I'm Trading Up My Online Dating Profile

Seems almost everyone I know who is single has an online dating profile; mostly on the hipster ghetto of FastCupid which incidently is owned by the largest online porn company in the biz. For those of you new to the game FastCupid serves up singles to Nerve, Salon and Onion registered daters. So as my good friend who happens to be moving in with his new girlfriend this weekend, Steve C. says you never know if you're date is a perv, lit head or wiseass.

I've done the online dating thing on and off since 1999.

Today ladies and gentlemen hung it up and pressed the 'delete profile' key.

Why?

Because it, for me, has become a mind fuck and collosal time suck.

FastCupid offers you the possibility of watching the behaivor of other site members. You can see who's checked you out, when their last login was, how long they've been active etc.. This is just enough info over time to make really poor assumptions about what people are up to instead of just asking direct questions outright.

New ridiculous questions have taken the place of normal questions people who are interested in each other ask like:

We've been dating for a month now; his profile is still active and he logged in yesterday.

What does that mean?

Do I ask him about it?

If I turn my profile off and he sees it what will he think?

Dating is difficult enough - why torture yourself with the added complexity of being able to watch pieces of your potential partners dating game behaivor.

I give up. Uncle.

My friend Zack is creating a new online dating service - Strange Angels - maybe he'll save us all from the gallows of online romance.

In the meantime, I'm free from the shackels of hotlists, winks, and 'who's viewing you'.

Thank Christ.