Possibly as a result of shyness, I often have difficulty on deciding the best first thing to say to most people.
For this reason, it seems better for me to use the "Match with" option on this website
I was just wondering what everyone's opinion was - is it just a sign of desperation, or is it understandable for people like me?

I'd say it's really not that difficult to say hi to someone, and point out something that you liked in their profile... but as far as the match option, I say use any tool you have at your disposal, including the match option. It certainly doesn't hurt anything.

It seems to be that the consensus among women on this site is an email is preferred for first contact as opposed to just a nudge or matching. I don't use the match feature at all so matching with me (for example) would be futile. Don't be discouraged if you don't receive a response there are many reasons a woman may not respond. (One of them being that this sites email function can be glitchy at times and she may have never received it)

Make sure you're reading profiles before contacting someone. That way you'll have an idea of what they like and what they're looking for and should be able to come up with something to say in a first email. Definitely stick with emails as the way to contact someone, though.

As far as emailing goes here are a few tips...

- Read the profile and look at all the pictures to make sure you like what you read/see. (Don't just look at the main picture and send a random email)
- When you start your email introduce yourself, let her know why you chose to email her and ask her something about herself so she has a reason to respond.

I get emails that say "Hi" or "You're cute" neither of these gives me any reason to respond. If you ask her a question she will have a REASON to respond to you.

Good luck

Edit: It may sound silly but if I get an email with one long run-on sentence, no capitalization or punctuation I won't even respond. Shows me he is too lazy to even type correctly.

Awesome, that really helps!
Thanks for the advice!

Total waste of time.

IMHO

Keep in mind that Mutual Match is just another means of making contact.

I will occasionally click a YES or a MAYBE on someone (this is roughly 1 out of every 14,558 or so) but I never contact anybody first.

When I first joined I tried it and thats how I met my special someone but now I just go to the forums. This way you can get to know everyone on a more personal basis

"yO i wAn 2 tAp dAt aZz" works like a charm!

Mutual Match hasn't done much for me historically. It usually suggests someone for me that would not be interested in me at all. I have located some possibilities for other people by using it, though. Takes a lot of sifting through profiles.

Being shy is tough, I imagine, but just think about it. Don't take things too personally. If you send someone an e-mail and are rejected or receive no reply, keep in mind that the other person doesn't even know you. They haven't a clue what a terrific person they are rejecting/ignoring. It may not be rejection at all...you may just not seem a likely match to them...not compatible...whatever. The other person may not be replying for a number of reasons...some may have little to do with you at all. Let it go, keep looking at profiles, reach out when someone interests you, join in on the forums...but mostly, have fun