (he lived, socialised and worked literally 3 roads over from where I lived)

ignore the filth you will receive a lot. I also got a few messages that were clearly just bulk sent to people in thr hope someone will reply, if they can't be bothered to write a personal message, they're not worth it. Anyone giving you sob stories or going on about their bitch ex avoid within 2 messages avoid.

There's a really good long running dating thread here Everyone is going through the same stuff and it makes interesting reading!

I met my DP online and we've been together over 3 years now. He is easily the nicest, kindest man I've ever had a relationship with.

I loved OKCupid when I was OD - but be warned, there are a lot of open relationships and polyamorous people there. POF is full of weirdos, txtspk and cockshots, but that's where I met my DP You just have to sort out the good from the bad.

Another success story here. Met my lovely partner on plenty of fish, been together more than four years. We're very happy and very we'll suited and would never have met without the internet.

I think plenty of fish is now notorious for cock pictures, but I didn't receive any back then. I went on about 8 dates altogether over a period of about 9 months and was seeing one of them for about three months (he ended it). I met some nice and interesting men, nobody particularly weird. Only one was noticeably older than the age he'd given - 10 years older!

There was one flaky bloke who seemed to like me and we had a few dates, but then he did a disappearing act. I had overlooked the huge red flag he revealed when he told me that in four years he hadn't had a relationship that lasted longer than three months. So only myself to blame there.

Go for it and enjoy yourself.

I met someone on Guardian Soulmates. He seemed lovely, attractive,intelligent, ran a disability charity, arty. Really looked forward to meeting him. However when we met, he turned out to be a her!

Turned out he was a female to male transexual, had his breasts removed, had facial hair and a receding hairline but still had a fanjo. Tried to be cool and not act shocked but was pretty pissed off as you can imagine!

Scarlet

I also met a guy who described himself as a ' sexy city lawyer'. He was about 5 foot 4, had black teeth but worst of all had a horrid boring monotonous voice ( think John Major)

He was a lawyer tho!

I met dh on plenty of fish :)

I messaged him first. I thought he looked cute and he talked about similar interests and music to me so why not... He was 8 years younger than me, living at home with his mum and I was a twice divorced mum of 1 :)

We messaged for a bit and he was a bit nervous I was just after a bit of fun when he wanted something serious etc and I convinced him ideally I'd like the same so we agreed to meet for a coffee and see how it went.

Our coffee lasted 4 hours (Costa must have loved us!) And we really hit it off. I did hide behind a bookshelf checking him out when I first got there though, I was so bloody nervous.

Many years on we are happily married and now have a ds who is now 19 months old. :) we are so happy together and dd aged 11 loves him to bits.

So happy ending for me !