On Line Dating Sites

[Lily]

Yes, as Sandro mentioned - nonpaying members can only say "No Thanks"...

 

Can a non-paying member not reply "Yes I am interested"?

Jeez, the non-paying members seems not to even have a disclosure information stating their full name and address, that could eventually be googled out by women...   It woudl be good if non-paying men would put some kind of unique things that would allow googling them, like their full name as EM name, etc.

[myrddin]

Can a non-paying member not reply "Yes I am interested"?

I don't think they can send a simple "Yes", but silver members can pay $8 for unlimited contact with one lady.  That's about the cost of a good martini or a little over 2 gallons of gas (in Chicago) these days....  (Also, it's credited towards a gold or platinum membership, if the guy upgrades within I think 6 months.)

One thing about non-paying memberships: women often put up profiles and then forget about them. I'm guessing men do that, too.  Can you see when he was last online?
I admit the bulk of my experience is on American sites, but even on freepersonals.ru (when it actually loads properly, which is about 1/3 of the time) the first thing I check is the last login, and if that was recent then the date the profile was put up.

Two other things occur to me: 1) These are some lucky guys you're going to this effort for!  and 2)  Have you tried sending multiple letters?  Not every day, but if a guy is checking his Inbox and sees two or three letters from one lady over a few weeks I'd imagine he'd be more than a little curious.  At least I would, YMMV.   Best of luck! 

[Lily]

  Have you tried sending multiple letters?  Not every day, but if a guy is checking his Inbox and sees two or three letters from one lady over a few weeks I'd imagine he'd be more than a little curious.  At least I would, YMMV.   Best of luck! 

That's what I am going to do, with a slight adjustment of my profile for a particular person and replacement of the main photo 

My risk is that after a few mails the man can just block my profile, being tired of hearing from the same woman again 

[SANDRO43]

Can a non-paying member not reply "Yes I am interested"?

Yes, by sending an EOI. The only other possible action/reaction is "Adding to Favorites". On some sites one can see in whose Favorite list one appears, but I don't think this applies to EM.

[Turboguy]

I had women who wrote me about 3 or 4 times over a few days or a few weeks and they always scared me to death.   Perhaps it would not affect others that way but having gone through one relationship with a nutcase/stalker it left me very cautious.

I do think there are a lot of inactive profiles on Elena's.   As far as I know my profile is still up there.   I think about deleting it when I get the occasional letter but get so busy I just never get around to it.   Perhaps the next time I get some free time I will finally get it off there.

[catzenmouse]

My risk is that after a few mails the man can just block my profile, being tired of hearing from the same woman again 

That would truly he his loss! Best of luck Lily, you deserve it!!!

As far as I know my profile is still up there.   I think about deleting it when I get the occasional letter but get so busy I just never get around to it.   Perhaps the next time I get some free time I will finally get it off there.

TG,

 You might want to make that a priority as one too many of those letters may just bring out the Killer Amazon Warrior in a certain lady you are close to. Just a thought but then again maybe you like a good beating now and then... 

 Hope all is going well down there in Beaver Falls!

Ken

[myrddin]

I had women who wrote me about 3 or 4 times over a few days or a few weeks and they always scared me to death.   Perhaps it would not affect others that way but having gone through one relationship with a nutcase/stalker it left me very cautious.

True you have to be careful to avoid a stalker-vibe.  Still, on an American site, one woman (who I probably wouldn't have talked to otherwise) got my attention with a clever series of brief "hey, where are you?!" types of messages.  I figured, even if she was crazy I am only risking some of my time.  I wouldn't suggest that on EM, but in the initial phase of any contact the point is to get someone's attention. 

There's a big difference between several messages in two days and a friendly, follow-up letter a week or so later.  I don't even think it's that big a risk, since if he blocks Lily he lacks good judgment anyway!

I do think there are a lot of inactive profiles on Elena's.  I think about deleting it when I get the occasional letter but get so busy I just never get around to it.

I suspect this is the case on a lot of sites, for men and women.  Probably should take that profile down soon, TG,  catzenmouse's point occurred to me, too 

[Faux Pas]

That's what I am going to do, with a slight adjustment of my profile for a particular person and replacement of the main photo 

My risk is that after a few mails the man can just block my profile, being tired of hearing from the same woman again 

I think thats a good idea. I had 2 different ladies write me more than once and I certainly noticed and promptly responded. If he's doesn't respond after two he's probably not at all interested but, at least you did all you could on the website

There are a number of ways to find a person in the US. Several of the online background checks can most likely come up with contact info with limited information provided. This is a little pricey though and could easily be construed as stalking. I wouldn't want someone to do it to me as it would certainly make me a bit nervous of that person.

FWIW, you didn't send me a letter or I'd have been on it like a duck on a junebug

[FredC]

I know that some sites require you to post a profile just to log on and browse. I can't count the number of profiles I have out there in cyberspace.Everyonce and a while I'll receive on email that I have a message at a dating site that I have long forgotten about.
After reading many of your posts, Lily you are such an articulate lady that any man that rejects your letters must be a fool. . I know that if I were not involved with a lady right now that I would certainly be interested in getting to know you better. .

[HazyKnight]

So far, these sites look good to me:
DaisyBride.ru
CuteOnly
Slavic Darling
My Dear Woman

Bride.ru is a little cumbersome to navigate. But someone here said they met their wife through it, so maybe it just takes that "P" word again... patience.

I use to use Globaladies.com, and it was good for me at the time, but writing per letter got expensive, and I don't like how perhaps the agency/boris could be writing.

It seems that with EM's you have to pay first and then maybe something will happen, is this true?
Anyone had any indepth experience with any other agency than "EM?"

[ambach123]

EM has a lot of men there; about 65%. Ladies are used to getting a lot of EOI.

One site I found had a large data base, loveme.com.  You can buy one month membership for $95 and then it is $29 per month after the first month. You can write up to 100 emails. Anyone has any experience with them?

[roykirk]

EM has a lot of men there; about 65%. Ladies are used to getting a lot of EOI.

One site I found had a large data base, loveme.com.  You can buy one month membership for $95 and then it is $29 per month after the first month. You can write up to 100 emails. Anyone has any experience with them?

I used loveme.com, along with A-web (hey, you live and learn), bride.ru, and EM.  loveme.com is cited as a scam site by some people, and I certainly didn't have much luck with it, but it's certainly not in the same scam sphere as A-web.  I actually got quite a few responses through bride.ru, but none of them went anywhere. 

I met my girl through EM, so I can't say enough about them.  I had one stalker type initially that freaked me out.  Started telling me she loved me after two weeks of e-mailing, took her profile offline due to "I've met someone", and then started sending some pretty risque' photos.  Never asked for money or anything, I think just a really confused girl.  In any case, it sent me running.  I will say that EM frustrated me with the low response rates to the EOI's I would send.  I probably sent out at least 70 of them.  Probably 20 were never read, 20 answered "not interested," 20 answered "interested" and then never responded to my initial e-mail, and then I was left with about 10 who I actually had some sort of extended e-mail contact with.  One of those was the girl I wound up with, obviously, but if you're going to have luck with EM, you have to send out a lot of EOI's.  I think the idea of sending only personal messages instead of EOI's is also a good idea but I didn't have that sort of patience.

[roykirk]

For men, EM seems to be a really good choice, as many serious women are listed there. Also, EM urges women to post professionally made photos only, therefore most women look really good there, probably better than in reality 
EM does not call new women for an identity check, however, despite they say they do.

Lily, my girlfriend said EM called her the very next day after she registered, but she wasn't home so they called her back again a day after that.  I wonder if they just do random identity "checks?" 

[2tallbill]

I didn't read every single post but would recommend Lucky Lovers (LL). 

Renewing my Membership at Elena's models which is $199.00 for six months
is simply NOT going to happen. LL has many more features like two way video chat, a forum (not nearly as good as this one) two free public chat rooms. You can add video to your profile. You can freely exchange contact information.

Elena's has a catalog of ladies with a nice search function and very little of anything else.

They do experience their fair share of technical difficulties and compatability
problems. They work better with Monzilla firefox and not for crap with Microsoft Explorer. LL $19.99 for one month $59.99 for six months or $79.99 for a year. 

Elena's has not really changed with the times. It is not an interactive site.
It is the same now as it was 5 years ago.

Just my two kopecks,

Bill

[roykirk]

Bill,

I think you enunciate well the things that EM lacks.  I haven't seen this LL site, but it sounds quite a bit better as far as the multimedia goes.  The only correction I wanted to add is that you can freely exchange whatever contact info you want on the EM site in your messages.  At least it was that way with my platinum membership.  Whenever I sent any private messages on EM I always included my personal e-mail address and a link to a bunch of photos I had on another website.  Since I had a statistics counter on that site, I knew if ladies were visiting it (told me the country and how many hits, and time and date), and I also got e-mail from some of them so clearly EM wasn't censoring that info out.  That was the weird and inconsistent thing about EM.  Supposedly you could retrieve the contact info of only so many ladies, depending on your subscription plan.  But I would sometimes send private messages to women (along with my e-mail address) and get e-mails back from them.  Thus it seems that sometimes I was able to bypass the "count" on the number of ladies I had contacted.  Maybe something EM overlooked, or maybe they just didn't read every single message to check for contact information that had been inserted. 

[HazyKnight]

Wow...

Thank you RoyKirk, 2tallbill, and ambach. Good info there  .

All the sites I listed seem like good options. The only one I am slightly dismissive of so far is EM's will send me a weekly listing of women that haven't been written to. The subject headline says: "GIRLs waiting for your attention." The fact that they use that particular pronoun of "you," especially when I haven't listed any personal info or anything kind of raises a red flag. Is it just me, or am I reading too much into that?

[USCFAN]

As long as we are talking about dating sites ... 

Does anyone have any experience with www.getmarriednow.com  ???

They look like a pretty reputable site. They have a guarantee much like what Match.com is offering. Seem to very accessible and serious about getting people together. They even claim to have an in-house K1 lawyer to help with all the visa stuff.

The only hiccup I've seen so far was in the FAQ section ... in particular these two responses:

Q. Do I have to go to Russia or Ukraine to meet these women?

A. No, but if you want to we are there to help. Often, clients will correspond with 5 to 30 women that interest them initially. We offer tour packages and individual travel assistance that will allow you to take a vacation to Novosibirsk or Kherson or Vinnitsa and meet as many of the women that you correspond with as you like. Our full-time offices in Novosibirsk, Vinnitsa, and Kherson will provide you with translators, automobile, hotel, and visa assistance... anything you need. If you do not want to travel to Russia we will help you obtain a K-1 Fiancee Visa from the U.S. government. This will allow you to bring a Russian or Ukrainian woman back to the U.S. where she can live with you for 90 days to make sure you are compatible. At the end of the 90 days you can choose to marry the woman or she can go back to Russia. This process can be repeated until you find the woman you want to marry.

I understood that you actually have to have met and show proof of a relationship prior to the K1 interview ... that you just can't pick someone out, file for a K1 and wait for them to show up


Q. Is there a new K-3 visa available to men that will allow them to bring their new bride to the U.S. more quickly?

A. Yes! The new K-3 visa will allow you to instantly bring your new bride back to the U.S. while you apply for the K-1 visa. Unlike the traditional K-1 visa, where you must apply and wait several months to get approved before you can bring your Fiancee back to the U.S., the K-3 allows you to marry your lady in Russia or the Ukraine and to bring her back to the U.S. immediately! When you join our Fiancee visa lawyer, Al Bredice, will give you all the information you need about this exciting new visa.

I thought that even after marrying overseas, that there is a waiting process for the K3 and you can't just jump on a plane to come home.

As always, input from the seasoned veterans or those in the know is appreciated 

[William3rd]

K3 is subject to the waiting times in processing as is present in other visa categories. With the I130 processing times dropping, the K3 may go the way of the dodo bird in time. Clinton signed this bill bc the I130 processing was taking way too long.

[roykirk]

Wow...

Thank you RoyKirk, 2tallbill, and ambach. Good info there  .

All the sites I listed seem like good options. The only one I am slightly dismissive of so far is EM's will send me a weekly listing of women that haven't been written to. The subject headline says: "GIRLs waiting for your attention." The fact that they use that particular pronoun of "you," especially when I haven't listed any personal info or anything kind of raises a red flag. Is it just me, or am I reading too much into that?

Eh, I wouldn't read too much in to that.  That's just the database kicking out automatic messages to probably all of the men telling them that these particular women haven't received letters recently.  I used to get them all of the time.  There might even be a way to opt out of the messages, but I don't remember.

[SANDRO43]

All the sites I listed seem like good options. The only one I am slightly dismissive of so far is EM's will send me a weekly listing of women that haven't been written to. The subject headline says: "GIRLs waiting for your attention." The fact that they use that particular pronoun of "you," especially when I haven't listed any personal info or anything kind of raises a red flag. Is it just me, or am I reading too much into that?

HazyKnight, as Roykirk indicated, it's an automated initiative. All EM male members, even the free ones such as myself, receive:
- Every Thursday, their list of newly-joined FSUW.
- Every Friday, that list of "Girls waiting for your attention" (not contacted during the previous week, IIRC).

[2tallbill]

As long as we are talking about dating sites ... 

Does anyone have any experience with www.getmarriednow.com  ???

They look like a pretty reputable site. They have a guarantee much like what Match.com is offering. Seem to very accessible and serious about getting people together. They even claim to have an in-house K1 lawyer to help with all the visa stuff.

The only hiccup I've seen so far was in the FAQ section ... in particular these two responses:

Q. Do I have to go to Russia or Ukraine to meet these women?

A. No, but if you want to we are there to help. Often, clients will correspond with 5 to 30 women that interest them initially. We offer tour packages and individual travel assistance that will allow you to take a vacation to Novosibirsk or Kherson or Vinnitsa and meet as many of the women that you correspond with as you like. Our full-time offices in Novosibirsk, Vinnitsa, and Kherson will provide you with translators, automobile, hotel, and visa assistance... anything you need. If you do not want to travel to Russia we will help you obtain a K-1 Fiancee Visa from the U.S. government. This will allow you to bring a Russian or Ukrainian woman back to the U.S. where she can live with you for 90 days to make sure you are compatible. At the end of the 90 days you can choose to marry the woman or she can go back to Russia. This process can be repeated until you find the woman you want to marry.

I understood that you actually have to have met and show proof of a relationship prior to the K1 interview ... that you just can't pick someone out, file for a K1 and wait for them to show up


Q. Is there a new K-3 visa available to men that will allow them to bring their new bride to the U.S. more quickly?

A. Yes! The new K-3 visa will allow you to instantly bring your new bride back to the U.S. while you apply for the K-1 visa. Unlike the traditional K-1 visa, where you must apply and wait several months to get approved before you can bring your Fiancee back to the U.S., the K-3 allows you to marry your lady in Russia or the Ukraine and to bring her back to the U.S. immediately! When you join our Fiancee visa lawyer, Al Bredice, will give you all the information you need about this exciting new visa.

I thought that even after marrying overseas, that there is a waiting process for the K3 and you can't just jump on a plane to come home.

As always, input from the seasoned veterans or those in the know is appreciated 

I see that several of your questions were left unanswered so far.

I don't think there is a magic visa, or a way to get married then bring a woman back with you on a plane or a way to get a visa without meeting a woman in person.

My scientific wild ass guess is that they say you don't have to meet the ladies in Russia or Ukraine because you could meet them in say Turkey or Egypt where they could get visa's. Which in my opinion isn't the best idea for a first meeting.

Maybe you should post this question in a new thread. Where it will likely garner more attention.

Just my two kopecks,


Bill

[roykirk]

USC's K-3 question is indeed interesting, because I was also under the impression there was still a wait even if you did marry in Russia.  In fact, I don't know if it was here or another board where someone said the K-3 would take even longer than the K-1 to get your girl to the U.S.  If it's indeed a "new" K-3 process, maybe something has changed? 

[Misha]

If you do not want to travel to Russia we will help you obtain a K-1 Fiancee Visa from the U.S. government. This will allow you to bring a Russian or Ukrainian woman back to the U.S. where she can live with you for 90 days to make sure you are compatible. At the end of the 90 days you can choose to marry the woman or she can go back to Russia. This process can be repeated until you find the woman you want to marry.

Man, I wonder to whom they are marketing this service. It does seem to confirm the worst of what people expect from the MOB business: order a "bride," try her out for 90 days, and if you are not satisfied "she can go back" and you repeat the process.

[roykirk]

Man, I wonder to whom they are marketing this service. It does seem to confirm the worst of what people expect from the MOB business: order a "bride," try her out for 90 days, and if you are not satisfied "she can go back" and you repeat the process.

Well, they're being a bit misleading too.  It's not like you can have an endless line of women coming over that you can "try out" for 90 days.  Most of the sources I've read while researching K-1's say the wait time from filing until she actually sets foot in the U.S. is anywhere from 4-8 months.  You're not going to be "trying out" too many women with that time span.

[Misha]

Well, they're being a bit misleading too.  It's not like you can have an endless line of women coming over that you can "try out" for 90 days.  Most of the sources I've read while researching K-1's say the wait time from filing until she actually sets foot in the U.S. is anywhere from 4-8 months.  You're not going to be "trying out" too many women with that time span.

Exactly, it is not realistic and it plays into the worst stereotypes of the MOB business.