Every time I come across a profile without a photo, I can't help but wonder what this person is hiding. Are you insecure about your looks, are you married, are you in a relationship? What is it?

I'm a closeted gay.

I don't like having conversations with, much less a relationship with, extremely paranoid, mistrustful people who assume the worst about others. I'm also not keen on people who are so lacking in awareness/critical thought on privacy issues in the modern era that they'd fail to realize the many legitimate reasons for not posting a photo.

By not posting a photo, I filter all of those people out pretty effectively. Its great!

many reasons and many threads about this topic.

I'm not here to date. I'm here for the forums. Not everyone uses this site to meet someone. Some use it to just chat. There are trolls out there that like to steal pictures

Plus who is to say the pictures that get posted are recent....or worse, not even them.

I'm happily single and not insecure. I just don't feel the need for people to see me to just chat in forums. The people I'm close to, are friends on FB and can see my pictures

Plus, I do have real pictures in my profile but they are set to private.

Well, good for you but to be fair wondering why someone is hiding or not revealing something isn't really assuming anything, even if the poster you're replying to here suggested it could be insecurity or being married or in a relationship.

Myself, I post my photo because a lot of people just won't talk to you if you don't and they will filter out profiles without pictures. Also, I'm not insecure about how I look, have nothing to hide and really doubt that any "troll" would be that interested in stealing pictures of me.

Face it, people on these sites tend to be suspicious and I guess that you can hardly blame them, considering that there are trolls and scammers and liars and players. You can't expect people to just say, "Oh well, no photo but there could be a legitimate reason". Likewise, if someone refuses to disclose their marrital status etc it's not unreasonable to be suspicious and just move on to the next profile hoping that it will be more interesting and less dodgy.

Hiding is hiding, whether there's a "legitimate" reason or not and people do tend to want to know what you look like if they are going to consider dating you.

Maybe some people are just fed up of being hit on because of their looks. Honestly, if a guy really wants me for being me, my photo will be the last thing he's interested in. It helps weed out the jerks. I will send him one by e-mail after I think he seems legitimate enough.

As for me I don't talk or reply any message from people without photos. I wonder why is boring without pictures

Your statement has nothing to do with my statement. That's okay.




Its one thing to be suspicious, and its another thing to be an idiot.
Scammers use fake photos to prey on idiots.




That's exactly what I have found smart people to say.

This reminds me of 2 people that both used avatar photos of themselves who actually met, fell madly in love with each other and that was over 15 years ago. He used a photo of a male crash-dummy; she used one of a female crash dummy...go figure. I love it!

I used to share photos here until someone started following me around and using them to gain more info.

Now, I'm not saying don't share photos. Especially on a dating site. Just think about where the photos may connect back to. Use ones here that you don't use anywhere else. Perhaps I will put a picture back up at some future time.

Problem with that is that as soon as someone starts talking about emailing offsite I'm going to suspect that they're a spammer.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not that bothered about the photos myself and I don't really even look at them. I even dated a woman once that had no photo on her profile. I understand that some women are worried about stalkers. Doesn't that make them the ones that are being "paranoid" or suspicious though?

Yeah, I try to filter out people like that. It's great.

I can see why a few people might have professional reasons for not posting a photo of themselves. Suppose you're a lonely, widowed preacher. It would be unethical to look for a wife from your congregation. But it could also be embarrassing if a member of your congregation stumbled onto your online dating profile.

you have the best response to my question.

yes I see your point thanks

This is a very admirable attitude, however, at the same time it would be silly to say that on some level relationships don't require some form of physical attraction. I can think of numerous situations where people have been in love with a persons personality however the relationship has fallen apart because one person is not physically attractive to the other. this can be very hard to deal with and doesn't necessarily make the people involved vein or shallow. it's just another biological aspect of what we call love. On this note the approach you are taking will filter out the people who just base their decisions on looks (which is good), however, it will also make it difficult for certain people to feel comfortable making the first move. That's just the way I look at human interaction anyway.

Yo!!

Well, my reason for me taking my photo's down, was because of excess. It's one thing to get compliments, but another if your inbox is clogges up with those "You're hot!" messages. I wouldn't mind it as much if there was conversation from the people sending those. As it happens, it's a non-entity for a conversation. I say thanks. Where do you go from there?

Oh well, at least you get mail. It isn't always easy to think of an icebreaker that's going to get you replies from women on these sites and I guess a lot of guys are just going to spam women with "You're hot" messages. Yeah, that's pretty lame. They saw your photo and they are messaging you, so it probably goes without saying that they think that you're nice looking.

I honestly do try to find out what a woman is like as a person when I talk to them on these sites and I know that they are probably getting spammed with compliments about their looks and lewd comments. Looks aren't hugely important to me though and sometimes I suspect that I would do a lot better at this if I was saying that they have pretty eyes or nice hair and that sort of thing.

As for me, I respect whatever reason the person may have. If she wishes to remain faceless then that is her choice but she will limit her responses. I will chat with people if their profile fits my search, and is well written. But I will never meet anyone without a picture first.