Does Craigslist personals actually work?

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Does anyone here use, or have used, Craigslist for finding a date or relationship? And if so, does it actually work? I've made a couple of "test" postings not too long ago to see what kind of responses, if any, I would get. And it seems that the vast majority of the replies are from bots (out of 34 total replies, I only know of one actual real reply).

I'm thinking of just replying to ads on the "women seeking men" section instead, but I'm not sure which ones are genuine

Honestly, I posted an ad for someone who had dated someone with AS (I'm an NT) and found my post-aspie boyfriend there--from one reply.

With the right ad, "Yes, Craigslist works."

I've heard some weird things about it

I looked at Craigslist when Weird Al released that song about it & a lot of people there wer looking for sex. It seems like a form a legal prostitution. If your a guy who has a bit of money or if your a women who wanst sex; Craigslist mite work really well

Craigslist is only useful if you are gay. Seriously.

w4m is either spambots or cops posing as hookers.

m4w is guys who don't know any better.

I almost got scammed when I used Craig's List.
Reported a fake dating site to a Portland news station.
And have yet to hear back.

Does anyone know a proper dating site
that has free membership?

OkCupid for sure. Great site, not so great people....just like the rest of world

eHarmony will NOT let me in after I took their profile questionnaire & they did not even send me the results after; said I'd have to sign up to see em but they wouldn't let me sign up because they reject 1in4 people. Freaking waist of my time

I haven't had much luck on OK Cupid either. Their matching questionnaire is very long/involved & a lot of the questions & answers make NO sense on a dating site
Why are birds not electrocuted when then land on power-lines?
A~ Their feet do not absorb electricity
B~ They get electrocuted but are to dumb to fly off
C~ They only land between calls

How would your ideal match answer that same question?
How Important is it that they answer the way you want them to?
Very important
Somewhat important
Slightly important
Not important at all

How the hell is this relevant

OK cupid does have some fun & interesting quizzes but that's about it. If I want to be ignored by people; I'll go offline or use a real dating site instead

I met my current girlfriend of 11 months on CL, and have met plenty of other great people there as well. There is a trick to it, I'll try to lay it out briefly since I've posted about this here before.

Post an ad yourself rather than replying to ads, many are fake and will just add your email to their spam database. Make them come to you so you don't put your email out there.

Post a pic! Very important, no one will take a chance on a pic-less ad.

Use a codeword! I can't emphasize this one enough! This is how you filter out the bots, and will change your entire CL experience. It's really simple, in your ad just conclude with "serious replies put X in the subject line" where "X" is your codeword. Make sure it's not something from your post title or really ubiquitous, the best are things like "put your favorite movie in the subject line" that require some thinking and can't be automated. Any replies without the codeword in the subject line go straight to the spam box.

Don't post thinking you're going to get laid the same night, that seldom works (I won't say never because it has...), but it usually comes off as desperate and/or sleazy. If you want a date for Friday night post on Wednesday afternoon, this gives you time to chat with any promising replies and further check them out. You also can run any email address or name you get past a few social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace, etc), this can also help weed out any fakes.

On a related note, use a separate email from the one that you use to register for forums and social networking sites, it's way too easy for someone to run down all your personal information otherwise.

Everything else is pretty general to dating sites, don't put out too much information (they don't need to know your AS status until/unless things get serious), be honest about yourself and what you're looking for, and try not to be creepy.

Good luck!