I've been a member of adultfriendfinder for over 6 years now - I met my wife in the chatrooms there. I can't speak for all such sites, but I can give you some skinny on AFF...
First, look at the numbers. We can discount the couples and groups, since they make up only about 2% of the AFF membership. If you look at the raw figures, there's about 5 males for every female on AFF. However, about half of the females are bi or lesbian and only seeking another female (while only about 2% of male members are gay looking for other males) so the more correct ratio is about 10-to-1 M/F.
Of those relatively few females, a vanishingly small percentage are desirable women actually looking for no-strings sex - about the same percentage as there is in real life for a hot woman that will go off and have sex with a guy she just met 2 minutes before while picking up a loaf of bread in the corner 7-Eleven. Face it... if a woman is attractive and willing, she generally doesn't have to troll adult sites to find guys to play with, unless she has some significant emotional baggage that steers her in that direction.
Likewise, another small percentage (tho' definitely larger than the first) are desirable women, usually married, looking for a long-term lover and potential mate, and want/need the anonymity the website provides.
Many of the rest are, to put it bluntly, painfully old, seriously overweight, grossly unattractive, and/or have emotional/mental problems ranging from mild neuroses to full-goose whack jobs. Many others are simply looking for an escape - usually mentally and emotionally, rather than physically - from their boring lives and/or bad/abusive marriages. In either case, almost all of these women want to at least *feel* like there's a safety factor along with some traditional romance (and usually, a potential for a longer-term relationship) involved, so they want to "get to know you", carry on a online relationship for a while, etc. ad nausium, before they will meet face-to-face for drinks, much less for sex.
So, if you're looking to hook up with a horny housewife for an evening of hot sex and no contact after, you're damned unlikely to do so on AFF... and from what I've seen and heard, the other adult personals sites are very similar.
Let's be honest the other way as well: Most of the males on AFF are too ugly/fat/stupid/ill-mannered/immature/etc. to get a lady in real life, and too cheap or too egotistical to pay for an escort - which is why they're trolling adult sites on Friday nights looking for the date they can't get on their own in real life.
Moreover, it's my firm belief that you're better off hiring an escort - free sex is invariably the most expensive kind, escorts tend to be a lot safer about their activities than a horny housewife sneaking around on hubby, and they usually are much better in the sack too.
As for the ads... definitely, in the last couple of years AFF has been flooded with profiles that are really come-ons for other pay sites or services. By far the largest group of these seem to be teasers that try to get you to a web site, only to find that it's protected by one of the "adult verification services" (AVS) and you have to sign up for the AVS before you can see the pics - in reality, these are just scam sites trying to make the AVS money.
I believe AFF does try to trim these out where it can verify them, but remember that AFF gets hundreds of new members a day and is a small company with less than a dozen people on staff - they can't possibly do a real validation on every new applicant.
In any case, if you study the profiles a little, these come-on profiles become easy to spot. Just keep in mind the info above about the type of real women that use these services, and remember that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Good luck!
-- Modified on 9/19/2002 9:35:36 AM