I Detect A Phenomenon

I have posted "missed connections" on Craigslist exactly twice.  Once was some time ago, and was a made-up sighting, that was an in-joke meant for Turboglacier, springing from some kind of funny hypothetical scheme we dreamt up one night while drinking Scotch.  So the object of the "I saw you" post didn't really exist.  It included some kind of outlandish detail, so there was not any likelihood a real person would be mistaken.  Nonetheless, I got a response from some guy.  He didn't claim to be the person in my post.  He just told me about himself (e.g. "I like to work out, like movies and staying in, am about 6' tall...") and asked me for a picture.

And not too long ago I posted another one, trying to atone for a particularly acute case of the tongue-tied that had happened to me when I smiled at a cute guy, he came over to talk to me, and I completely lost my ability to speak English and stammered at him until he hastily retreated.  I have gotten two responses, neither of whom claimed to be the person I saw.  Both claimed they thought the "I saw you" ad was cute, and they were hopeless romantics, etc.  One sent me his picture, included in a signature file. 

Once is a coincidence, but at three, I proclaim this a dating strategy.  I also proclaim it strange.  Have you heard of this?  Does it make any strategic sense to you?  I was not even slightly tempted to respond to any of the three, although I suppose the second guy's story of being touched by the ad struck me as sweet and kind of nice.  At least until I heard from the third guy, and became jaded. 

Comments

[Dylan]

If you can't be with the one you love, love the one who's willing to be with you.

[Littoral]

For the English amongst us could we please have a link to "missed connections" on Craigslist so that we have a clue?!!!
It's that "two nations divided by a single language" thing again :0)

[ms]

I haven't heard of this but I'm not surprised. It mmight be a combination of gleaning some small glimmer of personality from an ad + deducing the ad-poster is single + a Hail-Mary/"why not?" kind of approach. It seems vaguely like a distant, uninvited cousin of responding to actual "Looking for" ads.