11 - Description.

I do wonder if I should give up online dating. I'm not entirely sure it's working. And I think the problem is probably me, and that I'm not exactly what you would call a catch. Oh, and I suck at dating. (See post 3.)

Online dating has been described as a numbers game in that you end up looking through loads of profiles, messaging a number of these profiles, having actual proper communication with some of these, and going on dates with some of these... a subset of a subset of a subset of the whole. And for me that final number is quite a small number.

My online profile varies between the different apps/sites, I'm on six, but they all at least tell some details about my personal circumstance, albeit in varying levels of detail (essentially; widower, two kids). I did wonder what it was about me that meant I got few hits.

Then I got the answer.

About a week or so ago I got a new dating app, Hinge. #7... In that app, I used the same set of pictures as the other apps/sites... well, I think I added in a couple of different ones. But I omitted the crucial detail mentioned in the brackets in the last paragraph. The result...

...well, I got more responses, and more interest, in that one week so far on that app than from the other six apps put together, over the last month.

I realise that this may not be the most scientific approach in that it's hardly a double-blind experiment (I don't even know how I would set that up!), but as a rough and ready way of assessing what about my profiles is off-putting it is pretty telling.

Clearly, with those I've messaged on Hinge, depending on if conversation is heading towards meeting I'll tell them about things before we meet. I wonder what will happen...