But I've been on dating sites for about 3 years now so I've seen both sites that are ripoffs and tons of scammers. Haven't actually met anyone though.

I'm impressed that this site has a forum. OK Cupid used to have one long ago but they dropped it. If we could make the analogy to the real world a forum gives a chance to see how someone interacts with others, it's not just one on one. If they're a jerk in public that's a good reason to avoid them. I've used forums for years, mostly for computer stuff but also alternative energy, garden tractors, bitcoin mining, a few other things.

I'm looking for a girlfriend basically. An ongoing relationship, no objection to it getting serious if it works out. My longest relationship of 7 years ended in 2002. I'm quiet and moderately intellectual, quit watching TV in 2012. Don't like tattoos and piercings. But I'm probably happier alone with my computers than in a bad relationship.

Ah every site has its gotchas it seems, I see I have 11 matches but I have to pay money to see who they are. There was some other site where you had to join to message anyone. I spent a little money on a few but mostly not. Not many ads here, I did see one from Adult Friend Finder. I paid them money a couple times, didn't amount to anything. None have.

It says that I have 255 matches. Me personally, I wouldn't pay to look at them. I never see anyone on here from my area that's my age. 95% of the time I'm matched with women that are 20 to 30 years younger than me. When I sign in, the first page that comes up, the photos of the women are way younger than me. I can tell that the great majority are fake. Especially the ones with the overblown boobs that look like they are going to bust out any moment.

I have my filters set and I still get 20 and 30 something's contacting me. Trying to convince me that I should give them a chance. 100% of them always ask for money one way or the other. About the only good thing, Mingle 2 has is their forums. The dating part of this site is pretty much useless. But the forums, most of them are good.

And the folks here on them seem to be pretty good people. You get the occasional goofball or argumentative hot head. But that's few and far between. A fake will stick their head in here every now and then. But they don't last long.

Yeah, I figured it out, the matches number is the number of people who swiped positive on the app or clicked like in that mode on a computer, it doesn't mean they've even looked at your profile. It's a score, not something worth following up on. Most probably wouldn't remember you if you tried.

I have a policy of taking everyone at face value until the first time they ask for money then goodbye, at least people I haven't met in person.

Mutual match has only been meant as a fun game type. Another way to meet people

Matches are shown 2 ways

1. Based on search criteria
2. Members can manually match with someone using the match button on members profiles

This will tell you a little more about it

http://mingle2.com/welcome/faq_mutual

So sad to know about things happen or you have been through.

I have been on different site too but no luck. Now, I newly joined here hoping that I might be able to meet a real person with a real intentions about a life in sharing it with someone whom you love, takes cares and who stands through thick and thin. God knows only when and where it comes. As long, as I am honest to myself with my purpose here.

May God Bless Us All and find what we are looking for.

Hey

It's entertaining to see who comes along, I look forward to looking around after being away from my computer.

Other sites, well, there are over 900 of them and not everybody signs up with the same one. It's like a shell game, you don't know where that person will turn up. So I make the rounds of sites, and I see other people doing it too. There are a few women I've run into on more than one site. The sites all have their pros and cons. The forum here is good but there are a lot of stale accounts, probably an average percentage of scammers.

It is possible to script Google Images to prevent uploading stolen images that are already on the web. I think Badoo does that. But that also backfires when you're on multiple sites and the pictures are legitimately yours.