Less is better

I glanced at your profile and I can see why few read it in its entirety - it made my head hurt! So yes - less definitely is better. But I'm not sure I agree with either of your two points.

I make my decision based on the profile text. I look for happy, well-rounded individuals that understand the dynamic of being a single guy in the swinging lifestyle. A blue gumby doesn't scare me off as long as he shares a few pictures eventually - preferably nicely dressed and/or doing fun things.

I pretty quickly say "nope" when confronted with a list of "don't wants" in Looking For. Most everything can be phrased in a positive manner (want HWP instead of don't want BBW). Attitude counts and I want positive not negative. And very many specific wants (or don't wants) will also turn me off - this is not a fast-food restaurant where you order off the menu.

Connecting online is very different than connecting in person. We all have our method for sorting through the many profiles; different things attract different people. I'm sure we miss many opportunities because we don't have an open public gallery or default picture. But we've had fun with some that looked past that and reached out after reading our profile.

Obviously YMMV.

Eh. I don't agree. It's not that I don't need to be attracted (well, actually, I don't, but that only matters in some settings), but a photo is never going to do it for me. I don't even look at photos until I've read the profile and if it's sparse and doesn't show much personality, or is full of what people don't want, I probably won't even bother seeing what the folks I'm going to turn down look like.

I'm looking for smart, articulate and funny. I won't be attracted to everyone with those qualities, but I won't be attracted to anyone who doesn't have them. So, less is definitely not more for me.

Not saying you are incorrect but we have a different point of view. Plus in full disclosure we recognize that we are the odd couple out, well at least around these parts :) Of course the standard and required disclosure, YMMV.

Profile. We read every line in a profile we are interested in or one that is interested in us. It's less about the sentence structure or spelling. We want to see the depth of the couple we might possibly sleep with. For us it's not just about the anatomy, we are interested in the intellectual side of the couple. Is there a richness in the life journey, both day to day as well as swinging. We have unfortunately found over time that couples who lack communication skills on the keyboard, bring that lack of communication to the sheets.

Pictures. We tend to avoid the single picture couples. Pictures and style of pictures says a lot to us about the couple. Everyone can take one good picture. However when you can string together many different erotic photo's over a period of time it demonstrates a creative side. Plus (duh) it's primarily the husband taking pictures of the wife. How does he see her through the camera lens? What does he want other men and women to see? Last, we do want to see what you look like on date night. Like most we sit around the house in our sweats, shorts and t-shirts. When we go out? We do like to dress up, for each other as well as the other couple. For us (YMMV) we want to see what you look like in restaurant with linen napkins versus one pulled from a dispenser next to the condiment stand.

Everyone is different and generally speaking there is a seat for every butt. We like depth. We like intelligence. We like style. We hate guessing and potentially wasting a good date night. We draw our conclusions from both the profile write up as well as the pictures. We enjoy more over less :)

So, as a personal observation, after numerous years of off-and-on participation in the swinging lifestyle with a lot of effort dedicated to profile, we have reached a powerful conclusion:

Less is better.

The overwhelming number of people who have reached out to us clearly did not read our profile, so the multiple-thousand word detail of interests, personality, kink, and desires was entirely wasted (although fun to sit and talk through with one another about them).

Really, truly, the best use of your time and energy on a profile comes down to doing the following:

(1) Have a good photo of yourself. Because what you look like will 100% determine if someone is going to either reach out to you or respond to your reaching out to them.

and

(2) Don't waste time putting a bunch of details into what you are looking for. You are best served in stating what you -don't- want. Again, because so much of the lifestyle revolves on liking what you see, be plain about those physical characteristics you aren't interested in (e.g. obese people, etc.).

The thing to remember is the photo. Whatever your personality is (and it won't come out via your profile, at least in a way that is likely to get you laid), its what you look like that establishes if someone is going to be interested or not on an online environment.