Internet dating: is it good or bad?!??!?

[nottheeggman]

Hello forum users,

I am trying to figure out if internet dating will suit me. I am a divorced mother of 2 and my kids continuously tell me that I need to get back into the dating scene and meet someone new, but I have heard some stories on the news about it being dangerous to meet people off the internet.

I was hoping you all could shed some light and help me out, and please feel free to share your personal experiences as this will help me the most. Thank you

[surfhb]

It's great! I'm 45 and Found my wife on match.com

Just meet at a restaurant or coffee shop.....nothing dangerous in that

[Simpo]

It can be very good but you have to be wary of some people... Be sure that the person your talking to is who they say they are. Simple way to prove this is get them to send a short video or picture of them holding a piece of paper with your name or a certain phrase on it. Also seeing as your a girl, guys will try and ask for sex or try and use you for sex. So try and weed out the guys trying to get lucky and find the honest nice guys. DO NOT show too much skin or obvious cleavage or you will be spammed with sexual related questions and requests... Funnily if your a male on a dating site, you struggle to get reply's or matches :p

But it is a good way of finding a date if there are people in your area that use the dating site your on. My problem is people in my area don't use dating site haha :p

From personal experience I've met two girls through dating sites. first one I met turned out to be my first real girlfriend (by real I mean adult not kid stuff) and was good but turned sour because of the person she turned out to be. I can't fault the dating site for that since it just introduces you to people, it doesn't tell you everything about them or who they really are, thats where you have to take a leap of faith or simply date them for a while and get to know them better.
2nd just didn't work out due to distance but I did make a really good friend.

[TablesandChairs]

I met my ex the old fashioned way; through a friend. He turned out to be a huge liar, deceitful to the bone. On the other hand, I met my fiancee online...most genuine person I've ever met. So, the same rules apply online as they do offline - keep your wits about you, don't swallow everything you're told, don't accept excuses, meet in a public place but make sure you spend sufficient time talking beforehand. The internet has changed, it's used by everyone, not just geeks and creeps...so you could find anyone. That obviously is the problem, you don't want to meet just any old jerk...so take your time.