Craigslist personals were eliminated nearly a year ago... Hard to believe. I sort of miss them. I never actually used them to meet anyone. But they could sometimes be quite interesting or entertaining to read. They could also be disturbing, scary, and appalling to read. There was the ad from someone promised to be in dark motel room, waiting... There was the person who clearly stated his house was isolated, and no one would hear anything. (I had the vision of the guy going to that hookup found, dead, the next day in Dumpster.) There were times when it was very clear one person posted several ads...but there was a disturbing lack of consistency between the ads with basic details. ("OK. Are you 27? 29? Or 31? Or can't you make up your mind how old you really are?") I never responded to any of those thought provoking ads, But I did sometimes have the thought in the back of my mind: At least here is an option of getting laid just once before you drop dread, BMC77! Although it's probably better that I go my grave a virgin... I heard so many horror stories about hookups arranged through those ads... So, from that view, it's probably better those ads are no longer around. But I do sometimes miss reading them for the entertainment value they could provide...
I used toread those personal ads. One day I read an ad for a guy looking for someone to go mountain biking and maybe have some "fun". I responded and we communicated for awhile, eventually met and biked. He's now a friend and we meet and bike together (and some other stuff) every few months when he comes to town. So, these ads can work but you have to be really careful.
I met a couple of friends on there that I had for several years. As I have found with a lot of gay friendships, they are not always as they appear and at least in my case, I valued the friendship between myself and the other guy way more than they did. A lot of guys on there used to say they wanted friends but more often you could translate their definition of a friend to mean sexual partner. I do agree that they were interesting to read and not having a whole lot of other outlets to meet or chat, it was an interesting place to strike up a conversation and for better or worse, see what people were doing or thinking. The repetitive ads from the same person got old though and as with anywhere online, people are not always the age, shape, ethnicity, or gender they said they were. You certainly had to take someone’s “self pic” with some degree of doubt as to whether it was really them or if it was, was it taken two decades ago, lol. I do miss browsing around it though.
Yes I miss craigslist as well.I met some nice men through that site and had a few hot sexual experiences.Most of the ads were either fake or just plain strange.Alot of suppressed married men on there as well.I sort of loat my motivation for online meeting and gay sex.I would rather much meet in person.
I never used CL to meet anyone either. Like you though, I enjoyed reading through the various ads. Part of it was just curiosity to see what kinds of things people were into. Other times, it helped to see ads from people who were like me. I did once post in the Strictly Platonic section saying I only wanted to chat and was not interested in meeting anyone. I got several responses wanting to know how soon we could hook up. I got a few responses with close-up shots of their naughty bits. One offered me a "good draining" and another said he would "let me" go down on him.
That was my motivation too, @whistle1 — curiosity, and self-education: what are other people (at least other online people) into? A lot of lulz, some really ridiculous postings. Met two guys, safe & sane, but pretty much duds.
I miss Craigslists too, when I was in the US Craigslists was popular and I used to it to find a rent room. I was a student University in Master degree. I still remember too, I met with some guys from Craigslists. One older guy still send me email asking me when I will back to US even I met him twice.
I remember that section. There were so many ads that made me wonder if the poster had the slightest clue what platonic means...
Then I seem to recall a section called "Casual Encounters" or something like that, which suggested "hookups." I used to laugh, since it seemed like the whole M4M personals were nothing but hookups!
Yes. I recall many where people were explicitly looking to meet up to engage in various sexual activities. Every so often, someone would comment that the poster obviously didn't know the definition of platonic.
I met with four guys on there and enjoyed every one. I was alone in another state and living out, and it just worked for me, met one really sweet man. I also had a penpal relationship with an older man that was significant in that he'd been posting full-body nudes of himself that I rather enjoyed, and it was fun to tell him so and flirt with him and so on. It was wild and free, and what you get on today's hookup sites is a lot of pressure and no actual privacy, or anyway that's how it feels to me.
Not to mention that now on most sites you are also bombarded by “bots” or non existent people. Not sure what their purpose is because you would have to be pretty out of it not to realize particular ones aren’t real. Basically the old sayings of if it looks too good and sounds too good to be true it probably isn’t. There are some nice guys out there though. You just have to luck up on them sometimes. My luck is that the ones of real interest are never even remotely close to my area.
