Alternatives to the awful OLD sites

[notlongtillxmas]

Exactly that really
It would seem that lots of us find OLD unpleasant for various reasons
Pics of fish / filtered pics / ghosting / catfishing/ I could go on
If it's not that great but you really would like to meet up with a suitable partner , what are the alternatives ?

Have people stopped introducing friends to each other? I know friends who went through a number of traumas with OLD and then found each other when friends got them together because they thought they'd be well suited.

I've seen speed dating suggested
Has anyone ever tried that ?

@aurory

As for alternatives to OLD, I think Meet Up is a good starting point. Or, if you're brave enough, striking up conversations in situations where there's already some common element in place e.g dog parks, hiking trails (asking for directions), museums/galleries, football games, sports clubs etc.

striking up conversations in situations where there's already some common element in place e.g dog parks, hiking trails (asking for directions), museums/galleries

I do this a lot but only with other women and it feels safe.

The only time I do this with men is when there's such an obvious age gap (i.e., he's young) that we can both be confident that I'm genuinely just commenting on the artifact.

I can't say that I've acquired a friend this way but I've had lots of interesting conversations. Perhaps I'm not giving off, 'do you want a cup of tea and to talk more about this exhibition' vibes?