Initial contact goes by different names on different sites: “flirting”, “winking”, “show interest” and other action words generally describe this utility, but essentially produce the same function; to express a generic interest in a persons profile without committing an extensive amount of time in writing an introduction, leading to a somewhat painless rejection if ignored, or otherwise opening the door to further correspondence if a mutual interest is affirmed.
To use this tool, first do a search for people that might interest you, and then once you have found a profile that strikes your fancy, open up that member’s profile page, and find the button that indicates the Initial Contact function. Some sites offer you the option of selecting from a list of pre-defined introduction lines, and if there is an option to provide a personal message, they will often restrict you from entering email or other contact information. In general, this tool is not nearly as effective as sending a direct email message to a person of interest, but has some advantages, such as being quick and easy, limiting the feeling of rejection, and is often provided as an introductory tool that allows free users to try out the functionality of the service before they pay to become a fully enabled member.
It is important to recognize that as this tool is usually available to free users as well as paid members within most sites, it allows people to participate in the dating service without actually paying for it. This means that if you send an Initial Contact to a non-paying member, they have no means to respond other than to send another generic Initial Contact message back to you, and at some point one or both of you, depending on the service, will need to ante-up and pay for membership before you’ll be able to exchange any real personal information with each other. In reality, if you’re a woman you can probably get away with just flirting away and making guys pay to join the sites and send you a message with their personal email, but for guys, don’t expect much of a response from a girl that you simply send a message that amounts to, “I’m too broke to sign up for this service, but think you’re cute and probably desperate enough to be a paid member- if so, write back if you’re interested, ‘cause otherwise I just didn’t think you were worth the time to write out an expressive message describing my interest in you.”