Technology

I confirm this, also Z person.

Have you used any recently? It could be that we're both right, as software just keeps getting worse for over the past few years.

Glad it worked out for you guys in the end. There has to be a better way. I usually tell folks to get involved with mixed groups that are activity-based. There's all kinds of volunteer groups, athletics clubs, and hobby groups out there. Go where the people are, the group activity is a great ice breaker, and then hope to find someone in the group (or network with it to find someone). It's much better than praying to the app gods through the phone, IMO.

Basically join hobby groups. Not sure if meetup.com is much of a thing any more but they had tons of different types of meet ups.

Dance classes usually have lots of single women if your hobby is more male oriented. You do not have to be a good dancer for the beginner classes.

I get that it can be frustrating to be constantly told that women do not want to be approached in public. I actually just looked up where to meet women after reading your comment and one article stood out because it was a woman who was trying to get hit on at the gym. She admitted that she is only up for being approached when she is getting water or leaving. Her showering that she was open to flirt with a specific person was by giving a smile which is something women generally say is absolutely not an invitation to flirt. She also mentioned giving bedroom eyes which I imagine is difficult for a guy to interpret on a sweaty woman. This woman turns out to be a dating coach.

I was lucky that Tinder was just starting out when I got a late start in dating.

The only way I've ever had luck on those apps is just by trying to make my profile funny instead of really lame and repetitive. Like, make one that actually stands out, even if it's just a big picture of you in a fish costume holding yourself, or something. It can certainly help if you get a sense for what other dude's profiles look like and intentionally do what will stand out from them, or what will point out the absurdity of them. Then, just wait. That's it, don't surf the app really, that's a pretty guaranteed way to lose hope on everything. If you do scroll, do it sparingly, and sparingly give out swipes, don't swipe on someone cause they're hot, swipe on someone because they either seem like someone you wanna go out with or because they're sending you some other form of signal that actually matters. After you get a match or two, you're gonna wanna swipe through the pile until you can distinguish the person who swiped on you from the blurry preview they give you, and then you can go from there based on whether or not they seem like a good fit or not, generally I opt towards yes even if they haven't put much effort in.

I dunno about tinder, but sometimes you can even delete your bumble profile and the app keeps puppeting around your account, and then you can return later on, and swipe through the pile, until you can distinguish them based on their preview. I've met like 7-8 girls this way and my profile barely even shows my face and it's all stupid jokey bullshit. I think my ELO's probably tanked but I don't really care that much atp. If you're really desperate there are ways to flub the sign-up process and make a totally new account, so you can reset your ELO if you've tanked it by swiping right a million times and getting nothing back.

How old are you? It’s been years since I dated, but I had a decent amount of success on dating apps. It can take time to curate a good profile. Also, my understanding is that free options are nonexistent or flooded with fake OF profiles, so that might make it more difficult

Yeah dating a coworker is gross.

It’s basically being patient until you happen to bump into a good match.

FWIW, there are atheist groups that serve similar functions. A friend of mine grew up going to the local "Secular Circle" every Sunday, because her parents wanted her to have the social benefits of church without any of the religious stuff, and she talks about how she intends to bring her kids there.

(Cough)

I'm late 20s/early 30s. Since ~2011 the only social media I used was Reddit. No Facebook, Twitter, etc, etc.

What you're saying is exactly how I met my now wife. I looked after myself, did shit I enjoyed, found community events, hobbies groups, lived life, met lots of people, made new friends. Eventually I asked one of the friends on a date and now my best friend is my wife and I can't be happier.

I will say, not having Facebook was a problem in some areas though. I missed out on group activities, group hobby chats, that sort of thing but I didn't care. Friends would invite me to some of them anyway. Also, It might have changed these days but a handfull of people refused to trade numbers, they wanted me to add them on Facebook which was impossible. I didn't let that get in the way either but it was kind of 'hard' to miss out on a potential friendship. It all worked out in the end for me.

Most likely a plurality, and given who you spend the most time with that makes a lot of sense tbh.

Unless you already have shit loads of friends this is not viable. And dating at work has almost gotten impossible with the risk of harassment.

Young people are fucked.

Oohhhh I really want to guess which comic that was.
I know the Sam and Fuzzy forums were very lively but I'd rank that in a higher tier.
QC might qualify these days but my past self thought it was the best so I'll rule that out out of respect for younger me.
LFG was kinda like a lesser Nuclear Power but I've got no sense of their forums. The timeline's off there too, given the ballpark I'm assuming from your comment.
Dragon Tails was solid upper middle, also had a very healthy community forum.
Bob and George was definitely lower tier but in a fun way.
What was the one with the pink cat? Ahhh, Something Positive. I remember thinking that was great, but I don't really remember anything else about it.
Going further back, into possibly pre-burning-boards territory, there's what... El Goonish Shive and Unlike Minerva. I'm not sure how well-known Unlike Minerva was, but apparently EGS is still going strong.
Around there was College Roomies from Hell which opened me up to the whole Keenspot family, and there are a lot of directions that can go.
Ruling out XKCD since even if you don't like it, you have to acknowledge how widely loved or at least known it is. Probably same with Penny Arcade.

Aaaah, the list on the Shortpacked landing page is full of nostalgia.

I won't accept Mac Hall as being classified as anything less than top tier.

I think I'm gonna have to go with Real Life. Nice, comfortable, consistent. Cozy. Not universally known but a good solid regular webcomic. Has (oh, had) forums, fits the arbitrary timeline I have in my head.
Whaaaa, Mae Dean has certainly gone through some changes since I checked in last!

I might change my answer as I continue down memory lane here.

My experience on hinge and most dating apps is weird bc of where I live. 20mins either way to the next major city and I think it's a turn off that I'm a bit chub and still live with my mom which I can't do anything about bc genetics and trouble maintaining jobs 🙃

We are the next generations of generations.

The way I view it (despite personally exclusively using apps for hooking up) is that the swipe is the first filter, the bare minimum. Yes, it's superficial, but people are at least in part superficial. If you're not physically attracted to the person, it's not likely to work out.

You swipe hot on all the people who meet the threshold of being attractive to you, then you go through your matches' profiles to find out who is likely to have a compatible personality, then you chat and go out to find out who actually had a compatible personality. The superficial swiping is only the first step.

People who get deep connections, engaged, married, etc, stop using dating apps.

Short term dysfunctional hookups are more profitable for these companies.

The CEO of grindr once admitted he opposed gay marriage.

I agree. Tinder (and it's predecessor Grindr) were clearly all about "hooking up" with attractive people. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But if you're using this service hoping for more, you're going to have a bad time.

Similar to how Snapchat was clearly designed to send nudes but evolved into something else entirely.

I miss the glory days of okcupid and pof