All the responses I got from real people on my first day weren't from women — they were from men.

I made it very clear in my post that I was only interested in women, but a large number of men chose to ignore that. I responded to them politely, saying, "Just interested in women, but thanks for the offer!

Over the next couple of days, I actually received a lot of posts from women. To be honest, I doubted the veracity of the claims.It turned out that most of the ads were fakes from scammers, and quite a few fell into another category all together.Prostitution is what made Craigslist controversial. There's technically another section for that — "Adult Services," formerly "Erotic Services" — but that's not the only place you'll find practitioners of the world's oldest profession.Well, it's obviously a euphemism for something else.Many of the ads that weren't from scammers were from prostitutes.A woman wrote in response to my sweet "cuddling first" ad saying she was in town for only a couple of months, and that she was frustrated she couldn't find a relationship.When she sent her pictures, she looked plain but attractive.The prostitutes of Craigslist speak in code, but it's not a difficult one to learn.They advertise "French lessons" — an odd thing to advertise under "Casual Encounters," don't you think?But if you're interested, read on for the story of my seven days on Craigslist's Casual Encounters — my failures, near misses, discoveries, insights and successes.Following that, I interviewed two women to learn how they used the site successfully for their own fulfillment.But it's not a stretch to say that even if you abstain from the goal, spending a week on Casual Encounters can teach you a lot about human beings and how the web has changed how we pursue one of our most essential and important desires.It goes without saying that the content of this article is not intended for children or those made uncomfortable by such topics.We exchanged a couple of e-mails over the course of two hours, tossing back and forth lists of interests and the like. You've probably guessed by now that the experiences for heterosexual men and women on Craigslist's casual encounters are quite different.She made it clear that she wanted to meet up, and while she talked about starting slow, it was clear that it would indeed be a casual encounter. I observed that for every ad a woman posts, there are at least 20 from men.