It's hard for a guy to catch women's attention online. This is not "woe is me" and I'm not expecting pity, just stating a truth. The list of expectations and demands are increasing, which makes sense because of the disparity of men seeking verses women: When you have more options you will naturally get more picky. I've seen profiles that blatantly state "Have a better opening line than, 'hi, how are you?'. " Really? That's standard introduction for any two strangers on the street. Now a person is expected to come up with something insanely clever? That seems... interesting...

When I was single, I had a method of determining and avoiding contact with overly nit-picky profiles. If they'd been on a site for more than 6 months and their bio says they can't find anyone real, then I reasoned the true problem was that individual, not everyone else. That's just my opinion, though. Either way an overly nit-picky person isn't anyone I'd match well with anyway since I pick my battles selectively and sparingly.

But I do wonder at what point those "standards" become self-sabotaging, to the point where no one is going to fit the bill because that person is actively looking for reasons to dismiss whoever approaches. I guess what I'm asking is: Does it really work and I'm just late to the party? Should I start nit picking every single facet of every female I talk to, right down to her word choices and response times? Does that actually result in finding just the right person whom you're forever pleased with, amen?