I've been on POF for awhile now and was wondering why it was so difficult to elicit a response from people. So I created a female profile, with a fake picture, to see what it was like on the other side of the fence. This may seem really sick to you, but curiosity got the best of me, and I was only interested in what kinds of messages other dudes would send, and what kind of profiles they had. It really cleared a few things up for me:

1. After receiving over a dozen messages in less then 12 hours, I realize that any moderately attractive woman will experience the same, thus making my chances of having you reply to my message very slim indeed.

2. Most of the guys on there DO have some serious problems with basic spelling and grammar, so although I said in my profile before that some of you were being narrow minded for writing off a profile or message b/c of a few spelling errors, I realize now that you were totally just in your criticism. The female profiles generally have much better spelling and grammar, and it's mind boggling that so many apparent high school and university graduates haven't grasped the basic concepts of our language.

3. I'm kind of glad now that I'm not on the other side of the fence b/c when I do receive a message (eventually) it usually means that you're somewhat serious about it, and I don't have the chore of sorting through a million horny dudes' profiles, to see if any of them are actually cool.

***Once again, I hope you are not appalled or offended by my little experiment in any way. I didn't respond to any of the messages (obviously), and now I have an idea of what your gender has to deal with (at least on POF), and what I'm up against, which is surprisingly less impressive than I had expected. Here's my real profile:

To the untrained eye I may seem awkwardly shy, even creepy perhaps. My friends and family see me as a hard working, reliable, caring, sensitive, passionate, open minded individual who is still somewhat socially challenged, but not as much as the first glance would indicate. I have a pretty broad sense of humour and find that acknowledging the lighter side of things can be helpful from helping you to relax at the end of a long day to helping you cope with serious issues. I can take things seriously (sometimes destructively so), or lightly (sometimes destructively so), and I am a firm believer in life being all about balance, moderation, and compromise.

I am a big supporter of common courtesy and believe that the small acts have a huge impact on society. The small acts that come to my mind as being particularly easy and effective are holding doors open for people (literally and metaphorically), moving over when someone needs to get by, and throwing your garbage in the garbage, recycling when possible. I know this paragraph may not seem relevant for a POF profile, but I think it's somewhat indicative of who I am and my perspective on our society. It drives me nuts when people violate the above acts (not so much the door one), because it happens way to often, and it seems like way too many people have adopted an "I don't know you, so why should I help you in any way?" kind of attitude. The tear in the moral fabric of society is widening faster than those of us with the needle and thread can fix it.

I completely retract the following statement after having been on the other side of the fence: I have another comment to make about the people who say that they won't respond to messages with incorrect spelling or grammar. I seems a little narrow minded to me. I'm pretty good at spelling, but I'm not gonna think someone's a complete moron because they mix up your and you're. Everyone's mind works differently and a person's message shouldn't be neglected because it's not in APA format. It should be neglected because it's boring or offensive.

You can listen to some music I made at m y s p a c e.com/thejoshtoppingband. If you still want to talk with me I will be pleasantly surprised.

I love to experience the outdoors in a number of ways. I don't have any long term goals other than finishing school. I have enough trouble with today, let alone worrying about tomorrow. That doesn't mean I don't dream though. I might be considered unique because I walk on my toes where the sheep's wool grows and might share a laugh with that sarcastic giraffe.

I don't have a cell phone and love the freedom.

I love old school rock such as Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, or Neil Young (who isn't always rock, and isn't always old school), Pink Floyd, The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, as well as a couple newer bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Hip, Danny Michel, Cake, and many more. The concept of listening to music not as background noise to whatever else you're doing, but as the focus of your moment intrigues me.

A walk, a talk, and a coffee.