In an exploration of the Casual Encounters world, more than 100 e-mail messages were sent to users requesting interviews before the recent murders. About a dozen frequent users, mostly men, consented to phone or e-mail interviews, some of which took place over the past three months.

Two men, Michael and Melvin, were willing to meet with a reporter in person, as long as they were identified only by their name on Craigslist. A few women who had posted ads were also forthcoming, but none of the women who had replied to Michael’s or Melvin’s ads consented to an interview.

Ads in the Casual Encounters section account for 2 percent of all Craigslist postings, according to the company. It also says that traffic to all the Craigslist personals sites  which include a separate one for romance and one for “missed connections,” where people try to find the cutie they flirted with on the L train  is higher than for any other online personals site, including Match.com, eHarmony and Yahoo personals.

“Casual Encounters was created in response to user demand for a section that allowed for a wide range of personal meeting and relationship options,” Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, said by e-mail message before the recent murders took place. “In that sense, it’s probably an accurate inside look at how people like to connect these days. Our users like the ability to be both candid and, initially, anonymous.”

Within Casual Encounters, the most traditional of the categories  men seeking women  seems to raise the most tantalizing questions, given the reasonable assumption that most women (and even a few men) would prefer earnest courtship to a quickie with a stranger, no strings attached. For instance, does it really work?

The short answer is “yes.” But as with so many things on Craigslist, the truth is a little dingier than what was promised. Among the stories told by users of Casual Encounters are those about the eager 22-year-old who turns out to be too shy to go through with it (and she’s really 30); the woman who seems docile by e-mail but who turns violent after smoking a joint; and the single mother who lies about dropping the children off at their grandmother’s house for the night.