I met up last night with the lovely and talented Lori MacBlogger last night.  Drinks ensued, as did enjoyable conversation.  She’s just as fun and personable in, well, person as she is on the Interwebs.

Among other things, we discussed the perils of online dating, and I let on that I cancelled my JDate subscription last week and also am letting my eHarmony subscription lapse this week as well.  Lori asked why I wasn’t pleased with the sites…

JDate
- Sent out literally 200 e-mails, got 1 person who was kind enough to write back and say thanks but she wasn’t interested and only 1 other person who actually went out with me (she wanted to just be friends though)… the return on investment was horrible.
- Female friends on JDate have told me they are bombarded by e-mails to the point where they can basically go through their inbox and pick and choose who they want to respond to, even dismissing guys for the littlest things.
- Almost every single person on there uses the same damn clichés to describe themselves.  In the section where they ask you to write an essay on who you’re looking for, I almost wrote “someone who doesn’t use the standard clichés in their profile.”

eHarmony
- You mean aside from the fact that it was started by a rabid Christian?
- I told them flat out that I want to meet someone who lives within 30 miles.  I don’t want to relocate, I don’t want to meet someone who will relocate.  So how come I’m still getting matched with people from places like Fresno or San Diego — or even Phoenix?
- The system is way too structured to the point where you have almost no control whatsoever.  They match you up with who they see fit, and then they take you through this long and protracted guided communication system where you have to exchange multiple choice questions, then a list of things you must have and a list of things you can’t stand in a relationship, then open-ended questions, and then you have to “read a message” from the guy who runs eHarmony before you can freely e-mail back and forth.  The problem is, if one person stalls out, you can’t send them an e-mail to say, “Hey, what’s going on?  It’s been a while since we’ve talked.” You’re stuck.  I actually was going through the process with someone back in August and she stalled out, so I was stuck and couldn’t do anything until she resumed things a few weeks ago.