I have been online since 1998 and have been a REGULAR internet user since 2002. As a natural consequence of modern living I think 3 of my relationships started out online and 3 of them were people I met in person to begin with. I am not counting near misses, disasters and just-good-friend situations but will give an honest breakdown of batting averages as far as I can.
For sake of brevity I shall break down my five fave genres/types of web environment for meeting people.
5. Least fave is "dating" sites. Why? On OK Cupid I really wanted to meet an amazing woman who turned out to be a xanax adled crazy person. On another site I only talked to two women, never met either. On another site I had some guy phone me five times wanting a threesome with his wife. Wanted me to fuck her whilst he watched. Not my thing. On another site I got no responses whatsoever to cheerful "Hi" messages I sent out, in two years, whilst a buddy was fucking three skanks a week average from there. Oh and finally, there was a kink site - I will name names - Fet-life, a female friend got anally raped by a guy on there. She asked him to leave. He refused, forced penetration, got away with it coz she could not face the idea of a court case and her family knowing all the sexual stuff she was experimenting with.
4. Second least fave is social networking sites. Don't get me wrong they have facilitated existing relationships well for a decade, but the batting average is very low. Sites like MySpace since 2004 have given me lots of amazing friends I still talk to but they are just good friends. Facebook is useful for when my current fiancee is overseas as well as for old internet buddies, friends of friends I could have hooked up with but didn't, ex colleagues etc. But these sites don't get you laid.
3. I am ambivalent about Microblogging and discussion sites. They give false expectations, and when you get to know the real person you often NOPE so hard the rejection is painful to the dumpee and dumper alike. But sites like this one and Tumblr, reddit, criticl, I will even include boards like 4chan and battlenet, are all great ways of getting to know a person on a variety of mental levels. Tumblr emphatically allows sharing of selfies and nudity and even blatant explicit p*rn but regularly people get past that and just talk about life and politics.
2. A preferred area is chat sites. Early 2002 I met my most significant other (besides the current one) on a vodafone wap chat, on mobile.
I then got hooked on freechatnow from internet cafes, slept with one woman in 2004, met others socially, and still others I could have hooked up with.
In the past 4 years I just go on omegle if I am bored. I can spend 12 hours a night chatting and maybe pick up a few friends who become contacts either on Twitter or tumblr or kik.
1. My number one pick up spot has to be Travian, so I shall say gaming sites in general. Especially for women it is refreshing to meet a guy who isn't an arsehole who reacts to the fact he is talking to a vagina owner. And that is the way to generally PULL on the internet. Just find people to connect with and have a laugh with and by playing together and plotting and organising and laughing you find within months you are meeting up for drinks and ending up in bed together. It's weird how that happens. My current partner noticed one evening I had not talked about Travian in 6 months. I had been playing since 2007, had retired in 2010, came out of retirement in 2012 for a special retro server version 3.6, and lost an impressive huge army to starvation as I failed to log in for a whole weekend. The game had spanned two physical relationships and spawned a few other intense friendships and was the ultimate proof of my love for my now-fiancee, that I could lose all my hard work and just walk away from the addiction because my real life with her mattered more.
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