My younger brother, our cousin and their friend were over at our house last night as they do almost every week, mostly on Tuesdays.
One of them had signed up with one of the Iranian online dating sites about a month and a half ago and they were talking about his experinces. Overall, it sounded like they are in favor of it and the other 2 non members were going to sign up soon. Apparently one incentive is high prices; gasoline, for driving around to clubs, concerts etc, cover charges to get into clubs and drink prices when in the club. Although my little brother seems to prefer Starbucks and Coffee Bean to clubs.
Thank God for my wife because if I hadn’t married her, I would have probably be still single. I basically suck at dating and women generally did not warm up to me easily or quickly.
Anyhow, following is some pointers they were sharing with one another which sounded interesting to me; they may come in handy if you decide to sign up for these services too:
1) Age translation (women only): for age group below 27, correct age is usually indicated on the person’s profile. Over 27, 29 can be as old as 34 and 39 can be as old as 45. 35 can be 39. 29 can be as old as 35. So, early on, verify age if it is a big factor for you. I am pretty sure the incorrect age reporting is practiced by men too.
2) Location: Always verify the peron’s location because someone who claims to live in Los Angeles could live in Iran. Specially if they insist on talking on gadgets like Skype, Yahoo messenger etc instead of telephone. After a few phone calls, insist on gettig the girl’s telephone number to verify location by area code.
3) Carreer and education: These guys were saying that a big % of women on these sites claim to be Phds. If education is important, you may want to check this out. If the person insist on chatting in Farsi or makes a whole lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes in English, there maybe a problem. if they don’t share what they do easily and quickly, they may not be “proud” of their job. If you are looking for a carreer oriented woman, keep this in mind. Apparently men who are used car salesmen may sometimes claim to be Physicians. So again, this is praticed by both sides.
4) Height and weight: Height is generally reported correctly although some girls add 3-4 inches to their actual height so that they weedout short men. That is, a 5 6″ man won’t dare contact a girl who is 5 8″
However, weight is usually not reported correctly. So, its a safe practice to add 15-20 lbs to the reported weight if you dont want to be disappointed, again, if weight is an important issue for you.
Last but not least, many times, pictures that are posted in profiles are not pictures of the girl; especially if there is only 1 picture. If the profile has 3, 4 or more pics, you can be sure they are kosher. If a profile does not have a picture and you ask the girl to send you a pic via email, ask for more than 1 pic and make sure 1 is “tamam ghad”. Always verify the date of the picture because women have been known to use pictures that are as much as 10 years old.
Despite these issues, these 3 young men seemed pretty excited about this new tool for meeting women; for friendship or marriage. With the price of gas and the inflation ($25 cover charge, $10 drinks) these internet dating sites should do brisk business for the next few years.
