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Dating channel: Plenty of Fish Website.

I’ve been on Plenty Of Fish for a couple of weeks now and I’ve got to say, it isn’t the best, I still don’t feel like I fully understand it, and unlike Tinder where you cannot start a conversation with someone until you both mutually agree you’re interested in each other (in the form of matching), POF gives any, and every Tom, Dick and Harry the option to message you, leaving you with hundreds of messages a day!

And sometimes the same person will message you more than once- not because they’re really interested in you- because they message so many women they’ve forgotten they’ve already messaged you.

It also leaves a gateway for bogus, rude, and uninteresting people to message you things such as this:

“erm, have you ever fantasised about two men at once? :p”

“So like, do caterpillars know they are going to become butterflies, or do they just build a cacoon and be like WTF am I doing?”  (have to admit, I did find this one funny.)

“If you agree to a date, I’ll let you put your finger in my butt!”

Which leads me to my second grievance with POF, I’m starting to understand why they’ve given it the name plenty of fish. There are thousands of men on this website that have free rein to see your full profile and message you, it just doesn’t feel safe. It’s for this reason that I’ve set up my profile with a fake name. Although it is highly unlikely you’ll encounter any trouble, we all know there are crazies out there who do cross lines and harass and hurt people. So, by all means, put a real picture of you if you want, because lets face it, who trusts or wants to have a conversation with a faceless person, but just be vigilant about how much information you give up about yourself before meeting the person. Not everyone is who they say they are.

Worst case scenario: You don’t get stalked or murdered.                                                                        Best case scenario: You have a good laugh about your secret identity.

Now to the point, amongst the meaningless and at times unanswered chatter, I did have a few nice conversations but after days of endless talks, a pattern began to emerge and I found myself asking that same question to each of them:

When are you going to ask me out?

The five or six guys I am currently chatting to seem really keen, and we have really good conversations, but none of them have asked me out! I kept thinking to myself, what’s the point of all this, isn’t the whole point to get a date, so why aren’t any of these guys asking me out? I know it’s not because they’re not interested in me, so the conclusion seems to be that they are either:

A. A time waster.

B. Gutless,

C. A Catfish.

Pearl of wisdom: If you’ve been chatting consistently with a guy for a couple of weeks and he hasn’t asked you out yet, either ask him out yourself or throw him back in the water. Generally, if a guy doesn’t ask you out immediately, he’s an A, B or C.

I have to say, in the beginning, I did think that if I actually actively searched for a guy, I’d have been on a million dates by now, but dating really is hard work. In the movies they make it look so easy and fun. So far for me, the hardest part has been getting a date, admittedly I am very fussy but I do feel that a lot of the good ones are already taken as the saying goes. But, after 3 months, 1 catfish, and a lot of conversations with creeps, I think I’ve managed to reel in a decent date at last. Lets hope the actual dating part is easier.

Catch ya later,

Ren.