Are you in the Fort Worth 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 Fort Worth.

Its own city, not a Dallas suburb

People in Fort Worth are quick to point out that they don’t live in Dallas. The city has its own downtown, its own culture and its own pace, from the brick streets and cattle drives of the Stockyards to the restaurants and bars around Sundance Square. Locals still call it Cowtown with some pride, and the Cultural District west of downtown, home to the museums, draws its own crowd. Dating here often has a more local feel, with plenty of people who grew up nearby and still have family close by.

Usually filed under Dallas

Online, though, Fort Worth tends to be folded into the bigger DFW groups, so a post about a Fort Worth man would often sit in a group with Dallas in its name. There is also a smaller Dallas / Fort Worth / Arlington group. A man who only looks for a Fort Worth group could miss the places a post is most likely to be. That is often why a man who looks on his own comes away unsure rather than reassured.

The Near Southside, TCU and the west side

The Near Southside, along Magnolia Avenue, has become one of the city’s main spots for a first date, with bars, coffee shops and restaurants close together, and it draws staff from the hospital district right next to it. TCU, southwest of downtown, brings students and young graduates, many of whom stay in the city after they finish. Farther west, NAS Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base brings service members, reservists and civilian staff, some of whom are here for a set tour and date with that in mind.

Arlington in the middle

Arlington sits between the two cities, and for many people it is where the two dating lives overlap. Someone in Arlington can match with men in Fort Worth and Dallas on the same evening, and its stadiums and entertainment district pull in crowds from across the Metroplex. The commuter train between the two downtowns and the long drives on I-30 mean many people date across the whole area without thinking of it as far. That middle ground is one reason posts move so easily between the groups.

How a Fort Worth check is searched

We start with the DFW groups and the smaller Dallas / Fort Worth / Arlington group, then the Texas-wide groups that pick up posts from across the state. If you’ve been stationed elsewhere or lived in Austin, Houston or another state, list those places when you order and they become part of the same search. A written report then tells you plainly where things stand, so you aren’t left wondering.