If this is someone that you have already had multiple conversations with on a dating site, ghosting them would not be kind nor wise.
You may have already built a rapport with this person and led them to believe that you like them.
They have asked you out because you have built this kind of connection with them over time.
If you were to simply not respond after they asked you out, it would not be good online dating etiquette and you may come to regret it.
Although this is not a person that you are in an exclusive relationship with, you did talk to them over a good amount of time.
They have been really nice to you and thereby given you no reason to simply ghost them because you are interested in someone else.
This person is an adult.
They understand the nature of meeting someone on a dating site.
This person knows that there is a good chance that you were also talking to other people on the dating site at the same time that you were talking to them.
In fact, there is a good chance that this person was also talking to other people of interest on the dating site while talking to you.
Again, this is an adult who understands the nature of online dating.
Everyone is on the dating site searching for something and they will talk to a good number of people before they find what they are looking for.
Online dating is a numbers game.
You may feel that you need to ghost this person because you may have gotten just as excited over this person initially and now, you just don’t want to deal with the burden of letting them down.
Now that the person has asked you out, you may feel that you took your interaction with them too far.
If you were to turn down this person’s offer to meet up, you may feel a sense of guilt because you worry that this person will think that you led them on.
You shouldn’t allow this sentiment to goad you into ghosting this person.
Again, this person most likely knew that you were talking to other romantic prospects on the dating site.
It is to your benefit to be honest about the fact that you have found someone else that you connect with and that you wouldn’t be able to meet up.
Honesty truly works in your favor here.
If you are honest with this person instead of choosing to ghost them, they will respect you even more for that.
Also, do think about the importance of not being a jerk in this situation.
This was someone that you clearly were interested in at some point in time.
This is why the both of you were able to build up the kind of rapport that led to this person deciding to ask you out.
The fact that you are more interested in someone else doesn’t mean that your experience with this new person of interest is going to work.
Indeed, this is also the nature of online dating.
Not everyone that meets up for the first time connect.
If things don’t work out with the person that you are more interested in at the moment, you could find yourself back on the dating site frustrated and having to start a new search for someone with romantic potential.
By ensuring that you leave things on good terms with the person that has just asked you out, you will have an opportunity to reconnect with this person and possibly meet up with them at some point if the spark is renewed between the both of you.