Personally I don't like opinion openers because I have trouble getting them to sound natural (unless it's a genuine opinion opener based on a real need for an opinion) and so I tend to use other openers. I like the trivia type openers like Style's 'five oceans' opener.

Since opinion openers in general seem to be viewed with disdain on this board due to their rise to mainstream use, what types of openers do you guys tend to use?

PS. I apologise for the bad flowingness of most of this message - I'm pretty tried right now. And yes, bad flowingness was intentional bad flowingness.

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"Plan only what you must and live for the present - for tomorrow everything could change." - Personal Motto.

I personally like opinion openers a lot because you can stack and expand on the topic so far. I completely understand where you are coming from though in that it can be difficult to not come across all weird and uncoordinated but you have to practice. Practice is the key here. First off practice on your friends and just imagine its a group of girls. Doing it over and over again will make it less weird and trust me it works.

If your having a hard time with openers one little 'cheat' that helped me was we'd take girls to the bars with us. Wether these girls were friends girlfriends or friends it didnt matter.

We would then get proximety and the sets would open on practically anything we said. Alot of your confidence is based on your success rate, so if opinion openers failed the first few times your going to always open the set sounding as if you don't really need an opinion.

Also, I agree with you, opinion openers are a bit unatural and almost beta to say ' I want your opinion'. I really like mixed sets as well, you can just talk to the guys naturally, throw in the 'so how do you all know eachother?' then move onto the target where no opening is neccesary.

Practice makes perfect