Are you in the Cleveland group?

“Are We Dating The Same Guy” is a network of private Facebook groups, each one tied to a city or region. Women join the group for where they live, post a photo or a screenshot of a man they’ve met or matched with, and ask whether anyone else knows him. Here is how that works in Cleveland.

Northeast Ohio dates as one region

The Cleveland group isn’t only a Cleveland group. Its name takes in Akron and Canton as well, and its members, about 88,000 of them, are spread from the lakefront down I-77 into Summit and Stark County. That matches how people here date. A man in Lakewood can match with a woman in Cuyahoga Falls, meet her somewhere in between, and never think of it as long distance. To the group, Northeast Ohio is one pool.

It also means a post about you can be read by women who have never been to your part of town. Someone in Canton might recognize you from a profile she passed on months ago, because the apps don’t stop at the county line either.

The river still splits the map

Clevelanders often describe themselves by which side of the Cuyahoga they live on. The west side runs from Ohio City and Tremont out through Lakewood and the suburbs beyond it. The east side takes in University Circle, Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights and the towns farther out toward Lake County. Plenty of people date across that line, but many keep their social lives on one side, which makes small circles feel smaller.

That’s often why a woman turns to the group. If she met a man at a bar in Tremont and he lives out on the far east side, she may not share a single friend with him. Asking the group is quicker than asking around.

Hospital shifts and campus towns

A large part of the region works in healthcare. The hospital and clinic campuses on the east side, around University Circle, employ doctors, nurses, residents and technicians on every kind of rotation, and people on nights and weekends tend to date on the apps at odd hours, with people they would never otherwise cross paths with. Residents and fellows also arrive from other states for a few years at a time, which keeps the pool turning over.

Then there are the universities. Case Western sits in University Circle itself, and Kent State, south of the city near Akron, sends graduates north to start their careers. A man who went to school in Kent and now lives in Ohio City may have dating history in two corners of the same group’s territory.

How a Northeast Ohio search works

We begin with the main Cleveland / Akron / Canton group, then move through the other groups covering Northeast Ohio and Ohio as a whole, since screenshots do get shared between them. If you spent time somewhere else, such as Columbus during college or a stretch in another state, mention it when you order and those groups go into the same search.

Finding out for certain

A check usually starts with a specific reason: a match who suddenly asked strange questions, or a friend who thinks he saw your photo. Whatever started it, a written report tells you what is there and what isn’t, so you can stop turning it over and get on with your week.