Initially, looking for love online had been fun. There were no butterflies in the stomach at catching the eye of an attractive stranger from across the room or trying to gather the courage to walk up and say hello. But what the Internet dating scene lacked in quality and excitement was more than made up for in quantity.After a decade of playing hopscotch in the minefield known as online dating, I had decided it was time to call it quits. For no other reason than to preserve what little patience I had left. I was one step away from issuing high school equivalency exams and lie detector tests to all potential suitors who had opted to contact me through any of the dating sites I had frequented on and off.The longer I played the online dating game, the more outlandish and ridiculous the contestants became. What had begun as a serious quest for love and companionship had become a comic strip on acid. Any belief I ever had in the industry was gone. The profiles and people responsible for the destruction of that belief had just turned into fodder to distract me from my original goal. Following are just some of those distractions.