In case you happen upon this while cruising around online, looking for love, let me give you some background. First, I am NOT looking for a date on Craigslist. Yes, that is my photo, but the ad is fake. So what the hell then?

Well, in talking with the incomparable Linnea, of LinneaDates fame, she had mentioned that she had recently posted a Craigslist ad and receiving some 400 responses before needing to pull it down in order to save her inbox from being completely overwhelmed with messages from potential suitors. I joked that as soon as a decent looking girl posts an ad, this is likely what happens, yet there is probably 1/100th the interest in the average guy post when the roles are reversed.

I then suggested that it would be interesting to post IDENTICAL posts, one in the W4M section using her photo, and one in the M4W section using a male photo of generally equal appeal and see what happens in terms of response rates for each. Depending on the results, the little social experiment may be worth writing about either on her site, or in one of the other various places that she writes (she is a professional writer).

I was reluctant to volunteer, but figured that it was harmless and that she could use my mug (though it’s certainly debatable if I am of comparable attractiveness to Linnea) for the post. Hence my face on the ad.

Once she gets some responses rolling in, and posts something someplace, I will link up to it so you can see how it all went. But again, for the record, I am not looking for a date on Craigslist (the responses to the ad don’t even go to me), or looking for a date in general…so if you are interested, though I am flattered, that isn’t the goal here.