Okay, I’m a dork after penning that blog title, but it’s been a craptastic Monday (just a frustrating workday, nothing major, don’t worry!) so I’m feeling a little slaphappy today. As I canceled my chemistry.com account this morning (wow, 3 months flies, huh?) I thought I’d do a little compare and contrast between the three sites I have tried in the past (almost) year – match.com, OK Cupid, and chemistry.com.

As I reflect on my online dating experience, overall, in the last year, I go back to something Andrea Syrtash noted in my blog interview a week ago – it’s very normal and natural today to *meet online.  Technology has changed the way we do everything, including how we make connections – it’s been a really good experience for me for the most part, in getting back into the dating game (let’s face it, I never WAS in the dating game before I got together with my ex 10 years ago!), learning some big must-haves, learning from experiences and maybe a do-over or two, and also frustrating, of course, knowing that I’ve gone a full year of this and still haven’t met anyone that I’ve clicked well enough with to sustain something longer term (but oh yes, back to that idea of releasing!) but, bottom line, I’ve actually really enjoyed it. I also plan to revisit and update my “man audit”  from January in a couple of weeks (that should be fun. heh.)

So, here goes – my “review” of chemistry.com, OK Cupid and match.com.

match.com:

The good:

  • I’d venture to say that I had the most luck and success with this site. It was easier to find matches that were relatively vetted by what was in their profiles, and I met a few pretty good ones here (diamond boy, brainy blonde, to name a couple of memorable ones – refer to man audit above for descriptions!)
  • I liked the ability to search for whomever I wanted, and do reserve searches (matches that met my criteria in my profile).
  • I liked seeing who saw my profile (unlike chemistry, it was hard to tell if anyone actually looked at mine back or read anything I sent etc) because if they didn’t respond to whatever I sent them, I could basically assume they weren’t interested, which, while frustrating not to get a response, was still helpful.

The bad:

  • Search overload! While I note above that I like being able to search for whomever I want – it also made it a lot more time-intensive, which can also be conversely frustrating.
  • Winks. Stupid. Just email if you’re interested. Winks should be outlawed.

Bottom line: I feel as though Match.com is a great middle of the road dating site – not overly expensive, and I felt as though the guys on the site were more often than not likely serious enough (since they were paying) into the whole dating thang. I’d consider it again at some point.

OK Cupid:

The good:

  • It’s free. Yes, sometimes having a free site handy is a good thing. (hello budget!)
  • I liked the funky profile questions and settings and feel as though you can somewhat tell who’s serious and who’s not (the ones who note that they are looking for casual encounters – um, pass.)
  • I had one handful-of-dates success with the Russian (lol still can’t believe I went out with him though, just given his name was IGOR – yes IGOR…) – again , refer to aforementioned man audit!
  • Also met Southern Boy on OKC, but this could go under good or bad given he’s fallen off the face of the earth. Meh.

The bad:

  • I got a ton of super young guys hitting on me – like wtf? I don’t really understand why that kept happening, but I digress.
  • I also got a lot of creepers – way WAY older (think 50s!) and NOT from around here. Weird much?
  • The knew-it-was-not-gonna-work in the first 10 seconds date. Yeesh.
  • Winks. BE GONE! Seriously.

Bottom line: I’m still on this one, but don’t do a heck of a lot with it. Since it’s free, I DO feel as though there are more guys on there that aren’t into anything serious, or ARE looking for one-night stand types.
Chemistry.com:

The good:

  • Getting matches sent to me was good since I was on this site when I was more busy and had less time to search.
  • I liked seeing who met my criteria and in what ways, and to find out what my “personality” was (a builder).
  • I met CBE here – the closest to a relationship I’ve come. Was a good coupla months till he went all “The Secret” weird on me.

The bad:

  • The matches were SERIOUSLY dissapointing. A handful of potentials that I never heard from. Doubly frustrating.
  • No way to know if they were interested or not – it’s not like match.com where you get a notification if they aren’t interested (if you wink, I think) or if they even viewed your profile. Felt like a black hole.
  • NO control over what matches you get – again, good and bad, I guess, but in this case, mostly bad.
  • Not getting that many matches each day. One day, 3, another 6, another 1. WTF?
  • SO many guys didn’t post pics unless you “requested” it – and then never posted them – another WTF? I mean, I’m not a DOG, seriously dudes, post your pic when I ask, or FAIL.

Bottom line: Will NOT use this site again. SO underimpressed and the most expensive (double what match.com costs for three months – MEH!)

So, there you have it – hope you got a laugh out of reading, and maybe you can even relate, if you’ve been on these sites before. I won’t rule out continuing some kind of online dating thing in the future, but for now, I think I’m good with it…and we’ll see what happens. Trying. To. Release.