Relationships are amazingly complicated things. We all have them and there is a wealth of media out there detailing the relationship experience. Of course, when they go well they are stuff of fairy tales but when they go wrong the complications kick in. Who do we turn to when our little piece of heaven starts clouding over? Most of us turn to our friends for a spare shoulder and advice. If that fails then there is always a wealth of self-help books and websites out there, not to mention the numerous agony aunts and uncles.

Dear Cupid is an advice site with a twist - not only can you seek advice but you can offer your own too by simply registering for a free account. Currently there are well over 18,000 agony aunts signed up for an account, this means that when you ask a question you can expect a diverse spread of opinion. Registration for the site is relatively painless and worth it because you can 'build' your presence easily and interact more extensively with the community. Also, you never know when your individual experience is going to make a difference for somebody else. Your profile is a little simplistic allowing for a short bio and a link along with a picture.

Any questions and answers you ask will be logged in 'your column' so your record on the site is clearly visible. You can also readily access any follow-ups from question askers as they are marked. Asking a question and receiving a response is a relative quick process and it is simple to do. Questions encompassing all type of relationships are covered and grouped together by category so you can find others are having the same problem as you and see what responses they got.

In addition to the main Q&A section there are also forums for lighter discussions, a facility for mailing each individual aunt in private, and a new articles section. These features add to the interactivity of the site and are welcome additions. The site design is functional but not spectacular; the overall tone of the site. It functions and in some way excels at what it does but does not push boundaries. However, given its precise function this is no bad thing, the last thing you actually want when in emotional distress is to be assaulted by bells and whistles, what you want is something simple and easy to get to grips with.  

Problem Exchange follows a similar format although it appears that there is less traffic here than at Dear Cupid. It has a couple of noteworthy additions; registered users can set how they are feeling as they sign on and there is an easily accessible banter page which hosts every kind of discussion you can imagine. This is an area where Problem Exchange (PE) does something better than Dear Cupid which is a much better advice site but when it comes to developing a community feel comes up a little short.