Introduction emails.

Couldn't agree more. If people aren't prepared to fill in some details about themselves in an intro e-mail, how do they expect to stand out from those constituting what I would call "background noise" ? :-)

One approach is to have a very comprehensive profile that tells people most of the essentials, so that you can refer people to it when you write to them. However, it's still common courtesy to give people an idea of what kind of person you are when you write to them.

Not talking about full-scale biography just maybe a 'we like your profile, have a look at ours and if you like it let us know'.
'Care to chat' or 'Lets chat' doesn't cut it really.
Especially if, as you say FancyFree, their profile is practically empty so yes Skebbie a full profile helps soften the 3 word emails.

Lol Graham, it does make me laugh when people specify couples only and all the single men sign up, or enquire about the event. Happens on other sites as well as this one.

MissGoodnight, yes a little courtesy goes a long way but is in short supply on these sites most of the time unfortunately.
Graham, we have found all sites like this to be as bad as each other in relation to brokennone existent features.
Actually would like to do a pick and mix of all the best parts of the sites and combine into one. (Do I detect another blog post coming up ?).
Ronald Lol we tried that at first but have found that like you, you can wait for ever, get in there and be pro-active.
Dr Pepe, I am fairly new to the bogs, I had hoped the blog monster wasn't real though…..

I agree with the sentiments expressed, I try to put together a reasonable email and as Wiltshire says you rarely get a thanks, but no thanks back. Surely that has to be common decency?

Another bug bear is receiving the standard emails from people who are local (ish) to then find out that they have not looked at your profile and it's obvious that the site is sending unsolicited emails from people who don't even know that they have contacted you......scandalous behaviour!

nearly all these sites are the same,when not signed up you get loads of mail,and then when you've payed up ,you get no contact from anybody what so everimg src="imagesadultemoticons023.gif"

Surely it pays to take the time, effort and thought to compose a well written contact mail? Remember that mail is the first impression your intended contact will have of you and everyone knows "first impressions count"!
If all you get is 3 words and a picture of dangly bits (Thanks Lindy) then maybe the sender will be equally thoughtless in real life?
So come on people be original & interesting, then don't be surprised if you get a reply :)

I totally agree and I would like to add that I find lazy bad spelling and grammar a real turn off together with my pet hate of "SMS Text Speak" all of which I find just plain bad manners. Another thing that happens here is receiving introductory e-mails from people, to which i reply, and they then get all uppity and occasionally insulting because I'm a bad match for what they are looking for. So why send me an introductory e-mail inviting contact in the first place. This is really annoying.

I wholly agree that courtesy always wins the day in normal circumstances. The big problem is that on the internet "normal circumstances" do not apply. Hence the advent of Trolls.

Yes anyone writing in normal circumstance would introduce themselves properly, and the recipient would make the effort to reply. I suspect that for the vast majority (especially men) the fact the recipient (mostly women) do not make the effort to reply leads ultimately to the pathetic introductory messages most people complain about.. Excuses such as "how do I reply to several hundred messages" simply do not hold up. Cut and paste is dead easy and requires only a few second to send the reply - "sorry, not interested". Instant common courtesy!!!

How many of the above complainants can hand on heart say they always reply to a decent message??

Perhaps if more women (and some men) made more effort to respond we would start seeing better introductory messages.!!!

The cut and paste thing is true Necterin, that is what we do for the first part of our email that introduces us, then we like to put in a bit of text specific to the couple to show something particular caught our eye on their profile.

One thing I have noticed that as it is mainly the men of the couples on the site, that could lead to the short 3 words as well just down to men (not all I know, but a fair few) being bad at communicating.

An ideal blog to share a recent message which was the worst email I've ever received! (and I've had some rubbish ones, I can tell you). It fell short of even three words...

It simply read: "Hi hru?"

Brilliant... Needless to say he didn't get anywhere!

Perhaps it would be a good idea for sites like this to include a one-click button to reply to a sender with the message "sorry not interested". an even more useful button would be one that sends "how about sending a proper message like a grown up adult"

Gr8 blg!

You are absolutely right, it very frustrating when you get back 1 or 2 line replies. For us it is an opening opportunity to get to know one another not their life story but basic intro

sure i can, but its just an introduction to a conversation ! what i cant stand is to go off line with out warning ! manners cost nothing, yeah ?

What was all that about Bradley??