Meeting People Online with Yahoo! Answers

You would like to meet people online but want to avoid using dating sites? Though I will say, there are many decent people on dating sites, but still you might prefer trying something different because you've used every other dating with not much success. Well, you're in luck, there are many other ways beside dating sites to meet people online.

If we eliminate social networking sites -I consider that they should be mainly used to "connect" with people you already know- , there are many other online communities where you can meet with people who share your interest and who knows? You might end up starting a great relationship with one of them.

On Yahoo! Answers, regular people ask all kinds of questions that are answered by other regular people. Think of it as a giant forum where there's always someone to reply to a thread you've started. It's a good place to meet people because you can go through the person's Questions and Answers and know not only his interests but also his opinions and preferences. People contacted me through Yahoo! Answers because they saw that I was in Haiti and need to talk to someone from there. The Yahoo! Answers pages are indexed by search engines so someone who's not even a member can see your answers and your profile. You, your interests and points of views, are exposed to a very large number of people. You can allow people to send you emails through Yahoo! Answers while concealing your email address. You can also allow people to send you instant messages through Yahoo messenger but you have to reveal your Yahoo ID to use that feature.

My story
I've joined Yahoo answers last year. I've succeeded in meeting four people mostly because at some point I specialized myself in answering questions about Haiti and Haitians. Two of those people saw my profile and contacted me directly. Since I'm a Haitian still living in Haiti, and we are apparently not numerous on Yahoo Answer, I've been able to give "valuable" information to people who had questions about my country. Meeting people on Yahoo Answers mostly means that I've stayed in contact with them either through email or instant messaging.


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Well-Wishers

A typical online conversation:

[...]
me: Who are you?
random_chatter: I'm just a well wisher
[...]

The person who gave me that answer may not be a well-wisher but many of my online friends are indeed my well-wishers. I realized it yesterday. So many of my online friends have given me good advice over the years. Even though I don't always follow them...



Chat for free with well-wishers in your area

Facebook, second impression

Facebook - First impression

I know why so many people love Facebook so much, one word "applications". Think of Facebook as a computer with only the operating system. There isn't too much you can do with that but start installing programs, according to your needs, and there's a whole lot you can use your computer for. It's the same, almost, for Facebook. It offers basic social networking features. You can add your photo, have your very own profile page, invite your friends to join your network and send them messages but there's more. Facebook offers the possibility to build applications that will run on Facebook and will do whatever tasks they were designed for.

I didn't realize how big a deal Facebook applications were until I created my blueNile wish list and was offered the option to add it to Facebook. As long as you're logged into both sites, all you have to do is go through a few easy steps and voilà! Your shiny wish list shows up on your Facebook profile page. It might seem like no big deal for you but I would like to see you try and add that same wish list to your blog for instance, or to your profile on Orkut, hi5 or Friendster.

The last time I tried adding a wish list to Orkut, it allowed me to add the url but every time I tried viewing it from within Orkut it kept sending me to the store's homepage. If you are an online seller you probably should make a Facebook application that allows your customers not only to add their wish list to their profile, but also shows off the items they've purchased from you. By the way, did you know that Facebook used to be called theFacebook?

Facebook me!

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Meeting People Online part I

Meeting People Online can be dangerous

I will never say it enough, you need to be careful when you decide to meet with someone you only know online. I've read a few stories recently about offline meetings that turned into tragedy. A 19 year old woman disappears after meeting with man she met online. A pregnant woman was abducted by a teen age girl she met on myspace. It seems the teen girl was going to cut the baby boy out and pretend she's hers. As you can see the danger does not only come from the men you meet online it may come from the women as well.

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They are preying on your kids

My eHarmony matches don't like me

The free communication weekend is over at eHarmony. I sent questions to a total of 14 matches and the only response I received was from one who didn't wish to communicate with me anymore. Not a single one of my other matches responded. I should have a look at my profile and see what I wrote there, maybe that's what's scaring them away from me...

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Still free communication weekend at eHarmony

I initially thought that the free communication weekend at eHarmony would end today, Sunday, but I didn't read the "fine print" in the email they sent me. The free communication weekend will actually end on Monday at 11:59pm PT. That detail was brought to my attention by an anonymous person who left this comment that I found very informative and useful. If you intend to take advantage of this offer from eHarmony, take note of what he -assuming he's a guy and not a gal- had to say, so you can make the most at of this opportunity. The anonymous person seems to be a paying member at eHarmony so he probably knows the site better than I do.

" It's four days, Marguerite -- 96 hours. If you check your email several times a day, I assure you you can go through the steps quickly. And IF you're running out of time, then ASK FOR HIS EMAIL ADDRESS or give yours ("I'm just here for the weekend, Marguerite at mail that is hot.") in one of the blanks there.

1. eHarmony cannot police or block the thousands of messages sent through the site.

2. Take note that paying members can be taking advantage of the promo, too. We finally hear from our non-responding matches. "

After reading that comment I went back to eHarmony and found that one of my matches had closed our communication, he didn't like the fact that I put him on hold for a while. The others still have not responded. Until I get a response from them, with their questions, I'm unable to slip my email address in the spaces reserved for custom answers... Too bad for me, I guess my matches are not that much interested in me after all.

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Free communication weekend at eHarmony
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Not-so-free Communication weekend at eHarmony