So I've been recovering from a breakup with my exe gf. It's been a few months and I'd decided that it was time to start dating again... no serious stuff just sharing some time with a female and having a good time. Problem; I'm a dork.

I don't meet many women in the course of a day. All the "normal" meeting places around here are anathema to me. Clubs and bars are far too shallow of a meeting place. I'm not an ugly man, neither am I a wonderously handsome one. So in those environs where looks is usually the first draw, I tend to get passed over. Now I'm not a terribly confident person with women, but I usually have no problems after I meet them. I'm a sociable and articulate person with a rather sarcastic wit. I'm not into cold-calling a woman and just walking up with a pickup line. If I were them I'd probably get pretty annoyed at that. I don't want to bug people.

My female friends aren't much of a help although they try. :-) Most of their acquaintances are involved already. So I thought I'd put up a personal ad.

It's been a rude awakening. I've got no inbound replies to my ad, not that I really expected any though. I've replied to many ads with varying success. A couple looked really promising in our conversations, then all a sudden I never heard back from them. The rest have been scams.

Okay now these really make me angry. They reply back with a really positive sounding message and the desire to speak. Catch is they us a forwarding service for protection(said with hinting of bad past experiences) that is a double blind so neither party gets the other's phone number. Sounds pretty up and up right? So wrong. It's a frelling 900 number. The website is terribly set up. You can index their images folders and see all the dupes in there.

I haven't given up hope yet though. It's just tough. I write a well thought-out and personal reply to these women's ads. I put some time into theses things actually. I hit send and hope that somehow it magically ends up in a reply.

The question I keep asking is: why don't I receive replies? Am I simply discarded because of my own fault or looks? Perhaps my message didn't get read because their inbox is filled with others like it. It seems, to me at least, that women have a decided advantage in dating, as far as getting inquiries is concerned.

I don't know, but I'm not sure what else to do at the moment. I'm trying not to get discouraged, but more and more this feels like a waste of time. Incidentally I'm using Yahoo personals, although the ad is under another name. I'm not trying advertise here. :-) Perhaps there is my problem; simply the wrong service. Alright enough grousing. if you have advice you wish to impart /msg me. Have a good day and thanks for reading.