Nothing wrong with online dating, know loads of people that have used it, few of them married now. It is pretty much the standard these days for people my age (early 30s). Does seem that the late teens early 20s male crowd on here have a pretty negative opinion of it though.
Most of the people I speak to on POF are professional woman trying to find a partner. I have never been one for chatting up girls in pubs or whatever, just not my scene or type of woman.
To paste in what I said in another topic on this:
There are plenty of normal guys and girls of all ages, of all walks of life looking for all kinds of relationships. The whole idea that it's for casual hook-ups is a myth (although I know for women, there can be quite a lot of slimy guys on there).
The majority of people are adults looking for relationships who haven't found the right person in their own social environment. I have been using these sites on and off about 8 years, mostly as I work for myself so don't often meet new people apart from mates of mates. I have had loads of dates, relationships for a few months and a few relationships that lasted a few years. I've never had to deal with mentals, lower my standards or felt like it has been me doing all the work.
I will add to that last bit. From my experience at least, very few women will message you first. This tends to lead to sending lots of messages and not getting anything back which I know some guys find hard to take so just go to straight to trashing online dating.