It'd be hard for me to disagree with your conclusions more. No girl I've dated would have given my profile on a dating site a second look. You can't communicat

It'd be hard for me to disagree with your conclusions more. No girl I've dated would have given my profile on a dating site a second look. You can't communicate over a profile what you can collaborating on a project, tutoring someone, or even playing WoW. I think a helpful way to think about online dating sites is as just another class of venue, like a bar or whatever. You wouldn't expect to completely know someone immediately after meeting them at a bar; rather, you're using a quick first impression to decide if you want to get to know them more. After your first date, it doesn't matter much where you happened to meet. Just as some people don't come across well in bars, others don't come across well in profiles. Sure you can argue that the "in person" impression is worth more, but that's actually a bit dubious. An online profile lets some types of people quickly demonstrate intelligence and personality in a way that some other venues don't necessarily allow. So the elephant in the room, I think, is that dating isn't really a problem that needs solving via a web app. Describing "dating" as a problem to be solved is akin to describing "graph theory" or "linear algebra" as a problem to be solved; you're being overbroad. There's the "life partner problem," the "I want to get laid tonight problem," the "summer fling problem," etc. I think the problem online dating solves best is the "introduction problem" — how to efficiently meet people with whom you share a baseline romantic interest. You can meet significant others in bars, art and yoga classes, the gym, ... on, and on, and on. .... As long as you do things which involve meeting new people, you'll probably run into people you like enough to date. While I agree with this, I disagree with the conclusion that these venues obviate the need for online dating. What happens if you live in a very small town? What if you don't have time to go to bars, seminars, and yoga? What if you're shy? Online dating levels the playing field for people who are affected by questions like those. Hell, I know a lot more couples who met playing WoW than I do who met using dating websites. Dare I say, you are an outlier. What's the point of isolating and controlling the meeting of mates, when it's such a natural byproduct of being social? Maybe because it's more efficient? What does "being social" mean in this context, anyway? And why is going to a yoga class to meet a mate intrinsically superior to using an online dating site? The girl I'm dating right now actually lived down the street from me for a while, but because I don't work with her, go to her gym, or take Irish class, I'd have been unlikely to have met her and gotten to know her without online dating. Go figure. Again, dating sites are just venues where you can meet people. It seems to be more isolating and controlling to try to eliminate or deride them: why should there be one less type of venue where people can meet potential dates? I think there are many people out there who could really benefit from online dating but demur from it because of the kind of thinking in the parent comment.