If you’ve ever been on an online date, you know that something about your first date is going to surprise you. They’re bound to be taller than you imagined them, or balder, or have a lisp, or be much … bigger … than their pictures suggested. This last in particular is a common complaint, and the refrain in online dating horror stories is more often than not, “She/he must’ve been a hundred pounds heavier than I expected!”
When you first consider it, it just seems weird that people would misrepresent themselves …

Let’s start with an analogy: Why spend time shopping in a store if they don’t carry merchandise that suits your taste?
As far as I can tell, the biggest mistake that people make with regards to online dating is that they sign up for the wrong service. Let me be more specific: they sign up for the wrong service – for them. There is no one wrong service, or one right service. There are dozens of online dating service providers out there. DOZENS. And which one …

SYNOPSIS:For trust fund baby, Merrideth Weisman, everything seems perfect: perfect friends, perfect house, perfect Black American Express Card. Life is too good to be true. However, matters take a turn for the worst when Merri discovers her perfect fiance is a “Cheating, Scumbag, Bastard!” After a broken engagement and her father’s ultimatum to find a job, Merri realizes that the key to her survival is not a career, but a man. And so, the race to the altar begins as she is forced to plunge headfirst into the deep end …

In the blush of first flirtation, your new partner almost always seems perfect. This can be especially true online, because light, superficial conversations can build the illusion of ultimate compatibility. (They’re cute, they’re charming, and they think the Evil Dead movies are superior to Army of Darkness just like you do! It’s a match made in heaven!)
Infatuation can make every shared preference or opinion seem like A Sign, but it can also make it hard to determine whether or not a relationship is worth pursuing seriously. If you’re just looking …

It’s hard to believe there was a time that if you wanted to know, say, the answer to 21 Down, you had to look in an encyclopedia. And if you wanted to know more about your crush, you had to call (from a real phone!) a friend of a friend who knew him way back when.
Oh, what the world must have been like before Google.
Now there’s a wealth of information at our fingertips. You can be a crossword champ with a couple of double clicks, and you never …

You’re talking to a new guy you met on an online dating site, and things are going well. But there’s something a bit “off” about your interactions with him, and you start to be bothered by little details that just don’t add up.  Soon, you find yourself facing every internet dater’s most dreaded question: Could he be married?
Different cheaters have different approaches to dishonesty, and this can make it difficult to suss out the truth. Many suspicious actions, when taken one at a time, don’t seem unusual. (Maybe he logs …

Online Dating. What’s the first thing you think of when you hear those two words together?
I’m guessing that for some of you the answer is “Ugh” or “Hell, no. Never again.”
Not me, though. When I hear online dating I think of possibilities and potential. And disappointment — sure, that too. But mostly the potential. And the fact that I’ve met so many amazing men via online dating sites.
That’s right. Lots and lots of amazing men.
I’m not lying.
Really, I’m not.
And yet, to hear others …

When you look for a date online, you learn a lot more about potential dates than you would if they were just guys your great-aunt kept setting you up with. But you’re also at a disadvantage when it comes to private information. Years ago, you might’ve dated a girl you knew from college or the guy from down the street. You would probably have had some window into their background, and they would have had some window into yours. But internet dating lacks the social glue of shared past experiences …

So, it happened. He winked. You IMed. After enough flirty conversations over the phone, you both realized it was time to see if the chemistry held up in person.
That. Is. Scary.
Your first real date with an online mate can be so intimidating. Will he look like his picture? Will you look like your picture? Will you have things to talk about? Will you find him as funny over coffee as you do over G-chat?
It’s not easy to ace a first date, but here are some tips:

DO let …

For as long as there’s been online dating, there have been people writing about online dating. It’s one of those topics that keep people talking.
And for whatever reason, there seems to be a recent increase in the number of articles giving security tips for women who use online dating sites. And for the most part, almost all of them go overboard. Seriously overboard.
They write about online dating as if it were a scary and dangerous thing to do, something that requires extreme caution. And that’s just …