So you’ve made the decision to have an affair and you’ve gone online, took some time to look at the sites, then dropped some cash for a month or two to see how it goes.

AFF, Plenty of Fish, Ashley Madison, Oh My!

You looked at tons of pictures of the prospects in your area,  and even emailed a few. If you play your cards right you’ll get some responses from a few, trade a few emails then you’re at the trading pictures stage. You’ll be your charming self and soon you’ll get emails or texts with a few pics to pique your interest. They’ll be pretty tame, her out with the girls raising a colorful drink with an umbrella in it, or him at an office party in a business suit looking professionally fine. It won’t take long (trust me on that one) before you’re on to more provocative stuff. You go crazy when she sends you the pics of her topless and/or naked and your juices will flow like it hasn’t in years when you see him in that bathing suit on the beach. Things look good, they’re ripe for the picking, all you have to do is go get them.

And go get it you do.

The Internet is overflowing with stories about people who meet online. Some stories are great and heartwarming, with the proverbial happy ending but some stories are absolutely crazy. TMC saw one such story this week that’s the craziest we’ve seen in a while.

“Kristy Gaffney says she thought she’d found love when she met a man online. Now the Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania woman claims she’s in the battle of her life — fighting for the child they had.”

This just goes to remind us (as if we needed a reminder) to be careful about your online activities, ESPECIALLY when meeting people and hooking up. That sexy girl who you just can’t wait to get your hands on, or that fine guy who seems to have it all together might be a psycho in disguise or worse. There are boundaries that need to be established readers, as we wrote in our post this morning, but the folks in this story obviously didn’t pay attention to that bit of common sense.

Or fall in love.

Yes, I did just combine Gremlins and affairs. Why? Well, that’s easy:  Boundaries. Both need boundaries.

In Gremlin land, there are three basic rules for caring for a Mogwai:

(1)    no bright light, (2) don’t get him wet, and (3) never feed him after midnight, no matter how much he begs.

Why are these rules so important? Easy.  Bright light hurts him, and sunlight can kill him. If he gets wet, he pops out more mogwais.  If fed after midnight, a Mogwai will spin a cocoon and undergo metamorphosis, turning into a wicked, trouble making gremlin.

See? Boundaries are very important.

Okay, you’re ready for an affair and you’ve decided to find one online. Congratulations. You’ve joined the ranks of hundreds of thousands of people who make that decision every day. The ads make is seem so easy don’t they, with taglines like “Life is short, have an affair” (www.ashleymadison.com). Just log on, post a picture and before you’re know it you’ll be wallowing in adulterous bliss. It’s not quite that easy though, so before you log on there are a few questions you have to ask yourself.

• How to choose a site?
• Do you want to pay or go the free route?
• What kind of site do you want, a “dating” site or a “hook-up” site.
• If you’re looking for gay/lesbian/transgender hook up do the “mainstream” sites offer that?
• Want to indulge in some fetishes? Where do you go?

There are hundreds of hook-up sites that’ll get you what you want but my personal preference is to stick to the bigger ones. Not only are you guaranteed a huge selection of people to choose from (depending on your area) but they’re generally easier to navigate and offer you bells and whistles like voting, blogs and contests. At TMC we’ve tried them all with varying degrees of success so here, in no particular order, are TMC’s favorite hookup/dating sites.