Your best bet is to get actively involved in posting, and let folks
get to know you, while you get to know them. You're in a great
area with lots of activity going on. Baldadonis hosts munches in
NYC, and they get new faces at each one. That would be a great
place to debut, so to speak, and meet locals. But by posting and
getting involved on the forum, you'll make friends. Real friends. And
you never know what might happen from there!
BrightEyes explained it the best. Just simply start posting. It's very easy.
You're on a forum where just about everybody shares the same enjoyment of tickling that you do, so once you get over that initial "nervousness" you'll be fine. I've met several females off of the forum (in the Twin Cities; far from a large city like NYC) over the years for tickling sessions and friendship without posting
a single ad in the Personals section or replying to one. There are a lot of people who aren't posting much but read what
you post about. You need to invest the time it takes to allow people to get to know you, so unfortunately if you're one of those extremely desperate "business travelers" that is traveling to [random city] next week and want to hook up with a random lee with a breath and ticklish feet, sorry, but you're going to be out of luck.
I would venture a guess and say that most of the "connections" on the forum happen outside of the Personals section anyway, so start posting more and let everybody (especially those in your area) see what you're about. Instead of posting a desperate plea for a 'lee in the Personals section, you might get a reply from one on your post about your favorite band, or your new chihuahua you bought, or why you play World of Warcraft for 23 hours a day... and then it starts from there. If you're not willing to put in that time, then you'll likely find the same thing in terms of people replying to a random stranger they know little about. Nobody's going to meet somebody who sounds exactly like everybody else in the (Personals) forum (especially if you're male), so just be yourself and branch out in other forums.
Or...
try another site if you don't want to spend that time getting to know the community before you end up tickling (or being tickled). Alt.com, Fetlife, KinkySingles, Craigslist, BackPage... and on and on.