Questions: Dating

A long time ago when I used dating sites, I would receive introductory messages by men who would say something like, "I love your photo, tell me more about you," or just plain old, "Hi."

At first I chose not to reply to any of the men I had no interest in. But I would get many of them pestering me with, "I sent you a message. The least you can do is thank me for it instead of leaving me hanging."

So I considered this, and decided to give all men from that point the courtesy of a reply. My reply was, "Thank you for your message, but I don't believe we are compatible. Good luck with your search." Sometimes it was merely a "I received your message. Good luck with your search."

But then I was sent angry responses back such as, "What's your problem? / You don't even know me. / Yeah. No wonder you're single."

As you can tell, I was damned if I did, damned if I didn't.

Even though I'm out of the dating pool, this has often left me wondering how GaG members handled first-approach dating app messages? Do you believe you should send all who are interested a response of some sort? Or do you think you simply don't owe everyone a reply? What do you say or not say?