The St Valentine's season can be a difficult time for the lovelorn, as the plethora of hearts, flowers, Cupids and chocolates going to other people may emphasise their single status. So it's a safe bet that the Internet site of unattached.com, already buzzing every Friday, will go into overdrive this weekend.
Ireland's first free anonymous online service for the unattached, launched a year ago this month, is now nudging up to 2,000 signed-on members.
"Scuba" is a tall, red-headed male of average build. He describes himself as "quite shy and quiet on first meeting people". "Culchie" (43) says he is reasonably good-looking with an easy-going disposition. "Frederica" sees herself as a people person: "I like to laugh, I'm fun and kind and sometimes untidy, and very pragmatic and the very antithesis of a dizzy, wimpy, ineffective female - and lots of other things besides!"
Those logging on see a selection of such profile briefs and, if they decide to sign up to the service, fill in an application form stating age, gender, occupation, location, self-description and whether they seek an e-pal, event companion or significant other. They may also describe their typical weekend, musical preferences, ideal night out, favourite quotation and possible dying words.
"Answering the questionnaire helps you to make a personal profile as well as allowing you to be a bit creative," says Gail Carroll, editor of unattached.com. "It gives a snapshot."
To preserve confidentiality, each person uses an alias, rather than revealing their e-mail address.
"Your profile is your password," says Carroll. "It's up and running within 24 hours and once you're in, you can read any profile in full. If you like the sound of someone, you can write to them using your alias. They then look up your profile and if they like the sound of you, they can write back. If they don't, they don't. People vote with their mouse." The site took six months to research and set up, according to Carroll (herself a spoken-for thirty-something), whose brainchild it was.
"A lot of people are on the look out for a relationship, but there can be difficulty meeting people these days," she says. "You can't hear yourself think in a disco. We have a lot of returned emigrants whose friends have moved on. Socially, we're in a state of flux.
"At the same time, we realised the unique and interactive capabilities of the Internet. There are already 800,000 people online in Ireland and about half of these are over 18, unattached, professional and increasingly likely to use the Net for information, shopping, to post their CV on recruit sites. So why not post their personal CV when looking for a mate?"
Most of the site's members are aged between 25 and 35, but they are drawn from a wide variety of jobs and backgrounds. More than two-thirds of them are male, a statistic which reflects, says Carroll, the disproportionate male use of IT rather than a majority of male lonely hearts. (Women usually far outnumber men as clients of dating agencies.)
At least three more Irish online dating agencies have come into being in the past year, including FM104's fee-paying maybefriends.com. "We're not making money yet, but we have big hopes for the future," says Carroll. "Once we have a critical mass of over 2,000 members, we can go to sponsors delivering a target group, a young, vibrant, population segment with disposable income."
E-romance is now beginning to evolve its own code of ethics. "We don't ask for references, but we do include some practical tips on on- and off-line dating," says Carroll (see panel). "We don't allow sleaze; this is a serious site. Nor do we accept sexual or suggestive references or bad language. If something offensive comes in, we delete and don't use it."
