I've just spent the past few hours reading posts on this site and am impressed by the patients and length both Olga and Codered have gone to, to answer and explain peoples questions and observations.
In my opinion there are allot of genuine guys out there looking for love, likewise there are allot of genuine ladies in Russia looking for love but the whole online dating system sucks, it is slow, there are two many obstacles such as time delay, language barriers, lack of internet access etc. Too much to go wrong. I think allot must change first before this system of acquiring a life long partner becomes successful. Why don't one of you guys who have spent so much time complaining about scammers, bad service etc come up with a better system where scamming is not allowed to breed, where large sums of money are not extracted from vulnerable people. Perhaps a site where the guys searching for ladies could be charged a minimal fee and have their photos posted. Is there not an entrepreneur between ye?
Another thing which has come to my attention is that these ladies are treated as objects, expected to look beautiful but not allowed to have opinions or reject a guy based on his appearance or the content of his letters or any other grounds. These ladies are very intelligent know what the do or do not want and have every reason to quit correspondence or reject to correspond in the first place. Having said all that there is a minority who are out to extract money from innocent vulnerable guys but like everything in life you need to use your intuition and instinct
However, I have noticed many times the guys don’t realize the expense involved and think they can budget an overseas romance. They really don’t have the money for this venture and are just trying the waters. When they find out the expense is for real they complain. The ones who can afford it you don't hear much from unless they need advice. They normally are successful. Also some think that Russia works on the same laws as other countries. They want the American service from a Russian company. They also think that the people running these websites don’t need to eat and pay bills. There is a saying in America; "You get what you pay for" It stands in Russia to. If you pay meager you will get meager service. Russia is an evolving economy and they do have capitalist values now. In some ways they are more capitalist than we are in America. Nothing wrong in that. And every day the Ruble is ganging on the dollar. To keep up to date in Russia I read the daily news from there. You can to, yes In English. Just visit http://russianews.net/
You well learn allot about the economy and the people. Plus you will have Items of conversation with your future partner. You will quickly find you will become more informed than allot of Russians. Most don’t read the news like we do. She will be surprised at your knowledge.
As far as the dating system sucking. I have to disagree there. It works if your practical and you pay for the services and not try to cheat the dating agency. Dating.ru is the best for looking out for you. Yes, from time to time they make mistakes. We all do. But you need to realize they don’t have the same customer service in America there. For Example: you try to buy and Item at a store and return it and see if you will get the same service you get from Wal-Mart. (Not on your life) They are still learning the concept of the customer is always right. A person and loose there job in a moment there. At the whim of the boss. No Unions or wage and hourly to protect them. No Overtime. No Hourly pay. So People just realize that it’s a different culture and a different economy (in some ways better than ours). But the service does work. It takes a special understanding man to make this happen. You can attract more flies with sugar that vinegar. Good luck....