1. I started dating in ’99 and only a few people had cell phones back then. That made everyone who was out at a bar/club be in the moment. The hot girls where not texting each other, or the guys that they would hook up with later that night. That means if they were out they were more open to meeting new people and you could get a number if you could spend as little as five minutes talking to a girl. There were nights when I would get six numbers (three of which were fake) and ended up going out with two girls. Multiply that by the three nights a week and you could do some serious damage. This led to spending a lot of money going out and taking out girls. Eventually (~ 2 years) I learned to spend less, but not before amassing 40K+ in credit card debt. It was totally worth it.

2. In the old days all people partied together, no matter how high-end the club was. True, there were places with VIP areas, but these were mostly in Hollywood and NYC. So once you figured out a way to get into the top notch places, you were roaming as an equal amongst some of the hottest women. Even if you had little to no game, there were still few guys approaching so if you approached every single hot girl at a place chances were good that you could get a few numbers from hot women. The funny thing was that girls would give out their number and answer “and who is this again” since they likely gave it to multiple people.

Now with bottle service and other segmentation of clubs, most of the hot girls are given wrist bands to go into special areas that the common man has trouble accessing. Even when the girls come to the common area, they have most of their friends in the wristband area and so it’s more difficult to get something positive out of it.

Flaking— it used to happen just as it does today, but I experienced less of it. Mostly because chicks went out with dudes out of curiosity if nothing else. Now, a girl is likely to remember you or not answer the phone at all so she has a pretty good idea about you from the get go. I remember at least five girls who went out with me and I ended banging and were difficult to reach on the phone (for various reasons, not home when I called, them calling me when I wasn’t home, roommates/family not passing on messages, etc.). But once I got them on the phone their curiosity took over. Now, if a girl doesn’t answer the phone or text, it means you’re out.

So when did this golden era end? Some would say 03, others earlier, but nonetheless 99-02, where my golden years.

Can’t pretend to explain it totally. Maybe girls were rebelling against their feminist castrating mothers? Products of the ‘everyone is special’ (and gets a perfect mate) educational system? Economic uncertainty? A logical outcome of gender equity?

But I’m reminded of some feminist who said “Porn is the atomic bomb against the female psyche”. When that got piped into everyone’s house via the internet it caused a mass psychological shift, especially with the younger generation. Betas got really beta and girls figured ‘OK, if that’s what you guys want…”

Funny you mention 2005, as that was the year scoop-necked tops were in and every other woman was daring you to look into her cleavage instead of her eyes. Girls back in the 90s were wearing burkas in comparison.

(I read about some PUA instructors that weren’t getting laid, but “really knew the material”, which IMO is symptomatic of that whole scene. [Or any scene where there’s a bunch of systematized knowledge and jargon.] Those who can’t do, teach, I guess.)