Email: Spam is offal [EH]

Like Viagra spam, everyone gets these online dating site offers -- they don't care or know whether you're single, it's called advertising and it's called spam. All they care is whether they "guilt" or "fear" you into giving them your money (first some, then more). Most online dating services are appalling for selling sizzle but lacking meat (not to mention nutrition). They're empty carbs -- a flash in the pan (like margarine that boils away when you melt it in a frying pan -- this is true!). If they can get you to waste time browsing through profiles (which are not well structured or searchable and hence not real profiles, forcing you to waste time wading through them), the more likely you'll acquiesce and surrender your hard-earned cash. Like chiropractors, they would like to sign you up in perpetuity. In my opinion it's reprehensible to take money from people as you claim you're offering something to everyone when you're only offering it to the lowest common denominator (must have pulse, be warm-blooded). If you're registered for a dating site (because you were forced to do so to look at it in the first place), turn off the send-matches option; it's a huge time waster. If you're not associated with the site, use your spam blocker to block mail from their domain. Call spam what it is: offal.

As technology offers us more options than ever before, human beings need to become more seasoned about managing the choices of their time and priorities. Your story about the executive whose match your friend-of-a-friend knew was a serial (and current) liar and cheater should be an object lesson for any woman who is not aware of this now common danger with online dating sites. I repeat: Except for eharmony, I no longer advise women to look to most online dating sites for romance. Better to cultivate your social skills and practice them at face-to-face professional and other networking events where romance and intimacy are not the goal. (Houston has thousands every month.) Making friends is a prerequisite to finding a partner.