I stopped talking to my ex and I would post on Instagram and he randomly chose the one person I was talking to at the time and DM’d them to tell them I was cheating and to not talk to me anymore. I was shown the DMs and I tried to explain that my ex is CRAZY but he wouldn’t believe me?!?! I wasn’t gonna sit there and try to convince him bc given the optics, this DOES look insane but I AM NOT LYING?! I asked him did he believe me, he said no and we never spoke again. 😭
Continued to call for months wanting to hook up. I’ve blocked him on everything, but he’ll call from a private number and leave voicemails. Usually about how his girlfriend was gone or already asleep and he needed sex. It’s been over a year now.
My ex wife and I separated 5 years ago. We’ve been divorced for 4.
Till this day she sends me stuff through the mail. Letters (I don’t read them, so don’t know the contents), pictures of her fucking other men, things of that nature. She tried email for a time but I kept blocking her and eventually got my email filters locked down enough that if you aren’t on my list it automatically throws the email into the spam folder, though I’m assuming she still sends those.
Acted wholeheartedly like she was entitled to a second chance because the cheating happened early in the relationship before either of us were sure about eachother
After she got out of jail she pleaded with me to take her back. She arranged a hotel room and dinner at a decent restaurant. I told her twice that there was a Restraining Order that meant she needed to stay away from me.
Last week I received a text on my ex’s birthday saying: Thank you for hating me. (I didn’t send him well wishes on his birthday) Um, we’ve been over since last October and I shouldn’t have to remind him that he cheated on me. He’s 46.🤦♀️
More recently because my ex gf knows about my reddit she was saying she would tell people about me posting spicy selfies on here. I said whatever as I don’t really care if friends find out I have a massive dong lol
One ex sent me a pizza shaped like a heart for Valentine’s even though we had been broken up for months and didn’t talk. He also got really drunk that night and called the cops saying he was trying to break into his house, when I think he really meant to say I was breaking in and was just trying to get me in trouble. (I wasn’t breaking in).
Another ex sent me a 5 dozen roses and some lingerie after we had broken up and said he wanted to bury me in it.
The worst:
My last ex got married to a random woman right after we broke up, but also after he had hired 6 prostitutes and slept with half of the female bartenders in town.
An ex girlfriend, with her for six years, lived together. We occasionally argued, like every couple does. Maybe not the happiest relationship, but we loved eachother and had never talked about breaking up. She said she was going to her mother’s house for the weekend. Didn’t speak to her for a year. Not an answered text, phone call, nothing. Left all of her possessions at my house. I was of course worried for her safety pretty quickly. But it was confirmed by several of her family members, who I honestly thought of as family, that she was fine, just didn’t want to talk to me.
Told everyone except me we were back together. This is after some time when I decided to date again. All my friends were annoyed by it because “Why would you get back with him” and I wasn’t but he told anyone who would listen. Which really came at a time when I decided to tell this gorgeous man that I liked him and he said “Oh! Yeah your boyfriend told me you had a crush on me.” My ex found where this guy worked and told him and showed him my picture. I was mortified and so mad.
When I was 22 I was dating an older man who suggested I get my birth control through a site in Canada because it was much cheaper and he wanted to pay for it. He said he got all his prescriptions through there. I was a very naive young adult and said okay. After I learned he was taking pictures of me while I was drunk and uploading them to websites, I decided to leave him. Because he was incredibly persuasive and had seen him get a ton getting discounts for meaningless shit despite being extremely rich, I called the Canadian company to change the payment method and add a password to the account so he couldn’t access it. I stressed the importance of it to the company. Two weeks after I left him, he called me to brag that he was able to have his sister call and pretend she was me to purchase the remaining 9 months of birth control and have it sent to his house. His reason? To punish me for leaving him without telling him first. I went to the police to file a report and they said, “I don’t know what we can charge him with,” despite me having the text evidence. In a nutshell, there was never a report, and I had to pretend to be his girlfriend again for a couple weeks so I could tear his house apart while he wasn’t home and find it, seal unbroken. It was hidden behind an a/c vent on the third story of his home. Thankfully, I was able to fend off his advances and slept fully clothed during that time. After I left him, I used the birth control but was never with a partner just in case he tampered with it. I just used it to regulate my period pain each month, as it was intended.
Reached out to try to work on things we did for a few days saw each other seemed alright then I woke up to like a 30 page thesis on why she cared more about me then I did her and how she knew I have been sleeping with other women and always have been and listed everything wrong with me
It was absurd. Literally didn’t do anything even remotely close to sleeping with other women
A weird thing my ex did, she broke up with me, then decided to watch everything I did on instagram from two separate accounts she had, we had unfriended eachother on fb and she still “liked” family photos i posted at Christmas time 💀
Most recent relationship. Still recovering. We’ll call her Jade.
I take Jade and her best friend on a 2 hour trip to go to a concert, for a band I’ve loved for nearly 10 years.
Best friend knew a guy who lived in the town we were driving to, we all stayed at this dude’s house. We’ll call him Don. We get to Don’s house, hang for a bit then go to the show. At the show everything seemed cool, we were all having fun and enjoying the opening bands.
Fast forward after the show, the venue had a bar upstairs. Don got drinks and bought one for Jade. Then we get downstairs, and Jade grabs Don’s phone and starts taking cute selfies. Then Don proceeds to put his arm around her.
Fast forward after the show, we go to another bar. Jade cuts our conversation short and gets Don’s attention to go get drinks. His card declined and I paid for the drinks.
At this point, I didn’t know what to think. I knew it was over for me. I was so frustrated and upset.
We get back to Don’s house, and I’m already VERY sleep deprived from getting literally no sleep the night before.
Don wants to show Jade and her best friend his room. He then invites Jade to get stoned outside with him, and I came outside too.
We all went to bed, and I did not sleep for nearly the entire night. I was so tired but I couldn’t sleep. The entire trip felt like a fucking nightmare. I spent the last money I had for the week on gas to get there.
Fast forward a couple days.. I text her that we need to talk after I’m off work. I got to her house, and I told her how I felt about the trip. And she of course denied everything and minimized the situation. Then she said “I need to talk to you about something too…. I’m not emotionally ready for a relationship. I still like you and I still want you around. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
I didn’t believe her at all. After that night, I distanced myself and stopped texting her, and eventually removed her from all my social media. Then she texted me saying,”I can’t believe you’re acting like this, I meant it when I said I wanted you to stay around while I healed myself!”
We texted back and forth for a little bit, then made up and were “friends” again.
Following weekend, we hang again with her and her best friend like we usually did. Everything seemed cool.
Next morning, she walked me outside, gave me a hug and said, “I love you, I’ll let you know if we’re doing anything tonight.”
That was the last I saw from her. She stopped interacting with me completely after that.
She has since went back to visit Don and definitely slept him. She posted photos cuddling with him, I was crushed.
She had also posted photo of her with a girl in our group who I believe she was messing around with as well.
The last thing I saw/heard of her, one of my friends showed me that she had posted a photo of herself in my old clothes flipping off the camera.
I think she’s pissed at me??? Idk how I’m the bad guy or what I did wrong.
All I know at this point is that I hate her fucking guts and never wanna see her again.
The band we went and saw live is completely ruined for me. I’m never gonna be able to listen to them again. It fucking hurts.
I can handle getting dumped. For whatever reason. The only thing that really fucked me up was that she kept me on a string and pulled me back in just so I could see that she had started seeing other people.
Tl;Dr: She left me for a dude she was flirting with right in front of me and I think she was messing around with a girl as well.
Last thing I saw of her was a photo of her in my old clothes flipping off the camera.
Come back, leave, come back, and I promise you she’s got her foot out the door except she’s mad cause I’m on the other side of the state now and I don’t care that she’s leaving again
Accused me of making them sleep in a closet like wtf? Lol. He told all of our coworkers that I forced him to walk to work. This was a 26-year-old man who chose to walk to work and be a martyr about it because he wouldn’t put the effort into getting his driver’s license. As for the closet, it was an entire computer room that he spent nearly 24/7 in any way. As far as I know he’s still couch surfing, doesn’t have a license, and still just games.
She claimed I was in a 3 way relationship with my lesbian friend and her wife. I’m a guy. She also claimed I was abusing her.
When I showed up at her house after dumping her she called the cops to say I was screaming at her. But I already had the police on the phone on my pocket. She didn’t know that but it’s the legal way to record people in my state. But I needed to try to get some more of my belongings.
Started trying to send anonymous texts to my friends threatening them. Then lied to the police and on Facebook that my friends were sending the texts to themselves.
She blocked me on Facebook after that but mutual friends still sent screen shots to me. Six months after I left her she went off the rails again and got in a fight with her lesbian best friend. We knew a lot of LGBTQ people. She then came up with a story about how I was paying her best friend and her best friends wife’s rent and childcare costs.
Around a year later, the guy she had been dating since I bailed, bailed on her because she wouldn’t stop crying and posting on Facebook the she missed me and still loved me.
The two filed for a loan on a 5th wheel together. They lived in it in her mom’s backyard. Now she’s stuck trying to pay the loan without a steady income and no drivers license.
Weirdest thing – one of my ex’s came into the house, stole all my dildos, gifted me a giant beautiful peace Lilly, did the yard and cleaned up the house while I was away for the weekend. Never left a note or anything and I was so confused as to who did that. Learnt to change the locks after every break up because of this.
Nicest thing – somehow found out my fridge had broken down and got a new one delivered to my house.
Another one paid my rent for 6 months after we broke up.
Had one ex drop over Halloween candy for my kids in a box with a note. That was really sweet thank you Beth.
My youngests baby dad got a fb message from my ex saying we broke up because I had a ‘darkness inside of me’ and called me to congratulate me for finally dumping him ending the relationship.
ex messaged people telling them I had dementia because I suddenly didn’t recognise him or want him in the house, changed the locks and didn’t want his snap chat location. This was the same day we had met up and I signed the form to transfer the internet over to my name as he had moved out.
Another one called me to tell me he had met another woman with the same name. Ok cool
Another called to tell me the fish I bought him for his birthday had died, that was really really sad.
Attempted to triangulate and manipulate every single person in my life and periphery so I broke up with them. They then used their influence as a police officer to have me investigated by child services in an attempt to remove my parental rights. And, as of Thursday, I was arrested at my home, in front of all my neighbours on bunk charges and all my electronics were seized via a search warrant. Again, using her influence as police to have this orchestrated. The charges include false allegations that have now established a restraining order against me to see my child until the court date in a month. This seems like it would qualify?
I have one who is hell bent on ruining mine and my new partner’s reputations. He continues to try to bully us and spins totally false narratives to whoever will listen (he’s blocked on everything, but it doesn’t stop people from telling me about it). It’s been THREE YEARS and he is still can’t seem to stop talking about my partner and I. We aren’t participating at all and never have. Guy is a total nut job.
Back in the 1990’s, my GF dumped me and ran off with some hick from Kentucky “because he looked and talked just like Matthew McConaughey.” She ran off to Alaska with him to “work on a fishing boat.” The dumbass tricked her into working the slime-line on a processing vessel, which is just slightly worse than prison. You never see the light of day. Anyway, she got caught banging some other dude on the ship and her new redneck Prince Charming beat the shit out of her in a whiskey drunk rage.
Well months after she dumped me, and runnoft—she showed back up at my pad like I had the memory of a frog in a kettle. She wanted me to score her some weed, which I don’t touch. I told her to GTFO Disco Viking style, and never come back. She married some dude in Portland and man-trapped him with a baby, then cheated on him as well.
took the dog, car and revoked my grren card application eventhough i had the interview and medical already done. … better than being killed but it ruined my career prospects and im out of a lot of money- still no green card but im overthinking that currently as the US doest seem as promising as last year
Comments
Come back
Pimp her sis
I broke up with him because he was a serial cheater and he threatened to commit suicide when I left.
I was blamed for the fact she still worked at Winn Dixie. We hadn’t spoken in 7 years, and she didn’t work there when we were together.
he was stalking me over a month and i had to take restraining orders against him
Hit on my little brother, and ask me to set him up with her. Not kidding.
Blew me for gas money and 3 curtains.
Omg, let me go.
I stopped talking to my ex and I would post on Instagram and he randomly chose the one person I was talking to at the time and DM’d them to tell them I was cheating and to not talk to me anymore. I was shown the DMs and I tried to explain that my ex is CRAZY but he wouldn’t believe me?!?! I wasn’t gonna sit there and try to convince him bc given the optics, this DOES look insane but I AM NOT LYING?! I asked him did he believe me, he said no and we never spoke again. 😭
Continued to call for months wanting to hook up. I’ve blocked him on everything, but he’ll call from a private number and leave voicemails. Usually about how his girlfriend was gone or already asleep and he needed sex. It’s been over a year now.
Got her friend to ring me, pretending she’d tried to off herself and was in a coma in hospital
My ex wife and I separated 5 years ago. We’ve been divorced for 4.
Till this day she sends me stuff through the mail. Letters (I don’t read them, so don’t know the contents), pictures of her fucking other men, things of that nature. She tried email for a time but I kept blocking her and eventually got my email filters locked down enough that if you aren’t on my list it automatically throws the email into the spam folder, though I’m assuming she still sends those.
I think there are a lot of people who can’t post in this thread because their ex killed them.
He created an anonymous social media profile and started to bully me and eventually, the next new guy I was talking to. 🤯
Acted wholeheartedly like she was entitled to a second chance because the cheating happened early in the relationship before either of us were sure about eachother
Threatened to unalive himself…
After she got out of jail she pleaded with me to take her back. She arranged a hotel room and dinner at a decent restaurant. I told her twice that there was a Restraining Order that meant she needed to stay away from me.
Last week I received a text on my ex’s birthday saying: Thank you for hating me. (I didn’t send him well wishes on his birthday) Um, we’ve been over since last October and I shouldn’t have to remind him that he cheated on me. He’s 46.🤦♀️
Called my psychiatrist and claimed I was having a manic episode (I wasn’t).
More recently because my ex gf knows about my reddit she was saying she would tell people about me posting spicy selfies on here. I said whatever as I don’t really care if friends find out I have a massive dong lol
Go full circle.
We are still way down compared to January
The weirdest:
One ex sent me a pizza shaped like a heart for Valentine’s even though we had been broken up for months and didn’t talk. He also got really drunk that night and called the cops saying he was trying to break into his house, when I think he really meant to say I was breaking in and was just trying to get me in trouble. (I wasn’t breaking in).
Another ex sent me a 5 dozen roses and some lingerie after we had broken up and said he wanted to bury me in it.
The worst:
My last ex got married to a random woman right after we broke up, but also after he had hired 6 prostitutes and slept with half of the female bartenders in town.
An ex girlfriend, with her for six years, lived together. We occasionally argued, like every couple does. Maybe not the happiest relationship, but we loved eachother and had never talked about breaking up. She said she was going to her mother’s house for the weekend. Didn’t speak to her for a year. Not an answered text, phone call, nothing. Left all of her possessions at my house. I was of course worried for her safety pretty quickly. But it was confirmed by several of her family members, who I honestly thought of as family, that she was fine, just didn’t want to talk to me.
Called work 20+ times trying telling my boss to convince me to get back with her.
Never had an ex hate me until her and she did because of what her friend thought
Told everyone except me we were back together. This is after some time when I decided to date again. All my friends were annoyed by it because “Why would you get back with him” and I wasn’t but he told anyone who would listen. Which really came at a time when I decided to tell this gorgeous man that I liked him and he said “Oh! Yeah your boyfriend told me you had a crush on me.” My ex found where this guy worked and told him and showed him my picture. I was mortified and so mad.
When I was 22 I was dating an older man who suggested I get my birth control through a site in Canada because it was much cheaper and he wanted to pay for it. He said he got all his prescriptions through there. I was a very naive young adult and said okay. After I learned he was taking pictures of me while I was drunk and uploading them to websites, I decided to leave him. Because he was incredibly persuasive and had seen him get a ton getting discounts for meaningless shit despite being extremely rich, I called the Canadian company to change the payment method and add a password to the account so he couldn’t access it. I stressed the importance of it to the company. Two weeks after I left him, he called me to brag that he was able to have his sister call and pretend she was me to purchase the remaining 9 months of birth control and have it sent to his house. His reason? To punish me for leaving him without telling him first. I went to the police to file a report and they said, “I don’t know what we can charge him with,” despite me having the text evidence. In a nutshell, there was never a report, and I had to pretend to be his girlfriend again for a couple weeks so I could tear his house apart while he wasn’t home and find it, seal unbroken. It was hidden behind an a/c vent on the third story of his home. Thankfully, I was able to fend off his advances and slept fully clothed during that time. After I left him, I used the birth control but was never with a partner just in case he tampered with it. I just used it to regulate my period pain each month, as it was intended.
He strangled me, wanted me dead fr, I would go in and out of consciousness and he wouldn’t let go of me.
My neck was pretty bruised after.
Reached out to try to work on things we did for a few days saw each other seemed alright then I woke up to like a 30 page thesis on why she cared more about me then I did her and how she knew I have been sleeping with other women and always have been and listed everything wrong with me
It was absurd. Literally didn’t do anything even remotely close to sleeping with other women
It didn’t really bother me but I did find it odd that the next guy she dated looked a lot like me.
I called things off about a week before my birthday so she wrote me a birthday card bitterly saying how it wasn’t right to break up with her.
Went to a rave and she was being all touchy feely with one of my friend and she kissed a girl, didn’t recognize the woman I fell in love with…
Lied and gave something else
A weird thing my ex did, she broke up with me, then decided to watch everything I did on instagram from two separate accounts she had, we had unfriended eachother on fb and she still “liked” family photos i posted at Christmas time 💀
Happily blocked on everything now
Most recent relationship. Still recovering. We’ll call her Jade.
I take Jade and her best friend on a 2 hour trip to go to a concert, for a band I’ve loved for nearly 10 years.
Best friend knew a guy who lived in the town we were driving to, we all stayed at this dude’s house. We’ll call him Don. We get to Don’s house, hang for a bit then go to the show. At the show everything seemed cool, we were all having fun and enjoying the opening bands.
Fast forward after the show, the venue had a bar upstairs. Don got drinks and bought one for Jade. Then we get downstairs, and Jade grabs Don’s phone and starts taking cute selfies. Then Don proceeds to put his arm around her.
Fast forward after the show, we go to another bar. Jade cuts our conversation short and gets Don’s attention to go get drinks. His card declined and I paid for the drinks.
At this point, I didn’t know what to think. I knew it was over for me. I was so frustrated and upset.
We get back to Don’s house, and I’m already VERY sleep deprived from getting literally no sleep the night before.
Don wants to show Jade and her best friend his room. He then invites Jade to get stoned outside with him, and I came outside too.
We all went to bed, and I did not sleep for nearly the entire night. I was so tired but I couldn’t sleep. The entire trip felt like a fucking nightmare. I spent the last money I had for the week on gas to get there.
Fast forward a couple days.. I text her that we need to talk after I’m off work. I got to her house, and I told her how I felt about the trip. And she of course denied everything and minimized the situation. Then she said “I need to talk to you about something too…. I’m not emotionally ready for a relationship. I still like you and I still want you around. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
I didn’t believe her at all. After that night, I distanced myself and stopped texting her, and eventually removed her from all my social media. Then she texted me saying,”I can’t believe you’re acting like this, I meant it when I said I wanted you to stay around while I healed myself!”
We texted back and forth for a little bit, then made up and were “friends” again.
Following weekend, we hang again with her and her best friend like we usually did. Everything seemed cool.
Next morning, she walked me outside, gave me a hug and said, “I love you, I’ll let you know if we’re doing anything tonight.”
That was the last I saw from her. She stopped interacting with me completely after that.
She has since went back to visit Don and definitely slept him. She posted photos cuddling with him, I was crushed.
She had also posted photo of her with a girl in our group who I believe she was messing around with as well.
The last thing I saw/heard of her, one of my friends showed me that she had posted a photo of herself in my old clothes flipping off the camera.
I think she’s pissed at me??? Idk how I’m the bad guy or what I did wrong.
All I know at this point is that I hate her fucking guts and never wanna see her again.
The band we went and saw live is completely ruined for me. I’m never gonna be able to listen to them again. It fucking hurts.
I can handle getting dumped. For whatever reason. The only thing that really fucked me up was that she kept me on a string and pulled me back in just so I could see that she had started seeing other people.
Tl;Dr: She left me for a dude she was flirting with right in front of me and I think she was messing around with a girl as well.
Last thing I saw of her was a photo of her in my old clothes flipping off the camera.
The end.
Called another one of my exes to talk mad shit about me…
Come back, leave, come back, and I promise you she’s got her foot out the door except she’s mad cause I’m on the other side of the state now and I don’t care that she’s leaving again
he lied about cheating on because he said i wouldn’t want to break up with him in a different way???? like i would, in a heartbeat
Accused me of making them sleep in a closet like wtf? Lol. He told all of our coworkers that I forced him to walk to work. This was a 26-year-old man who chose to walk to work and be a martyr about it because he wouldn’t put the effort into getting his driver’s license. As for the closet, it was an entire computer room that he spent nearly 24/7 in any way. As far as I know he’s still couch surfing, doesn’t have a license, and still just games.
She claimed I was in a 3 way relationship with my lesbian friend and her wife. I’m a guy. She also claimed I was abusing her.
When I showed up at her house after dumping her she called the cops to say I was screaming at her. But I already had the police on the phone on my pocket. She didn’t know that but it’s the legal way to record people in my state. But I needed to try to get some more of my belongings.
Started trying to send anonymous texts to my friends threatening them. Then lied to the police and on Facebook that my friends were sending the texts to themselves.
She blocked me on Facebook after that but mutual friends still sent screen shots to me. Six months after I left her she went off the rails again and got in a fight with her lesbian best friend. We knew a lot of LGBTQ people. She then came up with a story about how I was paying her best friend and her best friends wife’s rent and childcare costs.
Around a year later, the guy she had been dating since I bailed, bailed on her because she wouldn’t stop crying and posting on Facebook the she missed me and still loved me.
The two filed for a loan on a 5th wheel together. They lived in it in her mom’s backyard. Now she’s stuck trying to pay the loan without a steady income and no drivers license.
[removed]
Weirdest thing – one of my ex’s came into the house, stole all my dildos, gifted me a giant beautiful peace Lilly, did the yard and cleaned up the house while I was away for the weekend. Never left a note or anything and I was so confused as to who did that. Learnt to change the locks after every break up because of this.
Nicest thing – somehow found out my fridge had broken down and got a new one delivered to my house.
Another one paid my rent for 6 months after we broke up.
Had one ex drop over Halloween candy for my kids in a box with a note. That was really sweet thank you Beth.
My youngests baby dad got a fb message from my ex saying we broke up because I had a ‘darkness inside of me’ and called me to congratulate me for finally dumping him ending the relationship.
ex messaged people telling them I had dementia because I suddenly didn’t recognise him or want him in the house, changed the locks and didn’t want his snap chat location. This was the same day we had met up and I signed the form to transfer the internet over to my name as he had moved out.
Another one called me to tell me he had met another woman with the same name. Ok cool
Another called to tell me the fish I bought him for his birthday had died, that was really really sad.
Attempted to triangulate and manipulate every single person in my life and periphery so I broke up with them. They then used their influence as a police officer to have me investigated by child services in an attempt to remove my parental rights. And, as of Thursday, I was arrested at my home, in front of all my neighbours on bunk charges and all my electronics were seized via a search warrant. Again, using her influence as police to have this orchestrated. The charges include false allegations that have now established a restraining order against me to see my child until the court date in a month. This seems like it would qualify?
I have one who is hell bent on ruining mine and my new partner’s reputations. He continues to try to bully us and spins totally false narratives to whoever will listen (he’s blocked on everything, but it doesn’t stop people from telling me about it). It’s been THREE YEARS and he is still can’t seem to stop talking about my partner and I. We aren’t participating at all and never have. Guy is a total nut job.
Create 50 accounts on Reddit to stalk me. lol wut
Slept with everyone I knew, tried to humiliate me, backfired, ruined her life, blamed me.
Back in the 1990’s, my GF dumped me and ran off with some hick from Kentucky “because he looked and talked just like Matthew McConaughey.” She ran off to Alaska with him to “work on a fishing boat.” The dumbass tricked her into working the slime-line on a processing vessel, which is just slightly worse than prison. You never see the light of day. Anyway, she got caught banging some other dude on the ship and her new redneck Prince Charming beat the shit out of her in a whiskey drunk rage.
Well months after she dumped me, and runnoft—she showed back up at my pad like I had the memory of a frog in a kettle. She wanted me to score her some weed, which I don’t touch. I told her to GTFO Disco Viking style, and never come back. She married some dude in Portland and man-trapped him with a baby, then cheated on him as well.
took the dog, car and revoked my grren card application eventhough i had the interview and medical already done. … better than being killed but it ruined my career prospects and im out of a lot of money- still no green card but im overthinking that currently as the US doest seem as promising as last year