Think back. Think way back, back to the days of AOL. You remember them, right? You had a Welcome Screen, personalized based upon your "interests." You might have had a sports and news Welcome Screen, or an arts and movies Welcome Screen. Yet, what we were all interested in wasn't actually anything listed on that nifty little screen with the helpful AOL Keyword search box; it was the chat rooms. That, my friends, was when it all started…your online identity.

Who you are was not who you had to be for all of time. Your actual identity could morph into a much sexier, fitter, smarter version of you. Suddenly, you worked out six times a week, drove a hot little cherry red sports car, and had three houses – one in San Francisco, another in East Hampton, and one on St. Martin Island. Ah, if only you could have just jumped into the computer to live out that virtual life.

Well, wait; you sort of did. Remember, it was in the chat room. Don't worry; I was there too, pretending to be an 18-year-old girl from a town in the Midwest, "not to be named." And we had so much fun talking to one another. We had so much fun, in fact, that we began to think of the internet as our real world.

That's what got us all in trouble – making the internet our real world. Don't get me wrong; I have Facebook, MySpace^®, LinkedIn^®, and all of those other social networking site profiles. But there is also another manifestation of the real world online: it's the online matchmaking sites.

Ah, eHarmony.com^®. I have to admit, your cleverly made, friendly television ads make me think that the right man for me is out there, somewhere, on the World Wide Web. He's tall, dark, and handsome, has broad shoulders, and he drives a 1967 Ford Mustang hard top. Ah, yes. But he's not real. In fact, if he were real, he'd probably have an STD. Well, maybe not, but you get what I'm saying.

OK, maybe I'm being a little too critical. My aunt found her boyfriend online. He lives two states away, is still married to a woman that refuses him divorce, has children he sort of takes care of when he feels like it, and likes to use my aunt's house as a stopping point on his way to the beach, but he's a great guy, right?

We've all heard the stories about “I know so-and-so who met so-and-so online. They are now happily married and have 2.5 kids in the suburbs.” I'm sure the chances for that exist online, but I could also meet the man of my dreams at a dingy bar after a couple cocktails or in line at the grocery store. It's all chance, or fate, or whatever it is that you believe in.

So here's where it starts to get really interesting. There are so many people "misrepresenting" themselves online that it has become profitable to try to "out" these skanks and dirt bags. (Hey, their words, not mine.) Creating forums to destroy and defame people online has always been very profitable. However, in the past, we just did this to celebrities online. Think www.gawker.com or the Us Weekly website. They have made a fortune destroying people online. But the new sites, the ones that attack real people, are, as far as I can see, much, much worse.

A prime example of one of these sites is www.womansavers.com. The site's founder, Stephany Alexander, is a self-proclaimed online dating expert. With credentials like two bachelors degrees from an unnamed university (one in Mass Communications and the other in German), authoring dozens of articles on dating (all published on her own site), a slew of media clips that all feature about the first ten seconds of her interviews (after which, I'm sure, the interviews turn far from her favor), and candid shots of her posing with various celebrities, you can tell that she's a real winner.

What's actually scary is that network news channels like CNN and FOX News buy into her propaganda like a horny john picking up a cheap hooker on a Friday night. Really, it's not totally their fault; she puts together a mean press release. But further exploration of her poorly designed website leaves the user wanting for something with a little more backbone.

While the site claims to "out" men in online dating communities that are cheaters, pedophiles, and all-around creeps, what you actually get is very different. If you haven't already pulled up the site to look for yourself as you read this, here's what you'd find:

·                    online forums where women bash men they've dated for living at home with their moms, refusing to buy them dinner/drinks/expensive clothes, and any other "unforgivable" flaw a man may have

·                    online tarot readings

·                    photos of Stephany Alexander holding onto a stripper pole outside a Sirius Radio and Playboy party

·                    photos of her wearing a white bra and panties with huge angel wings tacked onto her back

·                    "adult" eCards

·                    and, of course, a link to buy her book that holds the "secrets" to finding a good man online (Please note that the naked woman on the front, covered only by a laptop, is definitely her, with some serious airbrushing.)

Before I waste any more of your precious time and/or brain space on this woman, let me wrap it up: She is a prime example of using a real problem online (creeps and criminals) and exploiting it to make a profit. There's not a damn thing that this site does to help protect, educate, or inspire women looking for love online. In fact, she is doing exactly what she is supposed to be "outing": creating a Botoxed, made-up version of herself on the Web and using it to get what she wants – not much different than the creeps she claims to revile.

The real problem, or bonus, depending on your outlook, is that it is so easy to claim to be something you're not online. Luckily, our social networking sites have done a bit to help us validate online personalities. Take Facebook, for example. You have online friends that are real-world friends, too. So if you try to pretend that you look like Jada Pinkett Smith, or the new James Bond actor, you have real-world friends online that will set you straight.

So here's my tidbit of completely unfounded, credential-free advice (remember the nature of this column, rhetoric): do your research. Don't be an idiot. No one is ever completely who they say they are online. Hell, I'm not sure my Facebook Flair is completely truthful. But at the end of the day, if you don't have a brain and/or the ability to research your online date, GET OFF THE INTERNET, or at least limit yourself to the sad posts of the Baton Rouge Craigslist Missed Connections section.