By fading, I guess you folks mean just no contact afterwards? Eh, well, I've had plenty of dates that went nowhere, no sparks, no connection, and so on, and didn't feel the need to contact the guy to say I'm not interested afterwards. In most of those cases, they didn't get in touch with me either -- I am usually careful not to make any promises of further contact when I'm out with a total dud or nothing is clicking, so there was no awkwardness or hard feelings in those instances, especially when both of us are clearly not into each other. One or two dates where there was no chemistry and no physical contact don't make me feel obligated to explain myself or follow up in any way. Plenty of fish, and all that, y'know...
The only issue I've found is whenever one is interested and the other is not, or if someone says they will get in touch and then doesn't. Still, I see no reason to make up an excuse or try to explain. "Not interested" or "I don't think so" should be good enough.
One guy told me at the end of our date that he wanted to see me again, but then emailed me to say there were no sparks for him so he wasn't interested. I asked him, "Okay, but why did you say you were???" He said he told me he wanted to see me again just to be polite. I informed him that lying is never polite! I won't shrivel up and die if someone says they don't feel a connection. I know I'm not everyone's type, for goodness sakes. If you don't want to reject me to my face, fine, just say you'll be in touch and let me know in an email or call, whatever, but don't say you want to see me again if it's completely untrue and you don't have any intention of making another date! You're not that important!
