What is it like being a boy on MO?

So I guess I'll give some insight from my end. Being a boy here feels like a massive competition. If your trying to get a girl you have to deal with so many other dudes also trying to get girls. Especially since some guys are known for hitting on girls the instant they make an account. I originally came here to meet a woman who I could eventually date and although I have made many friends here this is still my goal. I've been on this site for years and sadly it just gets depressing after a while. I have had a bit of success actually having deep and pleasant conversation but sadly none of them ever went anywhere. Maybe one day

i met several ppl to talk and discuss anime/random topics with, but none of them live near where i live ~ i been looking for anime friends (boy or woman around the same age or higher) to hang out with ~ still no luck so far

Been having a bad night so I wound up loading the site up remembering I had an account from forever ago that never really got anywhere. To sort of sum up my current head space, "It sucks knowing there are millions of people on the internet, but you can still be lonely AF." Why that may be the case is certainly nuanced, and from my own perspective, I guess I can only take so much of putting myself out there and getting nothing in return. Social media and its variants have pretty much failed me. More specifically, I suppose I'd joke that there are no women on the internet in Ohio. Breaking that number down further into those who like or at least tolerate anime, on top of my other geeky pursuits, feels like dividing by zero at times. Being in my mid-30s also doesn't help, since unless demographics have changed here in my absence, it seemed more like late-teens and early 20-somethings were more the regulars. Not against making friends with folks outside my age range, but when you are hoping for more than that, it can be its own unique form of torture when you're basically in the friend zone by default. Would I entertain a relationship with someone outside of comfortable driving distance? Possibly, but I'm also 0 for 3 in that regard and it would be a very hard sell at this point in my life. Which also presents what I perceive a bit of a social paradox. If someone is feeling lonely and they threw themselves into a crowd basically being all, "Hey, look at me!" how would you respond? My own gut says not favorably. Maybe they'd be seen as a nuisance. Maybe you're around for a specific someone or group of and don't really have time for them. Perhaps their approach just rubs you wrong way. They could come off looking a desperate clown. Basically, there's lots of ways it could all go wrong, but so few they'd go right. I call BS on it being about not being able to talk to girls, personally. Being a decent human being isn't difficult, even if the internet may make me question that at times, but it's more like there's a pressure for the stars to align in a miraculous confluence of circumstances just to get your foot in the door because all the other thirsty boys or bots are in the way. We're told to be ourselves, but when that isn't a shirtless Chris Hemsworth, what then? In my case, I happened to opt to use a pic of one of my dogs to at least hope a potential partner would think he's cute, and thus an icebreaker. A pic of me certainly wouldn't have that advantage, and may even prove a detriment since I'd label myself a 6/10 when it comes to the genetics lottery. Honesty, right? Or are we actually supposed to lie and gloat? "The Game" really is a pain in the butt, especially on dating sites. Anyway, part of this is just me venting, but at the same time relating to anyone who may feel lost or alone. I could offer some commentary on how building relationships is probably harder now than it was a few decades ago, but that's a dive into politics I'm not really interested wading in right now. And yeah, political alignment is also a dating factor for me, which makes being a lefty in rural Ohio pretty rough. More dividing by zero, as it were.