Try Lavalife for an eruption in your love life! (lavalife.com)

Member Name: spankygoodtime

Product:	lavalife.com
Date:	19/11/01 (377 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of free features, Can meet people from all over the World

Disadvantages: The liars and timewasters that use the site

Lavalife was known as Webpersonals until it changed its name last August. It is one of the many dating sites that abound on the Internet and in my opinion one of the better. I don’t really think of the Internet as an ideal way to find a partner, but it does widen your options considerably. I have chatted and made friends with men that I would never have met by any other means.

~~ Free features of the site ~~

This site is American however there are members from all over the World. It is possible to log on to the site as a guest, and see how many members are from your locality before signing up.

~ Profiles ~

As is normal on this kind of site, a user signs up and posts some information for others to see. Your log on name does not have to be the same as the one on your profile, which is good from a security point of view. There are three sections you can post a profile in that are geared to the different requirements users might have. Some people post a profile in just one, others all three. It is possible to use different handles for each section.

Dating: This section is geared for people who are just looking for friends.

Romance: This is for people who are looking for a serious, long-term relationship.

Intimate: This is for people seeking casual encounters or for those looking for serious relationships with likeminded partners with more unusual sexual tastes. When you create a profile here, there are pulldown menus that allow you to show prospective partners what you are into. It is possible for couples to create profiles as well as singles and you are allowed to detail your sexual desires/fantasies as long as you adhere to site rules.

You can hide your profile but still log on and chat; no one can see you unless you message them. It is also possible to delete a profile and create another under a new handle within the same account. You can also temporarily hide your profile, if perh
aps you meet someone and want to see how it goes, or delete it permanently.

~ Astrological, erotic and compatibility reports ~

These can be viewed providing the member has entered the relevant information when signing on.

~ Searches ~

When you click on the online section of the site, you will come to the worldwide section and see everyone in the order that they have logged on. There is a further link to local members that are online.

You can also enter criteria such as profiles with photographs, locality, and age and so on to perform a search for an ideal partner. The results of the search can be saved.

~ Hotlist ~

You can create a hotlist of your favourite members, which allows you to see when they are online.

~ Show someone you are interested ~

If you would like to chat to a member and get to know him or her better, you can send a smile. The recipient receives a smiley face along with a link to your profile. Hopefully he or she will send a smile back to you indicating that they are interested. It is also possible to send a smile with a message but this facility is part of the paying features of the site.

~ Blocking a member ~

If you are getting obscene messages, or a member is just being a nuisance, you can block them from seeing you online or contacting you. You won’t see that person online and their details will not come up in search results.

~ Photographs ~

You can post photographs of yourself in all the profiles you have created, either on public view, or if you are shy, backstage. If you have pictures backstage you allow the people you want to see them. In Dating and Romance these photographs must be respectable and no nudity is allowed, in Intimate nudity is allowed backstage.

~~ Paying features of the site ~~

To be honest it is probably the guys that have to pay on this site, as they outnumber the women
by 5-1. I have never put my hand in my pocket, but I do use the free tokens that are sometimes offered by this site.

~ Chat and email tokens ~

Chat and email tokens can be purchased with a credit card. There are various packages available and to generalise, the more tokens you get the cheaper it becomes. The token price of chat varies, again the longer you spend on a session the cheaper it becomes.

If you get a message and the sender is online you can answer them. However when their chat time is up one of you will have to spend tokens to continue the conversation. You will receive messages that have been sent after you have gone offline, when you next log on. When this site was Webpersonals it was possible to reply to these messages even if the sender had gone offline. Now you have to spend tokens if you wish to answer. The site administrators have managed to address the problem of members appearing to be still online for a long period after they have logged off, although they may still be visible for a short time. The chat server can be slow and I have had messages take a couple of days to reach me, or they simply get lost.

It is possible to look at past chat messages from up to a month ago, which is useful. It does show all messages sent and when I have looked I have found messages that I missed seeing during a chat session. Useful for preventing misunderstandings!

It costs two tokens to email a member. You can ask them to accept the cost of the email but be prepared for a refusal. It might be a good idea to send a smile to see if a member is interested in you before spending tokens on an email to them.

~ Finally… ~

The best tip I can give is if you are interested in someone let them have an email address or some means of contacting you as quickly as you can. There is nothing more frustrating than running out of chat time at that crucial moment.

Remember the server can be slow an
d flaky and this can cause misunderstandings. That wonderful man may not be ignoring you, it could be the server going slow with chat messages.

There are time wasters and wankers on this site as much as any other, so don’t take things too seriously. I know a few people who have met their partners on the Net so don’t take the all too common rudeness and bad manners to heart, there are plenty of genuine people who are honestly looking for a relationship. Remember that the Net is an extension of your social life, but not your only social life. So get out as much as you can, it really is the best way of all to meet new people. Good luck.

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