• There are a lot of options. Seriously. No matter how perfect you think a given match is, if that match isn't interested in you, s/he isn't perfect, and it's time to find another one. This can be done within a matter of minutes: there are that many people.
• Everyone on a dating website is looking for a date. Don't expect to spend a long time communicating over the internet. Most people will expect a first meeting to speak for itself, for better or worse. This isn't You've Got Mail. Your online courtship won't last for more than about two weeks, at most, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Refer to point one for reasons.
• Not everyone on a dating website is looking for the same thing. ALWAYS remember this. I know this may sound like it contradicts the previous point, but a dating website is not the cream of the crop - it's a little bit out of each interest group, with their only common feature being the deposit of information on a common server. They have as much in common as we Xangans do (don't make me bring Dan v. Paul or Rox v. Revelife into this). The most general categories of why people are on a dating website are:
• The quest for true love. Yeah, they're out there. Rare. Possibly mostly female, I haven't checked, but they're looking.
• Lack of time and/or opportunity. There are a lot of successful business people on dating websites because they don't want to date people from the office, and that's the only place they ever find themselves. This may also extend to disappointment with current location. Though I've not encountered this sort of thing myself, but be conscious of how far away your prospective partner lives and how willing you are to deal with a commute for a booty call, if it leads to that. My advice is to keep away. See my first point for why.
• Expanding the dating pool. These people will tell you quite obviously in their profile that they're sick of "the bar scene," or "the club scene." Maybe this is because my only access to these two "scenes" has been by way of fake ID and my friends are only now coming to the age when they can come with me, but having spent at least five years in these "scenes," I don't find them boring. I think it may have something to do with these people getting bored of their own circles of friends. This may point to one of two things, more frequently than not, the latter: either they have re-discovered who they want to be and are in the process of re-structuring themselves and their lives and the internet is somehow their portal, OR, they are vapid people who get bored easily and want new stomping grounds.
• Comfort with the internet. These people are also relatively rare, but do be conscious of people who are socially awkward enough to rely exclusively on the internet for contact. They're not bad people, and they can be very interesting, but, as before, refer to point one. Don't make it any more difficult for yourself than it has to be.

So, I've learnt that when talking to a special someone on the phone, pay attention please OR just get off the phone until you're done doing whatever you are doing and then call me back. Maybe that is when we will have a decent conversation. I've tried chatting and talking on the phone a couple of times before. Never worked, or maybe I just can't multitask.

Do you mind if your SO is chatting whilst talking on the phone? Any stories to share? 

So my boyfriend and I have been together for a little over two years now, and I think he is the most wonderful person in the world. Now when it comes to guys, I usually go for the cute, geeky type; I'm not one to judge someone based on appearances. I'm attracted to my boyfriend and I love him to death, but many others don't seem to understand why. From the moment we started going out, people were making rude comments, like, "He's a nerd, lame, dork, fag, ugly..." and the list goes on and on.

Now I never thought these things about him...ever, but as soon as the gossip started, I started to wonder if maybe they were right. And as all these negative opinions kept progressing, it started to bother me more and more. I started to feel almost embarrassed of him because of all the negative attention we were attracting. It made me feel terrible, as you can guess.

So I am starting to think that maybe I have a problem with caring too much what others think. Maybe there is this subconscious want to be accepted by everyone. But don't tell me, I already know it's ridiculous, I just don't know how to ignore it. So you tell me, do you think I want to fit in too much, or do you think that deep down I am embarrassed of him? ADVICE WOULD BE GREAT!

Admittedly, it's a mouthful of a sub-title for this section of my post, but Goddammit, it's true. Moreso than men, women are all dainty lines and sloping curves; from the standpoint of pure aesthetics, women are attractive. As women, we're also more likely to recognize attractive members of our same gender than men are -- it's far more socially acceptable for me to find Angelina Jolie absolutely gorgeous than it would be for a man to gush about Johnny Depp's disarming grin. Whatever the reasons for it, women have a tendency to evaluate the attractiveness of their peers in a far more open and vocal way than men.