Hello,
Just wanted to say:
I found out being on a site, just tells you a little about the person,
does it actually say enough until you get to see the person?
Does it really gives you the actual personality until you talk to them IN person?

I think it does.
If you are really into them, read all their
old posts (the Post# beneath their forum
picture is a hot link to their old posts)
it seems impossible to hide yourself when
you have spent so much time in print.

Depends on how you go about it.
When I came here years ago I tried the e-mail get aquainted and the mutual match.
Then I stopped lookin for someone and got in the forums and made friends.
Now......
a few I have met....most I havn't.
The ones I havnt met are no less friends than anyothers.
I have gotten to know them very well in forums....
then text and phone.
I am looking forward to an upcoming trip to meet another wonderful friend I have made here!!!
If you let people be.....themselves....
you can get to know the real person.
I find the forums to be the Best place for....
That!!!!

Welcome and Good Luck!!!

Hmm. I met a man off here face to face as friends. I found him to be manipulative, fast, decietful and only concerned with what he wanted. Honestly I think it depends on the individual. Good luck, keep safe.

I can only say...be safe about how you go about it. If you see some red flags, listen to your voice inside.
Everyone is different and some people try to showcase themselves to get what they desire only to have to reveal their true selves later.
Then..it's a problem.

Most people unfortuneately will not let you get to know them very well.

However; if you make an effort you can protect yourself by learning the basics.

Keep notes when talking to someone that interests you. Is their story consistent? Do the things they say make sense in the context of what you do know? Note the things in their emails and the time they are sent. If things don't jive cut your losses you have probably hooked a scammer. Can be local or long distance but online is a great place for con artists. Remember you are vunerable.

Do your homework. If someone lives somewhere; look it up. They tell you other things like what they do for a living find out something about it. If all they give you is some lame generic term you know they are hiding something. Normal people like to talk about themself and tell stories and usually repeat them. Their lives have routines. They are amazeingly dull sometime and if they are just too tradgic come on would they really be that successful? If it is too good to be true Guess what it isn't.

Its not real until its real

I think if they post often to forums , after a while, you get a good idea of their character, background, and values.


I think so long as someone is honest, any communication you have is a way to get to know more about them.

And people can lie face to face or online so I dont view either method as providing any more or less an idea of their 'personality'.

Even for those we come across on the street, it takes some time to get to know them well. In an online meet, i'd think being able to read through ur communications and seeing the unspoken words will guide you to understand the person's personality :-)
Little bits of information dropped as u exchange msgs matter a lot more than the descriptive well crafted notes. As your exchanges grow, you'd be able to understand them better.
But most importantly, we should spend some time exchanging communications manually to get to know the other person better :-).

i agree

i just join this site about two months and have some people i can call good friends here. and actually i just back from a trip, visiting a wonderful friend i made here..
so i agree with ghostrider,if we just be ourselves,we can get to know the real person.

It all depends on each persons own perceptive of reality! As with my last relationship, or so I thought it was a relationship, that lasted 3 months, it was nothing to him yet meant everything to me. So...whether through a website like this or in person.....just be safe and use your own sense of judgment on what reality is. Any red flags, walk away!

On the flip side, I think that going through websites can be very informative. It does make two people have to talk through means other than in person. Then you both can mutually decide to meet in person (in a public place of course) and go from there.

I am looking forward to meeting people and seeing what happens!! Good luck to all!!

I have fun on this site. I post silly things cause I am just that way. And yet, there are times I am serious with what I say on Mingle. I find the email approach to be a great way to feel someone out. You can get a good idea about who a person is. You learn a lot when it is just a one on one convo (even in email format).

Those are questions only you can answer as they deal with how you personally approach situations.

We can flip out all of the advice in the world, but if you still question it then it is all for not, see?