I have just read some of the messages critical of some of the well known Internet dating sites. For the past few months I have been posting and responding to personal ads on Craigs List. The results have been most impressive, though I must admit I have yet to find the right one.

On CL, you simply post an online personal ad. You state whatever you want to tell. You get an anonymous CL e-mail that people resond to so they don't see your real e-mail. But, I still recommend you get a free e-mail account for use on CL, since I notice that a lot of people don't know how to protect their identity very well.

You can post a photo with your add, or wait and e-mail to the person later on.

Results: I have met and dated, a teacher, engineer, medical tech, nurse, and more. All very nice ladies. Just not right for me. No fault of their's.

And it's all FREE.

Of course, there are other areas on CL which are very nasty. Make sure you pick the right one to advertise in. And, as usual, use all the precautions recommended and that you think necessary.

i have never heard of that site.... not that i have really looked into internet dating... but you hear of the yahoos and the match.com and such, never heard of craigs list...
mlhb

Not everyone on Craigs List is who they seem or say they are. My husband first started talking to someone from Craigslist. She never knew he was married in the beginning. Once she found out he was married by then it didn't matter to her.

I checked out craig's list last night. Now, I don't live in a big metro. area so perhaps that can make a difference but yikes! Out of the 20 or so posting half were openly looking for sex.

Maybe I looked in the wrong place (I looked in personals, men looking for women) on the site. The were two guys with posted pictures, one was without his shirt, the other had kind of a my space, jokey sort of thing going on.

Given our different experiences, perhaps many of the guys are Craigs List aren't very nice. Maybe that's why I have been more successful: A smooth stone looks like a pearl in the middle of a bunch of dirt clods.

I used online dating sites a lot when I was "single again". In my experience, the free sites had lots of married guys who were "just curious" or wanted something on the side. The single guys were often also "just curious" and very newly single or flat broke and unable to pay to use a site. Now FS isn't a high need for me, but I appreciated when a man could at least pay for his own coffee when we met in person.


Mrs. W8ing <-- met Hubby on Matchmaker.com

According to a survey I heard about on the radio this morning, one-third of men on Internet dating sites want to find a woman who makes more money than they do. It's all about the money for a lot of men.

That's a weird conclusion... I suspect that the fraction of women who want to find a man who makes more money than them is greater than one-third - nothing wrong with that, but does that mean that "it's all about the money" for a lot of women? Things really aren't so simple, IMO.

AGG

I don't know if it is true that more than one-third of women are specifically looking for a man who makes more money than they do, and I see a great deal wrong with choosing a mate based on that criterion. And yes, it's all about the money for a lot of women - particularly for those women who marry men old enough to be their fathers.

OK - I've just been on the Chicago Craig's List - there are lots and lots of older men, looking for someone that they can "pay rent for, spend laviously on, entertain endlessly" in exchange for "companionship" and of course keeping her mouth shut!!! How sad.......I think I'll stick to the produce section of my grocery store, where the occasional ice-breaker of "nice melons" is a lot less scary!!

OMG, I just went on my city's craigslist. One of the first posts was from a married man looking for a discreet affair. So I fire off a quick nasty gram to him, and then I see another married man looking for an affair.

I fire off another nasty gram, and then I scroll down the page and see there are DOZENS of posts from married men looking for affairs! I don't have time to write all those nasty grams! Who ARE these creeps? (Actually, they seem to all be in their 30s, with kids, in marriages that have lost the spark.)

I think I'll be shaving my head, renouncing worldly pleasures, and joining the nunnery soon.

Call me technolgically disadvantaged, antiquated, or stuck in the dark ages, but I think there is just no substitute for a good old-fashioned face to face meeting. Anyone can misrepresent themselves but I think the tendency would be greater over the internet.

You don't really have any idea with whom you are communicating. It could be a zit-faced, horny 15 year old looking to graduate from reading his stack of Playboys to the real thing, or worse yet, it could be some "correctional institute inmate" with some extra time on his hands. Not that these are not wonderful human beings but I think I'll take my chances elsewhere when it comes to dating material.