Honestly? I tend to look down on online relationships. I'd only have one if I really, really liked the person.

Yeah, it usually doesn't work because somebody is hiding something, or they aren't who you thought they were.

I hate relationships.  They are pointless and a trap.

If you weren't successful, why would you have a baby?

More misery. 

I went onto a dating site when I first moved to Toronto. I was in school but knew that I didn't really want to become good friends with anyone in my program and because of the intensity of my courses I knew I wouldn't have the time to go out and meet people.
I met a lot of great friends this way that I still keep in contact with. I also met my boyfriend on the site. Neither of us really had expectations since we were just on the site for friends, but after time, we both knew that we loved each other. We have now been together for a year.
Since meeting J online, I have heard of lots of my friends hooking up with people that they have met online, and I've also met a lot of strangers who have been with their SO for a long time after meeting online.
I think it's completely possible for these relationships to work out and I think that people shouldn't be so uptight about the whole online dating scene.

So that's where all the hotties are? Sheeeiiit.

My boyfriend and I met online. We had a few rough patches and broke up for a few months, but have now been dating since January '09. He was in Texas for the first seven months of it, not counting the time before that. Of course the distance was hard, but it was well worth it. I have never been happier with a person. We know each other inside out from spending so much time talking to each other. There are people who know we met online, my parents included. They look down on our relationship and think that he's trying to get something out of me. I'm not exactly sure what because I'm pretty sure he could have gotten it by now. People are always going to have judgements no matter what relationship you're in. Might as well make it a relationship you truly care about. People can say anything they want to me about how I met my boyfriend online, I don't care anymore. It was worth it and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I think it's looked down upon because it's still kind of a new thing, but it's becoming more and more common. It's being accepted way more then it was when my boyfriend I first met. We didn't start dating the first time until we actually met though. I don't think that really makes a difference though.

Honestly, I am doubtful about online relationship. It is akin to scam.

Hm, well, that is certainly interesting. I can understand online dating sites, but I still find it a bit weird to meet somebody and fall in love with them through something like Second Life. I mean, isn't the whole point of that site to be somebody else for a while? It just seems weird to fall in love with somebody while they are pretending to be somebody else. Forums make more sense though I guess. 

@Kittyluve@xanga - Second Life is nothing like Half-Life; it's a big virtual 3D environment that's an open world where people can essentially do whatever they want. I've been chastised for two years for trying to call SL a "game" - though because it is an open world, it is possible to create games within them. You can customize characters, buy islands, create their own custom stuff, blahblahblah, but a lot of the fancier stuff costs money that's converted to "Linden dollars". SL has a fairly low-res 3D appearance though, and to a lot of people (myself included) it's a home for furries, sex islands, and the lovely middlepoint of bestiality-lovers. Don't get me wrong, there are some neat people out there doing neat things, but there are a shitton of people who are there just to watch their avatar use activity balls (little items loaded with a character animation that's superimposed on the user's character) to have virtual sex...

Some of my study involves the effect Second Life has on day to day life and how we interact with it and other people. I've heard of people forming relationships on Second Life, getting married on their SL accounts (though the potential conflict here is "are their characters/personae marrying, or are the people behind the keyboards marrying?"), and in a handful of cases, also meeting in real life and successfully marrying offline as well. It really depends - it really can work for some, but for others, it's just not the way they socialize and not they way they're themselves so they can't really meet a significant other that way.

While I don't think it's something to look down on, I think it's almost natural to do so. Gaming and such is something that's not known for its dating advantages, and when I found out a friend of mine (albeit an online friend) left her home state immediately after her divorce to meet her boyfriend from World of Warcraft and was moving in with him right off the bat, I was concerned because, come on... it's WoW. But online gaming and other means of online social interactions are like modern day book or chess clubs. You go to pursue your hobby and find like-minded people with whom you can relate to in ways that you may have never found offline. *shrugs* People can lie regardless of being face to face or avatar to avatar. Dating will always be a risk, but the ease of access and impersonal nature of meeting online just exacerbates the danger of falling too hard too fast for someone who may not even exist, or falling for a creeper, or whatever.

@drunkdevotchkababy@xanga - With so many “fish” in the sea, finding Mr. or Miss. Right can be tricky. However, I happen to find my man via *** (B lack wh ite Cupid)* .*{C00M} *** a nice place for black white singles, to interact with each other… no bounds or extremes in front of true love. . …zzzzzzzzzz

★★★★★★

I once met with a guy that I started talking to on a dating sate. Our conversations moved from PMs to IMs to phone over the course of a week, and then we decided to meet up during Spring Break, which by that time I already told him I was having second thoughts about wanting to pursue a relationship. I told my mom I was going out that day "shopping," and to my surprise she decided to come with me, which made me panic a little. I told her I was hanging out with a friend "from high school," which was the cover story that the guy and I had to use once we met up with my mom at the mall (we decided to take a side trip as my mom went to our original destination). My mom is a pretty traditional person, which is why I didn't want to tell her that I met this guy online. After that entire ordeal, as well as the numerous men I wasn't interested in that have tried to talk to me, I decided to delete my account. We had fun though, and I still talk to the guy as a friend now, but I don't want to do the back-and-forth messaging with guys anymore.

I hate this title >.> 

@Hinase@xanga - Quite misleading indeed!

Well, I met my boyfriend at an anime convention. But he lives about 40 minutes away when he's at home, so when he's at college which is even farther, most of our communication is through yahoo! messenger or skype and using webcams on the weekends when his internet picks up speed because of people going home for weekends. It's not all bad. One upside is that I get to save any conversation where he says something really cute :) But when he's at school I try to visit him every two weeks or so. I went a month and a half without seeing him during last year and it almost killed me... But we work at it and it works :)