I was on some dating sites for a while. What I found was about half the women were looking for a man who made a lot more money than they did, and about half the men were looking for women who were a lot younger and prettier than themselves. Of the rest, about 75% put me off by what they said in their profiles. The remaining few were nice, interesting people that I didn't have enough in common with to have anything more than a nice evening.

So I switched to a specialty dating site. In my case, a vegetarian dating site. I met my partner there. We've been together three years, have never had a fight, and now own a house together.

As for why I tried the dating sites, I was recently divorced after 22 years of marriage, played in a couple of bands, had a full time job, and had already thought about and rejected, or been rejected by, almost every woman I knew. I didn't have time in my life to join a book club, go to dances, or even take a class. The dating sites were an efficient way to screen and meet new people. As soon as I got on a specialized site, I found my dream woman on my second date (after lots of looking and screening).

Maybe it already exists, but I've often thought that a dating site for folk musicians would be a nice thing. Maybe it would be commercially viable if it was for all musicians, broken down by genre, but then there probably wouldn't be a category for folk . . .