Been there, done the personal ads thing. It is good conversational practice and that is about it.

I met a few nice blokes, and a few jerks. I always met them at a Club where they had to sign in and where there is a good amount of security and the expectation is of good behaviour. Safety is very important, and telling someone info in case of emergencies is really important. (I heard about a new mobile phone text message system starting up somewhere where you can write a text message with details of the meeting place & time, but it only gets sent if you haven't cancelled the message within a certain number of hours. That way if something happens to you someone knows about your date but they can't come and annoy you when you are trying to get to know the person.)

And Hyacinth Bucket (22 Aug 04 - 05:05 PM) has what I found out to be the best course of action: join a club or social group with people who are interested in the same things as you, hobbies, sports, whatever. You are more likely to naturally and easily fall into conversation with people, and you will have a common interest which helps keep up the momentum.

An excellent book - I cannot recommend it too highly - is called Searching for Courtship, by Dr Winnifred Cutler. She has a system of meeting people and going through the stages of courtship which was a total revelation for me. I have lent the book to so many of my friends and it has worked for a lot of them as well. I have to tell you that Cutler's book is considered a bit controversial because it is based on anthropology and not modern philosophies, but it works. So read it with an open mind.

Good luck,
Helen