[curt]

Getting a response from online dating isn't that hard and an actual date only took 2 or 3 messages. I think it's that most people just don't know how to communicate. It took me a bit of experimentation on what works, but once I figured it out I didn't have any problems. When I did okCupid I was a bit over 50%. Now I'm 6'8" and in shape but I'm definitely not Brad Pitt. My favorite first date topic was asking girls about their other online dates. They had horror stories about extremely awkward guys that had no idea how to interact with the opposite sex.

While this elegantly solves the messaging problem. Guys that never win won't stick around. Also how much information are you hiding from both parties? Just the picture or more? Most men and women have certain standards, height, look, build, etc. I have quite a few close female friends and they all have a minimum set of standards which exclude 95%+ of men.

[bradleyjg]

You score very high on one of two most salient first cut criteria for women on dating sites. If you also have a high status and/or high paying job then the correct response to your post is -- duh you found it easy.

[hnwh]

> I have quite a few close female friends and they all have a minimum set of standards which exclude 95%+ of men.

So do I... in their 30s'. But in my case, that's why they're all still (deservedly) single

[svachalek]

I call this attitude "I'm only single because I'm not picky enough". Kind of how people interviewing for programming jobs are self-selected to have a real problem with FizzBuzz, this seems to be a very common issue with online dating. I haven't seen any sites that try to address it, and don't really have any idea as to how they would.