See, this is why I don't date. Yeah, I'm one of those, the ones that like to be friends first. Why? Because dating is too dishonest. It's a sales pitch, and I've never been much for sales pitches. I like to get to know a guy before I decide if I want to vest that much in him romantically. You can't get to know somebody through dating, not really. On a date, you only see what your partner wants you to see; but friendships are honest -- at least, the good ones are -- and if you decide you don't want to move beyond friendship with this person, hey, at least you've made a friend.

This can backfire, of course. For instance, if one friend decides that the other friend is exactly what he or she wants out of life, but the other friend wants to just stay friends, and honestly, isn't even sure if he/she wants that much of a relationship, but doesn't want to hurt the first friend's feelings because he/she seems like a nice person, and after all they did have some good times together, it can quickly decline from a friendship to a stalker/stalkee kind of thing. Either that, or there you're stuck being best friends, and nothing more, with the love of your life, having to go through all of the motions of being a good friend, listening to them piss and moan about their shitty girlfriends or whatever, when all you really want to do is slap them upside the head and make them realize how PERFECT you are for them ...

Not that I know from experience or anything.