More and more convinced the hardcore alpha approach on OLD just doesn't work in this city for whatever reason. Why it doesn't, I haven't quite worked out.

The girls it works on, it works extremely well (as expected). But most girls just don't seem to respond to it.

Doubt it's a perceived SMV thing. Converted quite a few HB7s and 8s. When they do convert they thirst hard.

Problem with this stuff is you have limited data to go off, and the data you do get is "muddied". Hinge can give you a good benchmark on what photos are performing well.

But you do have to be careful - I find most girls will rarely overtly like a topless photo. But once you've fucked them a few times and built rapport, they'll admit the topless photos were the ones they sent to the girls groupchat, and that's why they swiped.

My theory is that I need more plausible deniability, or at least a bit more dimensionality in the profile.

Gonna tone down the profile a bit with the topless shots. My latest suit photo has performed really well, so I may lean into that a bit more and see how they go. Masculine without showing off might be the meta here.

I'm also thinking I might need to improve the text game. I know generally speaking you can't build attraction over text. But my usual style of "hey" -> "lets grab drinks" might just be coming across as too boring.

Even girls who have opened me with thirsty ass messages are dropping off, which makes me think the approach needs pivoting.

Will try coming up with more tailored, but still low effort openers and see if we get more traction on those.

Update to this story. I returned to the scene of the fire, and found the property was occupied by a VERY old man who is not in good shape at his best. He indicated that he is "Indian" of Central American origin. Conversation was very difficult, as he'd ramble off-topic and not remember or describe events in a linear and coherent manner. Anyway, the best I can put together what happened from what all he said to me:

There was a litter of 10 puppies, of which 6 survived to weaning age

Something about making coffee, and a "butane" cylinder with a bad connection.

He has no phone, and is in no shape to have alerted the nearest neighbors in a timely manner 1/2 mile and more away. He referred to the neighbors as "Christians" though in a tone suggesting their history with him was neither loving nor charitable.

His beloved dog he had a long time, probably the Mama dog, who would wait for him on his bed; apparently perished

I spotted one puppy obviously from the same litter. It had burned paws and burns elsewhere including his head, but he was moving around actively and looks like he'll recover fine.

The car was a completely burned out husk with shards of windshield glass on top of everything inside.

Kneeling down, the car was much lower with all the tires flat, and I could see the fur of the puppy I couldn't pull out, way underneath. I might take a jack over there to try to get it out for a proper burial.

It wasn't clear that it registered fully with him that I was there during the fire, and that I had saved two of the puppies. I'm going to bring one so he can see it still alive. A neighbor has committed to adopt one already.

At night there was fire EVERYWHERE, making it seem like the property was much bigger. By the light of day, there was surprisingly little to see, not even piles of ashes to match all the burning shit around that night.

The poor old chap can barely take care of himself it seems. At least he has the one puppy as a companion, but I don't see him as capable of caring for more pets so giving the one back really isn't under consideration.

As my beloved Granddad said numerous times during his last years, "Getting old sucks!"

@Typo-MAGAshiv

that would not have been spontaneous combustion

Actually, yes it would, as opposed to combustion initiated by contact with the flames themselves. The technical term would be flashover, which incidentally sets up the conditions for a backdraft by superheating combustibles well above ignition temperature so a sudden increase in available oxygen causes a runaway burning event.

Flashover was poorly understood in fire science even 25 years ago. I remember reading an in depth article about the phenomenon getting recognized and slowly propagated from fire labs to arson investigators. It talked about people languishing in jail insisting on their innocence, but charged with arson and manslaughter because investigators assumed the evidence showed multiple origin points and considered this prima facie evidence of deliberate setting. It finally got recognized that the radiant and air heat within a confined space could result in the fire "jumping" to flash ignite objects, leaving unburned materials between the original fire and these. Imagine losing your family and property to a tragic fire, then getting accused of and jailed for starting it?

@SeasonedRP I already have an optimal number of ranch dogs thus had no plans to keep them permanently; good news, one of my neighbors is already committed to adopting one.

I've tried to get my three dogs to interact with the puppies to help socialize them, but the inter-dog dynamics have made this challenging and attention-intensive.

I have my main dog Radar, so named because he was a stray rescued from the grounds of a major airport. Then there are Duke (Huge Dane) and Mama (spazzy German Shepherd), who I took in after they got abandoned by a pot farming operation that got burgled and cleaned out. Mama had newborn puppies at the time, which i rehomed once they were old enough; Mama and Duke have long since gotten spayed/neutered

Duke actually recognizes the significantly smaller Radar as "top dog" on the ranch in my eyes; Radar however is insecure about his position and always gets into growling matches toward Duke who puts up with his shit with a surprising amount of forbearance. It's uncannily like the dynamics between guys in a bar.

Radar hasn't been particularly welcoming toward the puppies, growling at them. Duke has taken a protective role toward them, so he gets between Radar and the puppies with both of them growling at each other which intimidates the puppies who are trying to interact. Mama makes playful gestures toward the puppies, which scares them into retreat, and brings Duke over to check her; this prevents play from developing further.

It's taken a lot of work to de-escalate the tensions between the two males; Duke is picking up on the message that the puppies don't need such intensive guarding faster than Radar is getting that the puppies are welcome guests on "His" territory.

Using Applied Social Dynamics on a group of canines wasn't on my 2025 bingo card, but here I am.