"UK Singles Club" dating Services

Introduction Agencies

SC personal ads

It is getting harder and harder to meet a mate in the traditional way; the old factories and  office blocks which once employed thousands of people either employ a handful now, or have gone out of business completely. No more adoring looks across the tea trolley, for most of us, I'm afraid! Mother nature made baby boys weaker than baby girls but produces more of them to even up the balance as a higher proportion of them died young; medical advances however have  meant that more  boys are surviving and growing up in the wealthier nations so there just aren't enough girls to go round! Finally, we are living healthier lives than previous generations so we are living longer; the trouble is that men tend to die a lot earlier than women so there a lot of widows who, after their grieving, have many more active years before them but who are dismayed by the thought of having to go through courtship again. However;  the  21st Century has brought us possibly the easiest way of meeting new friends yet invented - Internet dating. It comes in many flavours - we'll examine a few of them.

Chat Rooms

One of the first dating techniques to become popular the chat room has suffered from a bad press, not completely undeservedly. The biggest advantage of a chat room is that it is a completely anonymous environment in which people can communicate with others as far away as the other side of the world without leaving their own living rooms. This very anonymity is also the chat room's greatest weakness; anybody can pretend to be whoever they choose and there is no way of telling the genuine from the fantasist. Whilst the majority of those who frequent them are no doubt fine upstanding citizens the fact is that a lot of them are not and  sadly quite a number of children have been lured into meeting what they  fondly believed to be kids of their own age but who were, in fact, far older people of doubtful intent. Adults are not immune to this either; that sexy 19-year old temptress who gets the men all hot and bothered could just as easily turn out to be 40 years older, and possessing of male genitalia, a pipe and a beard. Leaving all that to one side a well moderated room with an intelligent agenda can be a stimulating place to get to know others from a similar environment and with similar ideas and lifestyle - if you can find one amongst the majority, which seem to be peopled with inarticulate semi-morons whose vocabularies are limited to obscenities. Good luck in finding the right one for yourself.

Introduction Agencies

These have sprung up in profusion. Many of them are online branches of existing, established agencies and generally their business is conducted with the same high standards that the parent companies have been accustomed to. Many new ones have sprung up, particularly in areas like the former Soviet Union and South America where living standards are far below those enjoyed by those of European descent. In these poorer countries a sizeable number of women have decided that their best hope of living and raising a family in decent conditions is to marry a man from one of the wealthier countries where, in most cases, there is a shortage of women of marriageable age so it seems a good system for all concerned! Many of these agencies are very well established and highly reputable; many others are run on a shoe-string from countries in which even the best educated and hardest working professional people earn far too little to feed and clothe themselves to any sort of standard that those of us in the wealthy West would find acceptable. The result is that if it comes to a choice between investing sufficient capital in a venture that may or may not show a return, or buying some food  to put on the table, there is no contest. It is sad when businesses go under and even sadder if hey take YOUR money with them so if you deal with a company or individual in a far-off foreign country then it's best to make sure that (a) they are solvent, (b) they have a good track record and (c) there is someone in your own country who you can turn to if things go wrong.

SC personal ads

The Internet could have been designed for dating. It's quite easy; you place a personal ad on a dating site, which is often free, and when people respond to it their messages are usually sent out by the site itself which means that the email addresses of the participants are kept confidential. People can get to know each other over a long period of time if they wish, in complete security, and if either of them decides never to meet the other then a complete break can be made. Again the anonymity factor can be a drawback; however it is not as complete as it is in a chat room and someone placing an ad and receiving replies to that ad will have to have given a valid email address to the site owner, who will often have that person's IP address as well. Whilst it would normally be impossible for an individual to trace someone using these criteria it would certainly be practicable for a law enforcement agency to do so. In addition the majority of successful sites charge for at least some of their services and a criminal could, if necessary, be traced easily through card records held at a banking facility. Some of these dating sites are very well run with dubious ads weeded out and bad behaviour nipped in the bud; many of the completely free ones (which are gradually disappearing) don't do as well in this respect and their lists are often full of childish and badly spelt ads which make it quite clear that the advertiser is seeking sex. Yuck. The moral is, stay away from any site, free or not, which carries dubious ads, and expect to pay a fairly small fee for a service which may be worth it's weight in gold.