The Five Most Important Attributes of Love
Five Signs That Self-Sabotage Is Breaking Your Heart
Five Reasons to Call Off a Relationship
Five Things Men Don’t Want In A Dream Girl
Five Tips Every Woman Should Know
Five Tips for Creating Intimacy
Five Ways to Keep Him Interested
Five Ways to Be a Better Girlfriend

Ahem.
These sites are not popular. And they’re so mistrusted that many have to put up huge disclaimers assuring visitors that they are not secretly trying to organize swingers’ parties. So I guess that there’s at least one reason why “couples dating” has not become the Next Big Internet Thing.
Maybe another reason is that couples dating just presents too many veto opportunities. It’s tough enough trying to get two people together—trying to perfectly mesh music tastes with gastronomic preferences, plus figuring out where the other party stands on controversial topics such as Peeps or the Real Housewives. Imagine trying to play that game times two, with four people nitpicking on each other’s various quirks and peccadilloes. It’d be impossible. At some point in your life, your close friends are people you’ve known for so long that you’ve been forced to grandfather in their irritating qualities or less-desirable interests. If you met them fresh and had to confront the bad stuff upfront, even they probably wouldn’t make the cut.
But could it also be that finding platonic friends online just feels too forced and too desperate. Everyone understands if you’re too busy to find a boyfriend or sick of trolling bars or have exhausted all of your setup options. But to put up an ad saying, “We can’t find friends”? That feels not unlike an admission that no one wants to hang out with you. Plenty of people have trouble dating, but only weirdos and psychos don’t have friends.
It took my husband and me approximately three years to pick out a rug for our living room, so it’s a tall order to expect us to decide on new friends right away. And anyway, it’s highly unlikely that there’s some perfect couple out there waiting to complete us...she a prickly wordsmith with a penchant for Dance Moms and home canning; he a bowtie-wearing Marxist video game player. We’re complicated people. We’re looking for friends who are equally at home at the symphony and playing Kinect in our living room, and, although they enjoy grooving at all the latest clubs, really enjoy a quiet bourbon at home. They should be interested in going to concerts, seeing films, and taking long walks on the beach. We love life and discovering all that this city has to offer, and we’re just trying to find that special couple to share it with.