Forgoing a lead-in when messaging a person I have never met before seems to defy the basic principles of decorum, something I used to think one should show when dating (or in my case attempting to date, ha).

That was from a study from OkCupid in 2011, when their average age user was 24. I’d take it with a grain of salt. You could just forgo the lead-in and just start the email with content as well. Best of luck!

I just read an article saying that leading with Hi, Hey, or Hello has a drastic negative affect on response rate. That’s what I have been leading with on most of my messages.

Yeah man, my response rate has been about the same from women and I’ve sent almost 100 messages. I guess that making fun of myself, or the dating site, or making bold statements about my attractiveness has been what has worked best so far. The responses have either been neutral or positive, the few that I have gotten. It’s exceptionally frustrating when I feel that i kind of fumbled these opportunities away, most recently when I got gunshy with a girl who was much more forward than the rest.