Sorry I for got I add some info in I live in a small town in Alabama. The nearest gay hangouts are like and hour and a half away but with no car or public transportation I can't go. But so far the people on the apps are just rude. I see a guy I like and I say "hi, hows your day going?" Then they block me and the ones that do talk are not willing to come over.
Unless you have a reputation that precedes you, and people have heard that you're snippy, bitchy, or mean, there's nothing you need adjust in yourself.
As long as you're being civil - and polite - in the conversation (although it sounds like they're reacting pretty fast) and someone blocks you, then they either have 1) Bad manners or 2) No Class. Don't internalize it, unless you've said of done something that's gotten around. Sometimes, one bad experience with someone on one of those apps (wouldn't know: never use them), can cause people to spread rumors about you that are completely unfounded.
I remember back in the '70s, people said I had "attitude." That was because I was a very well-built guy. The reality was simply that I had manners and was raised not to impose myself on others (which, being Black, was a wise thing for one's parents to have taught you growing up in the '50s, unless they wanted to see you swinging from the branch of a tree (lynched). When a guy I was dating brought me home, his roommate wandered into the room, sat down and started talking to me. After about an hour, he said, "you're a nice guy." When I asked why he said that, he said that I looked like I was always out "on the prowl." I told him I wore tight shirts because I perspired heavily and shirts that were loose in the armpits caused perspiration to run down my torso and it was uncomfortable. And then I asked him to tell other guys I was NEVER on the prowl: I was the "marrying kind," not the sex kind.
There may be rumors about you. Ask a friend to to on the app, and ask someone to look at your profile and say, "hey, have you ever talked to this guy. I was kinda interested in him, but I wondered if anyone knows anything about him." If there are rumors, people will tell your friend, "I heard that_________________" and you'll know that people who don't even know you are talking about you. Trust me. Having lived in Gay Mecca (San Francisco), the things I heard about myself (my White friends would tell me what White guys were saying about me) just had me shaking my head. None of it remotely resembled who I am inside (maybe being a Black activist in the gay community put people off, but hey, if they weren't racist, I wouldn't have needed to insist on the bars having Black bartenders, or stores having Black salesmen, etc). My point is, stories get spread and ...this:
