As someone who has had a great deal of success with a variety of amazing women (too much success, perhaps, but I love my kids) I must say: online dating is a fucking scam. While in a slump, a friend recommended me OKCupid. The idea of using an algorithm to match people based on interest seemed solid. In fact, going in I thought it might even be better than "real life", since I had so many issues finding women whose interests paralleled mine. Oh how wrong I was. Of all the messages I sent, maybe 1/10 at most got responses. Of those, all conversations tapered off into nothingness, and I never met a single girl in person. Eventually my effortful posts turned into one liners; after all, what's the point of writing a novella if it's going to yield nothing? After canvasing essentially every attractive female in the vicinity and getting the same results, I gave up. Perhaps I am ugly, or maybe my messages weren't wordy enough. While I found the women I messaged attractive, most of them certainly weren't super models, and that's fine. What's not fine, however, was the continued sense of rejection I experienced. It was degrading and so far off from what I experienced in real life I was absolutely dumbfounded.
If you're shy and have had little exposure to women, do not use your experiences on dating sites as a basis for the type of women you are capable of getting. I repeat, do not use your experiences on dating sites as a basis for the type of women you are capable of getting. You, as a human being, are much more than can ever possibly represented by some shitty pictures and bullshit text. It's tough, but get off the computer, and work out if you don't already. Do it for yourself, because it will make you feel better. Break out of your shell. That doesn't necessarily mean becoming a bar star, but get out, even if that just means going to a friends house and hanging out for a bit. You never know who you might meet, and when you do meet someone you're interested in, don't be be shy. Pull the fucking trigger. After all, what do you have to lose? What are you risking? Rejection? Who fucking cares? Life is too short to worry about that bullshit. Get out and engage the women that you are attracted to, even those who you think you don't have a chance with. Who knows? Your brazen, but cordial, advances might win her favor, leaving you pleasantly surprised and very much not alone. It's our responsibility to ensure that Idiocracy doesn't become a reality, and right now we're losing the fight.
On a related note, while I've never met a woman from a dating site, I actually met several from MySpace when it was new. They all turned out to be absolutely nuts, but fun was had. In fact, the most supermodel-esque woman I have been with (not that physical appearances are top priority) was met through MySpace. I'm not sure if such results can be replicated now that social media has caught on, but it's still interesting.