I have read the many comments on this post. I agree with many of them. Yana's observation about the meaningful and personalize letters is spot on. However, there is a couple of key points that are being left out.

When it comes to online dating, there is a progression that I believe men and women should follow. It should start with writing letters instead of winks or being added to a favorites list. How well a person writes a letter can go a long ways in determining a person's intelligence. Letters should we well thought out and interesting. There should be something inside the first letter that they have read your profile. For example: In your profile Olga, I would write, "I see that you like to go out in nature. What about being in nature interests you?" In my letter, I would write that I love going to beach for such and such reasons. I might add a picture of a place I like to visit on a regular basis. A well written letter shows intelligence and an interest in a person. A poorly written letter would be short questions and short answers. Short questions and answers should be reserved in chat rooms.

Skype is a great way to communicate. It can be difficult due to language barriers but seeing their smiling face hopefully will make it all worth it. Skyping is dating without all of the touching. I, personally, treat Skype as a video date. I am trying to make a good impression on that date. You can learn quickly how easy or how difficult it will be to communicate via voice together. If two people are serious about each other, they will learn how to make it work.

If a person is in a rush to Skype, there can be red flags. As someone mentioned, they might be collecting names. Another would use Skype to weed out the scammers. I have not seen that happening with the women on this site, but I imagine that would be more prevalent with women trying to confirm the men on here especially on the "Free" dating sites.