I had hoped that one of these sites might lead to a growing friendship with someone of the opposite sex that I could talk to frankly about my innermost thoughts and desires. So far, every conversation started has led into a dead end. I'm a bit surprised at this but it is heartening to hear that the forum is leading to good things for some.

What you are seeking is a challenging goal for sure, despite how easy it might seem before making the effort. I think a big part of the difficulty is actually successfully connecting with the type of people with which one is likely to be compatible.

Generally speaking, the guys on sites like this are struggling to get any of the gals to pay us attention, due to the typical ratio of men to women. Meanwhile, the ladies are getting pummeled by requests for attention, much of it undesirable and rude (from what I've been told).

So we have a situation where most of the women a guy reaches out to may not even see his communication (let alone reply). Likewise, any given gal is probably finding the difficulty of sorting through all the messages and requests a pain in the butt, and wondering if she should just delete the lot of them.

Good connections do get made on occasion, and they can be very fun! Making friends is always a great experience. So when I'm lucky enough to get noticed and selected as someone worth talking to, I always try to be appreciative. And on those very rare occasions that messages and chatting blossom into a closer friendship, I feel extremely fortunate.

I guess the operative word is persistance. The biggest problem is trying to figure out who to be persistant with. So many women say so little about themselves in their profiles. Thanks for the encouragement.

I'd like to make any of the following:

- male friend who I can talk to about many many things with similar enough views that there aren't barriers or subjects I can't or won't bother to discuss

- male friend maybe like the above, maybe more limited, who miiiight turn into a JO bud

- female friend like the above with whom circumstances (or whatever else) conspire to either keep us very open friends and that's it, or lead to us living together in snarky and happy communion for the rest of our lives, heh.

What I don't want in any of these scenarios is a strong power dynamic. Goooood luck.

I've had a couple of emails on this site between a few ladies but then they all just stopped replying. I don't think it was anything to do with me other than perhaps they think I'm too old (age and ability are not the same thing). However, I have struck up a couple of ongoing relationships with a couple of ladies on other sites. So far, no meet-ups but I hope that will end before the end of 2012. I suspect that the big problem with this site is the number of horny men. My guess is, that it is tough to keep up with all of the PM's. Kind of a shame because there could be a lot of good times we're all missing.

the problem with this question is that this site is anonymous.you dont really know who the other person is.i think a lot of it is made up to satisfy sexual urges.i still dont mind reading what everyone is doing or think they are doing.