Online dating is becoming extremely popular across the world. Call it whatever you want, online dating or internet dating it is now the ‘in’ thing to do, especially for those who are busy with their professional lives or for those who have tried the real dating scene and not liked it. Online dating is fast catching up and even more so in United States of America, Canada and Australia.
People and specially men prefer the privacy and anonymity that online dating gives them rather than blind dates and speed dating.
There are some etiquettes that need to be followed while dating online.
1. Screen Names – This is the most basic etiquette where online dating is concerned as it deals with the first and most basic thing of your online dating profile. Your screen name should reflect on the kind of person you are. Choose screen names that are appropriate. Avoid offensive and suggestive screen names like ‘hot4u’, ‘sexylover’, ‘richhotguy’ and other such names. These are names that are suggestive and just pathetic. Either use your own name as a screen name or use your initials. You do not want to put off prospective love interests just because of your screen name.
2. Respect time – as there are more women than men on online dating sites, women get harassed with the number of emails. Keep your email short, simple and respectful so as not to offend the lady reading it or by taking up too much of her time to just understand your email.
3. Be specific – the person on the receiving end is not someone who has free time on her hands, if she did, she would be out there dating real men. When you email a lady, ask her specific questions like ‘do you enjoy going for movies?’ or ‘what field of work are you in’ instead of just “ what do you do?” “What do you like to do?” or better yet “tell me about yourself”. This is not an essay writing contest, the women may not have time to answer such generic question. Respect her time and be specific.
4. Read carefully – this again boils down to respecting a woman’s time and specifications. If a woman has listen in her profile she is looking for men between the ages of 27 to 35 and you are 21, do not waste her time and yours contacting her. Similarly if she is looking for Australian outback men and you are an American, why waste time and energy only to be rejected?
5. if you do not have a picture on your profile and the woman who are interested in wants a profile with a picture, then either do not bother contacting her or send her your picture through email.
6. Do not get poetic – writing poetry and sonnets to impress a woman is more or less a thing of the past. Do not put up a poet about you in your profile. Do not even put up a poem about the kind of woman you are looking for. And do not send out a poem in the first contact email you are sending to the woman you like.
7. Use correct English – this one is not about etiquette or maybe it is. But please all you men out there use a dictionary, a thesaurus or activate spell check on your computers. There is nothing worse than incorrect spellings and grammar. Some women even consider it rude that you did not take the time and effort to rectify mistakes in spellings or grammar.
8. Personalise emails – women move around in groups and they do things together. So it is highly possible that they have signed up for online dating as a group effort. Sending the same email to women is considered rude. It means you did not take the trouble or the time to read her profile and send a personalised email.
9. If a woman fixes up a date with you, and then cancels do not send her hate mails. She was not interested and informed you, you can’t blame her for her preference. Take it with a pinch of salt and move on. But please do not do childish things like sending hate mails.
10. If you do send women hate mails and guilt mails, you are proving them right that they were right by canceling out on you. Take it like a man and move on. Show respect to their choice they same way you would expect them to respect yours.
Follow these simple steps and etiquettes and you should do just fine in the online dating world.