Props to Stranger Studios! DateSpaces.com’s novel design has been cited by Commandshift3.com. Click on this link and vote for us!

Welcome back, DateSpaces faithful. And to those of you that are new readers? We suggest you start studying our archives to catch up with the rest of the class.

This week’s short and panicked question arrived from Scarsdale, courtesy of Brendan. “I’m going to meet her parents this weekend. What do I do!?!?!?”

Brendan, you have nothing to worry about. We’re going to give you a quick list of do’s and don’t’s that will assure an easy meeting and a perfect first impression:

Here at DateSpaces HQ, there are some questions to which we can’t agree about an answer. So we got two of our staffers (one female, one male) to argue it in a feature we’d like to call: Date Debate.

The first query: Who should pay on the first date?

Brrrrr. In this cold weather, at least someone has some warm thoughts. Carrie writes us this simple question from somewhere in SoHo: “When’s the right time to give a gift in a relationship?”

There’s never really a wrong time to give a gift, but there are many wrong gifts that one could give. So you need to analyze where you are in the relationship before determining the proper present, and keep in mind that thoughtfulness always trumps costliness. If you haven’t even kissed your sweetheart yet, for example, an expensive or personal gift could be interpreted the wrong way and really creep out the recipient.

Another week, another question. This one, however, caused quite a few debates at DateSpaces HQ. Christina from Forest Hills wrote, “I just got home from yet another date from hell…I was out with this guy and I knew about 20 minutes in that he wasn’t right for me at all! I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I definitely wanted the date to end. Is there a way to do this without being obvious?”

Ah, yes. The Date from Hell. Not a place you want to be, especially when searching for romance in New York City. We agree there’s no sense in wasting your time if you know immediately that this date won’t lead to even a second meeting. But it’s officially time to retire getting a faux call got a call from a friend with an “emergency.”

First off, what are tags?

Tags are one-word descriptors that you can assign location pages on DateSpaces.com to help other users identify great date places based on their unique characteristics. Tags are a little bit like keywords, but they’re chosen by you, and they do not form a hierarchy. You can assign as many tags to a location page as you like.

You know what’s going to make DateSpaces really great? You!

At DateSpaces.com, we want to build an online community where people can share their dating experiences and expertise. No one has better insight on where to go for a date then friends and neighbors who are actively dating in your city or neighborhood. By contributing to DateSpaces.com you help create a great community for sharing ideas and finding the perfect place to go for any type of romantic occasion. The more we all contribute, the better resource DateSpaces will become!

Did you ever see When Harry Met Sally (pictured, right)? It’s one of our favorite movies at DateSpaces headquarters because it deals with an ageless dilemma of dating life. It’s a common question that all of us have pondered at one time or another, and most of us are never able to quite piece together the correct answer. Jon Z. from Valley Stream poses the question to us this week, after going without a New Year’s Eve kiss this year. He says, I’m really into a good friend of mine. I want to ask her out on a “real” date but I don’t know how to tell her how I feel about her. Do you think it would ruin the friendship if I told her?”

Can’t resist doing 360’s in front of the mirror? Instead of turning every which way under those unforgiving lights, try giving a look in the First Date Fashionista mirror—I can tell you which outfit is the fairest one of them all.

First up on the agenda: The disheveled co-ed.