There are actually so many, that I have dedicated this one to profile pictures alone!
Just a caveat, I might be sounding harsh here, but hey, someone's gotta say it.
1. Post a picture
- If I don't know what you look like, I'm not going to be interested in getting to know you.
- It's not a matter of being shallow, or that looks matter more than personality, but lets get real, if you don't post a picture, I think its weird, does that mean that you are hiding something?
- Pictures are worth a thousand words. I love it when pictures almost tell a story in themselves (picture with your family, your friends, places you like to travel, you doing your hobbies, etc.)
- Just a no-brainer, make sure it is a clear and visible.
- Well good, you atleast put a picture of youself, so props for that.
- NO pictures of you in front of the mirror holding out your camera. This looks stupid, it also says to me "I have no life so I go nowhere and have no pictures of myself." I have asked someone why they did this, the response: " I don't want to ask a friend to take my picture for me because I'm embarrassed to be dating online." Well I can sympathize with that, but you are dating online, so get over it.
- NO pictures of you without your shirt on (unless you are on a beach, but I'm talking about the combo no shirt + holding camera up in front of the mirror). I get that guys want to show off their chest, but its a little embarrassing for me to look at these. I just get the feeling that you are really into yourself, or that you masturbated right after, yuck.
- I go out drinking too, so no judgement
- I realize for guys, the only pictures they may have is of them out at bars
- Try to balance out the drinking + not drinking pictures, it will make you look like less of an alcoholic
- Sometimes I've even seen drinking pictures of guys doing the "lick pussy" face, what the hell? You are trying to sell yourself here as a nice guy, that's just crass.
- Ok once again, I realize you might only have these types of pictures, but atelast but a label as to who is standing next to you so I don't think they are all ex-girlfriends
- (alongside that, if there is a kid in the picture, label that too so I know if its just a kid or its your kid)
- Also, don't obviously crop out a girl, thats tacky
- Let's have a picture of YOU in your profile picture, I mean thats great that you went to a mountain and took a picture of it, but maybe put that in your online photo album and show it to me later.
- Funny angled pictures that are not so artsy= not so flattering
Bonus: Posting more than one. Once again, just helps me get to know you.
Support for my pet peeve! I was reading "Freakonomics" and came across some intersting information about online dating.
ReplyDeleteBasically the book is looking at Morality, and how people would like the world to work, and contrasts it to Economics, and how the world actually does work. So Freakonomics looks into why people cheat, and one of the ways people cheat- lying about themselves on their online profile.
I think it is reasonable to assume that somebody would want to elaborate on their profile, obviously you are putting yourself in a good light. However, to flat out lie? That just turns me away from online dating, how do you know who is lying and who isnt, and how can you tell the difference. Its hard enough in real life to figure out if someone is being honest, forget sifting through the shit online, waste of my time!
So the support from Freakonomics-
They looked at the statstics of people's profiles, and then compared to the statistics of the average population, and the results were:
4% online profiles claim 200k/year while average is less than 1%
72% women claimed to be "above average looks" and 24% "very good looks", while men where 68% "above average looks" and 19% "very good looks". So basically only 30% of online daters are average, not probable. Which means either everybody is lying, or they are egotistic.
Then the big surprise to me- men are online dating, while married. It was found that 7% were married!
So the support for my pet peeve about not posting a picture...They found that a man who does not post a picture of himself is only going to get 60% of the response volume of a man that does post a picture.
They also go into how many people are actually online dating that don't even get responses at all! It makes me feel a little bit better that the people I was actually interested in and sent winks or emails to, that never got back to me. I guess then I'm not alone. For that matter I should even be flattered that I went on some dates at all! The book stated 56% of men and 21% of women don't get a single email.
Very interesting, I really liked this book, I recommend it!