Is it better to start off as friends or jump straight into it?

Straight into what? Business relations?

Depends.

What type of person are you?

If someone says to "be yourself" can you actually do that?

Are you more honest and yourself in a relationship with friends than you are with your family?

If so, then I'd say go ahead and try for "friends first."

If you're more open, honest, trusting, yourself with family, then I'd say "jump straight into it," and avoid the limiting boundaries that most friendships have.

you should have been clear with your question. are you new to mingle2?

friends first can't commit to anyone until u learn their personalities

I would prefer to start as friends first because it gives you a chance to get to know the real person before you commit. I believe Friendship is a basic foundation in a relationship.

What??? And risk being "friend zoned"? I think not.

I was being one part facetious and one part impatient with the vague wording of the question, OP.

A better answer on my part is, it depends on what you mean by "start off as friends," and it depends on exactly how YOU work, emotionally and rationally.

I've known some people who can screw around instantly with anyone and everyone, and never have that affect their judgment in any way, as to who would make a better long term mate or not. And I've known many others for whom sex is so emotionally intimate, that everyone they sleep with has to have deep meaning for them as a person, or they will be injured psychologically by the experience.

So know yourself, first.

On the other end of this, some people who play the "friends first" routine out, don't actually ever get around to taking any of the emotional risks required to allow anything meaningful to develop at all. Others move slowly for the very good reason that that is how they best discover whether the other person CAN mean more to them than an idle acquaintance or not.

Thus the best answer is "neither is best. Either could be best, FOR YOU."

Love moves in different ways for different people. So I'd rather say there's no particular process

Love moves in different ways for different people. So I'd rather say there's no particular process

Not really my choice.
If there isn't a spark, why bother, unless being friends is all you want.
I am not interested in wasting my time hoping that MAYBE somewhere down the line something will ignite between us. What if it never does?
Waste of time. Either there's something there, or there isn't.

And if there is, you want to pretend there's nothing there?? And be friends?

Well, I don't tend to have much luck with conventional dating, so I quite like to get to know them a bit as friends first. I don't act as if I just want to be friends though. They're women and I don't treat them the same way that I would treat a male friend.

The only real difference though is that I don't do much conventional dating and I don't really have any time for stand offish people, so I'll look for someone that's friendly and chilled out enough to just come round for a coffee or whatever, without there being any awkwardness. I don't consider it to be more than friendship until you've been intimate though anyway, so the question is kind of moot.

If she likes doing frog jumps then yeah

If it's Speed Dating I guess you must jump straight into it, but I believe it's better to start off as friends and see if the attraction is still there after a few dates when you know more about each other, before becoming more serious.

I like to jump straight into it ..regardless if she wants to be friends afterwards or not

Yeah, we all know that, No1. We also know that you jump as often as you possibly can
And because you are cute, and we even get away with calling you cute without you getting @n@l about it (no pun intended), you get away with it too.
Of course it could also be Milo's influence.
Maybe I should get myself a dog too! Are men susceptible to that kind of thing?

Crystal, if you're interested in enticing a man with puppies, I would suggest breast enhancement. Those are the puppies they will notice.

There has to be a spark for me and yet
I am going to want the friendship there also.

So to me there is a balance