The Short Version: fans of fandoms, fantasies, sci-fi, along with other imaginative works will geek away over SoulGeek â a widows dating site site built to match lover girls and fan guys who will be interested in rewarding connections. On this website, geeks revel in their weird interests in a secure and judgment-free space. Discussion boards, forums, and blog sites encourage a residential district sensation, so singles need-not dive into personal messaging quickly. This “cyber-home of technical matchmaking” was created in storage of Mary Kay Bergman, a voice actress and belated wife of creator Dino Andrade. To commemorate her rich existence in addition to their geeky really love, the guy created SoulGeek as a bat indication phoning with each other singles that a weakness for relationship and a superhuman sense of fun.
Show
Dino Andrade, a sound star, stay-at-home daddy, and founder of SoulGeek, had gotten inside matchmaking market to not earn profits but to manufacture a positive change. Their motivation could be tracked back once again to November 1999 when voice celebrity Mary Kay Bergman passed away in the ages of 38.
“She was actually a real star in cartoon. In the course of the woman passing, we would been married for 10 years,” the guy mentioned. “She was not merely my personal spouse â she ended up being my companion.”
Instantly he was a geek without you to definitely discuss the joys of putting on a costume for events or reading Terry Pratchett dream novels. Mary Kay’s death took a difficult cost on him, and joining general dating web pages merely made him feel a lot more separated.
A few years later, at an event within his home town, he found another hope in a classic fire. The guy reconnected along with his high-school lover â a geeky lady who’d attracted his attention by doodling the Starship Enterprise on the laptops. That they hadn’t viewed one another in 26 many years, although spark had been there.
“She came back into my entire life and assisted place back collectively my personal shattered heart,” he said. “She only put her hands around myself features perhaps not let go of.” Now married with a 6-year-old boy, the household indulges in geeky occasions like “Planet of the Apes” tests and at-home “Lord of the Rings (lengthy Edition)” motion picture marathons.
Someday, as Dino and his awesome brand-new wife, Casey, endured submit hand at a “Battlestar Galactica” occasion in l . a ., the guy noticed a young lady eyeing all of them. “i really hope we aren’t bothering you,” he mentioned good-naturedly.
She shook the woman mind. “No, I just hope I can discover a nerd of my personal right here,” she said.
Dino was floored by this opinion. To him, it actually was unfathomable that these types of a cute geeky lady maybe unmarried. He thought that loneliness really, so the guy got it upon themselves, in storage of their later part of the wife, to create someplace where solitary lover girls and follower men could find each other.
SoulGeek is actually a dating site made by geeks for geeks. Contained in this space, singles with boundless imaginations and romantic aspirations display their unique passion for fandoms, cosplay, and events.
“everything I actually planned to do would be to make something great emerge from tragedy,” the guy said. “As heartbroken when I was to be widowed inside my later part of the 30s, i am actually happy that I’d two soul geeks within my life time. I needed generate a place where that was feasible for others at all like me.”
Talk “buddy” & Enter: a secure spot regarding Fandoms & Orientations
Launched in June 2007, before the San Diego Comic-Con, SoulGeek has community forums, blogs, and look characteristics to assist people hook up. A regular autoscan e-mail highlights the users a member may like according to his / her preferences. This particular aspect just improves as more men and women signup and employ this site.
Most singles exactly who join this “cyber-home of geek matchmaking” tend to be under 30, and Dino stated the guy sees much geeky guarantee within the younger generation.
“It’s my opinion geekdom grew to become conventional,” he said, “because of a complete generation which has been given dream storytelling by way of games. Every youngster is actually given a video game control and revealed fantastic really works of creativeness.”
For lovers of comic publications, cosplay, and exhibitions, the dating internet site promotes a judgment-free area in which geeks tends to be on their own. Where spirit, all intimate orientations can sign-up and locate the love that attracts all of them. “After having lost my wife, i am aware exactly how precious truly to get the love of yourself,” Dino mentioned. “very, as far as I’m concerned, I want you to track down really love irrespective of the orientation. Really love is actually love. Period.”
SoulGeek requires great pains to get a secure haven for geeky like to flower. This simply means fraudsters and spammers shall perhaps not move, and predatory behavior isn’t tolerated. The moment a duplicitous account discloses itself, an individual and all sorts of posts tend to be taken off the website right away.
There is nothing auto-approved, but an actual individual reads through all pages assure their own legitimacy. Passionate about offering people top geek internet dating experience, the group tracks the site 24/7 and deletes improper material before every user views it.
A Work of Heart â This site’s Ongoing goal to Inspire Geek Love
After his first partner died, Dino tried online dating in hopes of delivering a finish to his loneliness and heartache. As an alternative, he found themselves experiencing pressured to adjust and also to sit about themselves â not because he was a widower but because he had been a geek.
The unfiltered account of a broad dating internet site didn’t embrace a 30-something-year-old guy who enjoyed “Superstar Trek” and comic guides.
“thanks, SoulGeek, for offering a lot of people a spot getting ourselves without concern or hesitation, as well as for facilitating a secure and enjoyable environment to-fall very anxiously in love.” â Ded-Ded-Dedski & Elvinsword, SoulGeek members
The guy created SoulGeek to-be yet another sort of dating site, the one that fostered camaraderie and connections among their other geeks. Anyone can join free of charge, as well as the cost to upgrade an account for VIP characteristics is a small monthly fee. Dino merely charges sufficient to retain the site and a little team. He could ben’t inside your money can buy, however for the gratification which comes from helping other individuals come across love and contentment within schedules.
“i’ve no back ground in education or web site building or something that way,” the guy stated. “it was purely a-work of heart.”
Dino also has regular singles meetups in locations across the country â from L.A. to Atlanta â in which self-professed geeks mingle physically with the ones from their particular ilk.
Now, 30 Marriages & 2 children are Legacy of Dino’s belated Wife
SoulGeek’s success stories chat to the rainbow of kinds that really love takes. Many shining reviews sing the praises of SoulGeek and tell the storyline of geeks falling in love over provided passions or idiosyncrasies.
Years right back, whenever SoulGeek was still in its first year, some people organized a shock thank-you for Dino and his awesome wife during the Star Trek Hilton in Las Vegas. Individuals from throughout the nation â and even Japan â involved salute the founder with the technical dating website. It absolutely was typically partners which found on the site. Dino recalled, “We returned to your hotel, and I simply wept like a child because at the time we did not know if the website ended up being operating.”
Through personal references, SoulGeek’s Founder has actually heard right back from numerous content users. The guy informs us that about 30 marriages and two babies have actually resulted from conference on website â and there could be more comfortable lovers around which just haven’t achieved away yet.
Whenever several delivered him the message they happened to be expecting after fulfilling on SoulGeek, Dino’s cardiovascular system soared. The guy made a unique day at Columbus, Ohio, only to hold the infant girl (named Miranda) inside the hands.
For him, this infant is actually magic, a living memorial into love the guy thought for Mary Kay Bergman. “The site had been integrated mind of my personal later part of the spouse,” Dino stated passionately. “Every pair introduced with each other, each one of those wedding events, every youngster created belongs to the woman legacy.”
Dino’s 3 methods for Single Geeks in Search of a Soulmate
Dino does all he can to help people leave their unique shell in order to find a geeky companion to express in life’s adventure. When inquired about his information to SoulGeek users, he was rapid to provide you three pieces of advice about geeks from inside the matchmaking arena.
1. Pay attention and Respond
The key to getting a star, he informed all of us, is valid for matchmaking as well â listen and reply. It’s not sufficient to remain quietly in watch for your own consider talk. You’ll want to actively hear and meaningfully answer exactly what that other individual says.
“It isn’t really a ping-pong match,” the guy mentioned. “It isn’t really the line, my line, the range; it really is tune in and react so dialogue is organic.”
Geeks like to speak about their unique passions, but this could be a formidable conversational style. Dino’s guidance would be to take a deep breath from rambling regarding your very own interests to listen to your lover let you know about his or hers.
“As a geek, you should explode about anything you’re into, and you may forget about to hear your partner,” the guy mentioned. “however if you will get out of your own ripple, you might learn a new cool thing to possess.”
2. Esteem distinctions of Opinion
Geeks like a myriad of niche tasks and tales, and that’s okay. Dino’s second piece of advice to single geeks just isn’t giving some body a hard time for liking or not liking anything.
“If you’re looking for a duplicate of yourself, that’s not how dating works,” the guy stated. “We all have special things about us. Part of the magic of producing that commitment last permanently is actually discovering discussed prices and shared interests.”
To honor each other and connect, you ought to embrace things you’ve got in common along with the issues never.
3. Go to Conventions
Last of all of the, Dino advises that single geeks overcome their shyness or personal awkwardness by participating in a meeting for fandoms they enjoy.
Exhibitions offer the best way for geeks to find some other geeks. In a sea of costumes and booths, men and women proclaim their particular excitement, creativity, and quirkiness. “It’s easy to strike upwards a discussion where setting,” he said.
Since 2009, Dino features install stands at Comic-Con along with other exhibitions promoting SoulGeek, so he knows what the opportunity really meet up with like-minded individuals. People can use the convention web log to maintain which exhibitions are arriving where and when.
For all attendees, a trip to Comic-Con is actually tantamount to a holy pilgrimage towards heart of all circumstances awesome. What better starting point for your own quest for love but during that center of geekdom?
Boldly get: Seek New Life inside Dating Frontier With SoulGeek
From a widower in the belated 30s to a daddy inside the early 50s, Dino went through many good and the bad in his existence, however with an unconquerable nature, the guy finds a means to switch even catastrophe into anything good. Through his dating site, he dreams to spread the love he’s been therefore lucky having got within his life.
SoulGeek combines those who realize and commemorate each other’s quirks. Whether you are into “Superstar Trek,” “Doctor Just who,” or Marvel Comics, each one is thank you for visiting post, chat, and flirt on this site. This can be a deeply private mission for Dino, which dreams his dating site encourages a lot of lasting interactions into the nerd area.
“i needed to build a memorial to my partner,” the guy mentioned. “i needed indeed there become a full time income legacy, and SoulGeek will it be.”