What are your thoughts on dating sites?

They are full of predators, scammers galore, men just wanting sex, but once in a blue moon, you might run into just one man in about every ten years, yes, that's right...that is a decent person, but he should be in close proximity to you. Long distance relationships rarely work and are not dependable, nor for common sense people. Just my opinion.

Just as in real life, you need to figure out:

1. What you want out of the dating site: hookups, long term relationship, dating with no specific thing in mind, friends, etc.

2. Make sure they fit the bill. This of it as bar/club, what would you do there? do the same on a dating site (actually, I have no idea what you might do in a club/bar, so adjust accordingly). You can use social media to your advantage, check their profiles, see if they're married, what kind of friends they have, etc.

they are full of married men looking for free sex...

Horrible for men

Don't do it! Run, Cathy, run!

How useful they are probably depends on where you live. I joined one for a couple of weeks once. I selected an area of about 100km radius as i live in a small town and it showed about 20 ladies in my age group and all of them listed that they wanted guys younger than them. So then i thought i'd check the competition and search on guys in my age group in the same area and there was nearly 200. So from that it seems if you're a woman you are probably going to get a lot of interest from guys.

Unsafe.

I know they work for some, but I find them ridiculous. In putting their best foot forward, many people misrepresent themselves to the point of lying.

Meet people in any way you feel comfortable- to each their own

I wouldn't go anywhere near them.

Most are scams ..