Read this one before placing an ad so you can make an informed decision about your anonymity.
When placing an add, much like signing a guest book, you expose yourself and your computer to a variety of folks you may not necessarily want wondering around in your personal preferences and cataloging you into mailing list and data bases. For whatever there reasons might be. We've all heard the horror stories.
When dealing with an agency like a local dating service, to protect you they overcome this by having a number assigned and they act as a go-between until you choose to have a more personal contact. Good system but labor intensive and generally slower to react than you might like and of course it causes cost. I can't afford this luxury.
BUT, I HAVE A FIX There's actually several ways but none cost effective to a free service such as ours but this works and it's also free. You should do this even if your not placing an ad. I call these "go get em e-mail", you've seen them all over, here's how they work. There's dozens of em out there, they vary a little so shop em, you just pick one like Hotmail or Bigfoot or RocketMail or my personal fovorite Yahoo mail (those are links to em) fill out their form, pick a name, (make up a fictitious name, it will show in your return address) pick a password, and walla, you have another e-mail that doesn't come to your computer, you go to their site and check it when you like, and no one can get at it but you, and you can check it from anywhere. You do have to put up with there banner ads, but I consider that a small price to pay. Aside from the obvious advantages of privacy you also have the control, if you get a nut harassing ya, dump the account, start over. Ya still have your original (standard) service e-mail for those you've privileged with it.
*Personal note* Not to be an alarmist but you really should start taking precautions if your not already to guard your anonymity, if your concerned with such things. It use to be only web builders that could access areas that are really none of our business but help to target advertising. With the advent of recent development tools anyone can build a site, even me :), you wouldn't believe how many free services line up to help ya out. All ya have to do is let them install a few cookie setter adds. Other inducements are offered as well. Some sites I've been in touch with are of good hart with great intentions but aren't regulating or even realizing the full extent of what their allowing in their pages, there's just too much to know. They feel marveled at getting a mailing list of everyone that surfs through their site even if they don't check in. What their missing is that others are getting the same lists. Consider if these wind up in unethical hands. Consider if someone decides they need a list of all HIV /AIDS surfers for some data base you may not choose to be in... Recent technology has taken cookies to scary levels and put them within reach of almost anyone with the desire to reach into your computer. This puts the responsibility of establishing your own privacy levels up to you. These applets primarily work off front line information coded into your service e-mail. Soooo, if your going to expose yourself to strangers, take a few minutes and set up a "go get em e-mail" (or two). Could save you serious grief as well as the simple aggravations that come with 'webot' developed mailing lists and data bases. It's not realistic to eliminate all cookies as some are necessary and to our benefit, it is realistic and prudent to set your own boundaries.
I'll get off the soap box now, thanks for the read............ Popeye