Lavalife - for people who don't know any better

First off, my apologies for a really light blog this past week.  It's been busier at work than normal, and also Charlie, my parents' dog, was quite sick and I had to dogsit out of town.  (Charlie has since made a full recovery, and is back to biting my dad when he tries to move her from 'his' spot on the couch.)  This week is still going to be busy at work, but not as bad -- don't people know they're supposed to slow down as Christmas approaches?  Geez.

Before I review Lavalife, here's a quick update.  I had to reschedule my date with Tim (with the lesbian haircut) to tomorrow evening, so stay tuned for that.  Also, it's looking like I'll be meeting Josh the musician this week, if our schedules can accomodate.  Another fun fact about Josh -- he's Australian!  I'm definitely a sucker for a cute accent.  Also still texting with Sam the criminal lawyer. 

Ok, so now let's discuss Lavalife.  Remember when that site was really popular, around 2004?  That was back when they put out those funny commercials with the 3 types of guys: Dating guys, Relationship guys, and Intimate Encounters guys.  (These are the areas into which the site divides itself.)  Well, I think some of these guys have been a member since 2004. 

So right off the bat, I hate that the site separates out Relationship-oriented people with Dating-oriented people.  Isn't the point of dating to meet someone, and potentially have that develop into a relationship?  If you've got a profile in the Dating section but aren't open to a relationship, are you just there to make friends?  Or are you there because you want to meet someone and potentially hook up with them?  In which case, you might as well be searching in the Intimate Encounters area.  (Someone probably needs to explain these sections to me.)

Anyway, let's talk about the people on the site.  It seems to me that the dating pool here is a bit older -- as if they hopped on the Lavalife train right out of university and they're still there (or have returned) because they don't actually know any better.  Maybe they're not web-savvy, I don't know, but there are much better dating sites.  And ones that don't cost money.

I admit, I didn't subscribe to Lavalife.  I have a free profile up, just to see who's on there, and I don't plan on buying a membership.  The ugly and difficult user interface is enough to keep me away, even if I did find some guys I wanted to email.  (I think I maybe sent out 4 smiles after browsing 200 profiles.)  Maybe if I was about 7 years older I would feel differently, but from what I can tell, Lavalife is just not for my demographic.  (If I was going to buy a membership to a site, it would be Match.com I think.  Or maybe I would give eHarmony a second chance.)

It's interesting that Lavalife was one of the first of its kind and yet it doesn't appear in this article on the top 10 Canadian dating sites in 2011.  I don't actually agree with some of this list, but I do agree that Lavalife doesn't deserve a spot on it.