Transcript: When Good Dates Go Bad

On Dating
Episode “When good dates go bad”

Andrea Syrtash: We are joined today by Robin Summers, creator of Idatedonline.com a forum for people to vent, process, and share their online dating disasters. I am Andrea Syrtash and this Is On Dating.
How do you get out of a bad date?
Woman on street: I will like make believe my phone rang, pick it up, and make believe it is an emergency. Like yeah ma, I will be home in a minute. Or ok, oh my god I got to go home, my brother is in the hospital.
Man on street: The best way to get out of a bad date is just to be honest.
Woman on street: It’s a dear, dear friend’s birthday and you have a party to go to.
Man on street: Usually I just make something up and say, you know hey o got to run something has com up and I can’t stick around, sorry about that.
Woman on street: The easiest way to get out of a bad date is just to say that, you know, it’s over.
Andrea Syrtash: After a number of bizarre online dates, Robin summers realized he is not alone, his friends started coming out with their online dating disasters. And robin realized there was a need for a support group. Or a least a forum for people to share there best and worse dating stories. Idatedonline.com was born. Welcome Robin.
Robin Summers: Thank, you.
Andrea Syrtash: So Idatedonline.com, why do you think the site is so popular?
Robin Summers: Well everybody needs a place to commiserate. One reason I think it is so popular is that we are obsessed with other peoples realities. We see that on TV all night long, every night. We see al different kinds of reality based shows. This is just another manifestation of that.
Andrea Syrtash: Yeah, right. Do you have some stories you can share with us on some of those best worse dating stories?
Robin Summers: One common thread is the people misrepresent themselves. Because everybody looks god on paper people often put pictures that might have been six years ago when they were backpacking Europe and they were in the best shape of their life. And then you get to meet them and they look completely different.
Along those lines, one poster shared a story about a guy that she met that looked absolutely nothing like his picture. He had a full head of hair and in real life that was not exactly the reality.
Andrea Syrtash: So I know this isn’t a dating site. But I imagine some people want to meet each other, who read each other post. Does that ever happen?
Robin Summers: Sure it can because of the organic way that the site is constantly evolving. One of the directions it might take is that people might start to put links after their stories to there individual dating pages that show their vitals. Maybe somebody will find a witty write and maybe find somebody they get along with.
Andrea Syrtash: I like that their vitals.
Robin Summers: There you go. Well that’s what we are talking about, the specifics of a person. They do, everyone does look good on paper.
Andrea Syrtash: Well very cool, I am going to check out your site and thank you so much for being here.
Robin Summers: Thank you for having me.
Andrea Syrtash: The reality is bad dates happen to good people. May as well share them and post your own stories. So check out Idatedonline.com, because his site reminds us that even bad date makes a great story. So get out there and always have fun. Thanks for watching On Dating, I am Andrea Syrtash, see you next time.