Recently I wrote about the only dating sites I’m currently using (match.com and chemistry) and why. But of course, that led to people sending me question about other sites.

So, let’s just get it all out there (and hopefully people will dive in with their experiences in the comments).

There are dozens of online dating sites out there.  Dozens.  Some of them have hundreds of members, and some of them have millions of members.  And some are free and some cost a lot of money.  I’m certainly not an expert on the industry, but I’ve probably tried more sites than most people.

So here are some more of my random thoughts.  My least favorite sites are Plenty of Fish and Adult Friend Finder.  Plenty of Fish has millions of users (it’s free, so…) and so I’m sure there are plenty of decent folks there.  But the majority of guys who contacted me were just kinda trashy. They sent one line messages like, “i think ur hot.  call me ### “.

Adult Friend Finder was just a little too aggressive for my taste.  I thought it might be a good way to meet someone casual (I know someone who met their significant other there, FWIW). But the messages I got all seemed to come with pictures of penises. I’ve had pretty much similar experience with other sites geared towards casual sex.  My feeling is that it’s just as easy to meet someone interested in casual sex on a site like nerve, and there I don’t have to look at pics of ugly naked guys.

I know a lot of people like the “specialized” sites of Spark networks – JDate, BlackSingles, ChristianMingle, Catholic… and I tried out that network a few years ago and loathed it.  It just wasn’t my thing. Which doesn’t mean that there aren’t dozens of people everyday who meet there and fall in love.

There are some smaller, start-up sites that seem like they could have a shot of doing well. I’m hopeful for them because I think online dating is an industry that could use some shaking up. Some sites to check out: Dating Revolution and Date Dispatch. I’m also somewhat fascinated by Thread and Gelato.

Lastly (gosh, I feel like I’m giving a lecture here), I want to give a quick shout out to the new mobile dating sites. I love the idea behind Urban Signals (and similar sites – I hear grindr is hot with the gays) and have it on my iphone. I am a little neurotic about actually using it, though. Something about GPS technology freaks me out.

So in conclusion, dear friends, there really are lots of online dating choices out there, with new ones popping up all the time. And smart people are finding ways to integrate online dating into other platforms and technologies.  So the next time I hear someone say that, “I tried online dating, once, and it didn’t work for me,” I’m going to smack that person.

OK, well, for starters I’m running late and so your day probably started a few hours ago if you’re on the East Coast.  But I meant well.

I’m pretty sure I haven’t done a post on this, um, topic before.  I used my little internal search thingy to see if I had and nothing came up.  I hate to be repetitive.

Anyway, yesterday one of my wonderful friends emailed me the link to a hysterical post in Asylum called 13 Great Things About Having a Small Penis. I immediately tweeted it, being the twitterjunkie that I am.

What followed kinda cracked me up.  Lots of people liked it and retweeted (in twitterland, for you non-users, if someone tweeted something you like and you would like to share it with the people who follow you, you retweet it, or RT).  I expected that to happen.  It was funny.  But then there were several men who felt the need to make statements (either public or private) about how large their penises were (such an odd word in the plural, never looks right). I’m sure those guys were all perfectly secure in their masculinity and were just joking, btw.

Sigh.

IMO, there is nothing more unattractive than a man making a comment about the size of his dick.  Even in jest.  No matter the context or the medium.  No exceptions.

Further, penis size is one of those things that matters a lot more to guys than it does to women – within reason.  Yes, if it’s really, REALLY small then we’re going to have a problem.  Most women would probably agree with that.  But other than that…

The best lover I ever had had a completely average sized cock.  Average, at best.  The worst lover I ever had had a huge cock.  (Not exaggerating, huge).   A stradivarius in the hands of an unskilled musician is gonna sound like shit.

Wow, I think I just broke my personal record for # of times I used the words penis, dick and cock in a single post.  Impressive.