I wanted to play some 5E the other day and since the world is still full of deadly disease, I decided it would be nice to try and find a group online. I kept my options as broad open as possible. I have a flexible schedule. I can play on any night of the week. I got like 3 level 1 character sheets already rolled up. I'm willing to join in any campaign that tolerates players who might not know exactly what they're doing. I thought finding a game wouldn't take any time at all

Then when I actually tried doing it, I learned that this whole experience is like job hunting except even worse because your employer/GM doesn't even bother trying to maintain a degree of professionalism and there's fucking hordes of people applying to every fucking game that looks interesting. I found a posting on Roll20 the other day that looked great, and I would have applied until I noticed that fifty other applicants had gone already. Even when I do find a posting that isn't already flooded with other people it's extremely unlikely I ever get a reply. One guy was interested and responding until I mentioned I was watching Jeopardy, responded with "Jeopardy huh? lol" and fucking ghosted me. Apparently watching Jeopardy outside of the game is a deal breaker???

I don't know enough about 5E or DMing to host my own game, and I didn't really want to anyway because I wanted to be a player in 5E so I could learn how to DM it. Is this a normal experience for trying to find a group online? Because I still really want to play but I'm already burnt out from how much effort it takes to find a game. Anyone have any advice? Better ways to look? Games that they are running soon and looking for players?