Samuel Axon of Mashable spent seven (yes, seven) days trolling Craigslist Casual Encounters as part of an "experiment." My, my Samuel. What a convenient experiment to casually encounter women under the moral shield of journalism. "I just need to see your boobs, ma'am. It's for my article."

Wait, hold on. Lightbulb! Suddenly I think Eye on Blogs needs to "research" spas and cupcakes. Anyway, back to Sam:

I began with a listing announcing myself to the women of my city.

Each day I tried a different approach to see what would be most effective, though I never lied or posted fake photographs. One day my message was intended to be sweet and normal; I suggested starting with drinks and fun conversation to see if we had chemistry, then going back to my place to cuddle on the couch with a movie and see where that led. Another day, I described it as a rebound. In yet another, I explicitly detailed sexual activities and used very aggressive language.

Ultimately, only the “sweet and normal” was successful, even though very few posts by women had that same tone (more on that later). I received about a half-dozen responses each day. Most were scams, some were men, some were prostitutes, and just one was legit.

It's a big disappointment to Samuel, who seems shocked. And more than a little ticked:

It didn’t take long to realize that almost all the replies I received were scams. The situation is so severe on Craigslist Casual Encounters that posts by real women who are actually seeking hook-ups are often flagged for removal at the slightest cause for suspicion.

The most common scams are “safe dating” websites. An alleged woman will write a man saying she’s interested, but that because of the Craigslist-based serial killers and rapists in the news, she needs some extra assurance that it’s safe. If you follow the link she provides, the website asks you for your credit card number — y’know, so it can do a background check to make sure you’re not a criminal. Right.

Good work, Colombo! But Sam was plagued by "bad luck":

I cast a wide net in my searches, looking up posts by straight or bisexual women between the ages of 18 and 35 who lived anywhere in Chicagoland — a large metropolitan area that’s home to close to five million females. Most of the women wanted something very specific they couldn’t find in their normal lives: Someone to help play out a particular fantasy, someone vastly older than them or someone of another race.

Very few of the women who were advertising seemed to be looking for anything I would consider a “normal encounter.” Nevertheless, I tailored each response to whatever they were looking for. I typically wrote two or three paragraph replies and matched the tone of their own messages, then attached a couple of tasteful photos of myself.

I didn’t get a single reply from an actual prospect this way.

No one wants tasteful photos on Craigslist. You could try to buy a couch on that site and you'd end up looking at a middle-aged naked man. That being said, it's fun to laugh at Sam's expense. Casually read the rest of his encounters over at Mashable.

but it's way too much work nowadays.

Too funny, sir! Sam learned what most of us already know, which is that everything except the Adult Gigs section of CL is a vast wasteland of B&S artists, spam-o-rama, two-dimensional cam girl experiences and worse. Since Craig and Mr. Bushmaster (absolutely love that name! Thinking of contacting him to see if he wants to expand his empire and go partners with me on a Brazilian waxing spa..."get the Bushmaster special, now only $49.95!!!")...oops, I digress. Since Craig and Mr. Bushmaster caved to pressure and reformatted their erotic services section, Craigslist is no longer anywhere near what it once was in terms of being a happy hunting ground for puss.

That's ok though, we've still got RB. You just need to develop the research skills to weed out all the riff raff who have moved over from CL. Good luck with that and happy hobbying.