Not that I'm anywhere near the dating stage yet but what are people's thoughts/experiences of internet dating?
To start off with, internet dating is definitely mainstream at this point. It is common place and considered an acceptable way to meet people. How you use dating sites will have a big impact on your level of success. Transparency is key, but of course you need to accentuate the positives. At times it can be extremely frustrating. Where you might relish in success, you will also get down from the feeling of rejection. Do not let the rejection get to you. Its all part of the process. EVERYONE gets rejected at times when working the online dating scene. So accept this as a likely outcome at times, and keep an open mind. Play the numbers. The more active you are, the higher your probability of success. As well, be cautious and be safe. Use discretion and judgement as your meeting people. Good luck!
I used the dating app- Her. I've chatted to quite a few girls and met up with one, who i started seeing for a couple of months. I find the apps frustrating and I'd much prefer to do the whole meeting in real life thing, but i also find it extremely hard to meet gay women when out. So for conveniences sake, and not having to go through the drama of figuring out if someone is gay or whatever, the apps are good in that sense.
I don't have much experience with it from an LGBT perspective, but my cis-wife and I met each through an online dating thing years ago. And the other comments here have been on point. I tried a number of different sites over a period of several years, reaching out to anyone I thought I might connect with because you just never really know. This is before I had accepted being trans but I think the principle still holds. The one site we met on, you had to pay to communicate, but we got around that by hiding our email address in the captions for our photos. Emails led to phone calls, which led to skype, which led to actually meeting in person 4 months later. We were very much long distance at the time, too, which made it more challenging. Short answer? It can work, but you have to be willing to take chances (albeit not risky ones).
I tried things like match recently. However, I'm more likely to meet someone in person when I start to be more involved in the community. Saying that though, it's different for everyone. I just feel more comfortable meeting people through friends.
I've got the 'Her' app but you have to pay to have full access. I've never used online dating before.
If you're asking me, I honestly don't have any to recommend. My last experience with online dating was 7 years ago now. All I can suggest is that you try as many different ones as possible. The one I finally met my wife on was the 3rd or 4th one I tried.