C’mon Senggüm, give us a little hint about what your problem is.
No it isn’t, no daughter(s) of mine are ever going to meet someone based on contacts on the Internet! Hoping they will discuss it first with me or a professional. Keep the tape on auto-looping. I think the comments here could be putting some young people at risk!
Wow! You must be young if you think you are going to control your (way into the future) daughter’s lives…
I met my girlfriend on the Internet. Should I still contact a mental health professional, a pastor, and my Mom, or is too late for me?
OK, reason?
You may very well have a valid one, but expound, if you will.
That’s all we ask.
You still haven’t said why. That’s all anyone wants to know. Why is dating people on the internet something that needs professional psychiatric intervention?
Sengum, do you understand, are you able to understand, that people are asking you why you feel that considering dating someone you meet via a message board is grounds for needing psychiatric help?
We all understand that internet dating can be dangerous. But consider this: any dating of someone can be dangerous. How much does one usually know about another person before they’re willing to meet said person in a restaurant and have dinner or a cup of coffee? There are sensible precautions one can take to minimize the risk of meeting someone via the Internet; a person who, knowing such precautions are in place, is still willing to attack would probably be equally willing to attack someone they met in class, at the laundromat, or at a party.
But let’s set that aside for a moment. What we’re trying to understand here is why you would consider an interest in seeing someone you got to know via the Internet, particularly on a MB such as this, would be indicative of serious psychiatric problems?
I suppose Gunslinger and I, **GingerOfTheNorth, Weirddave, anniz, Montfort, Coldfire, Heloise, AirmanDoors, MsRobyn, ** and all the rest of us crazies who went and got into supportive adult relationships with people we initially met through the medium of this message board should start a support group or something.
You’ll have to add Mr. Congo and I to that list. We didn’t meet here but we did meet on the internet. This June we will have been together for 5 years and this month marked 3 years of being engaged. My whole family, all my friends and my coworkers totally love him. It’s the same for his family and friends where I’m concerned.
It’s no safer meeting someone in a bar or school or anywhere else for that matter. People can be dangerous. They can also be loving, caring and just all around wonderful. Sometimes - you have to let your guard down and take a chance. It doesn’t mean your crazy and need professional help.
Add Morelin and I to the We Met On The Intarweb list, though we didn’t meet on the SDMB.
Ironically, most of the lifelong friends I have, I’ve met on the OMG INTARWEB!!! first.
Me too. I suspect that Senggüm is suffering from a combination of “On the internet nobody knows you’re a dog” worry and “You never know who might be an axe murderer in hiding” suspicion. Should we be careful about meeting people, naked, in dark alleys at 3 AM on the south side of Chicago? Sure. Are we talking about being utterly reckless with our lives? No.
Oh. When it’s your business who I meet based on talking to 'em here, you’ll be the first to know;)
Senggüm, as the father of three daughters and as a student of “true crime” I agree with you to a great extent, though the risks of meeting people through the internet have been overblown because they make such great local news sweeps fodder. Fortunately with the SDMB we do have the Dopefests which allow real-life meetings in a group setting so it actually ends up safer than a blind date.
I hear U. I have asked how many attended and for photo links to these “Fest” … no answers. If you really would want to send one of your daughters to a SDMB fest or date someone on SDMB, without you being ther, so be it …
I met my current girlfriend via the internet.
I met the one prior to that via the internet.
(And no, they aren’t both buried out back)
Twenty four years ago there was no internet, but I met a girlfriend via a personal ad published in the newspaper.
The one before that I met on a vegetarian hippie commune.
The one before that I met on a locked ward of a psychiatric facility where we were both inpatients. Despite that fact, I do not recommend taking Senggüm’s advice and talking to a psychiatrist. Your odds are better on the internet.
Then there is Skip Magic and auntie em.
You know what the difference is between meeting someone on the internet, posting a personal ad in the newspaper, and metting a girl randomly at a bar is?
Nothing. There is no difference. In every case you don’t know that person from Adam when you first meet them. At least here, due to the parties we throw for each other on a regular basis, there is safety in numbers. There’s also the fact that communication through the Internet, given enough time, invariably will bring out the truth of the matter. Nobody I’ve ever seen can fake being someone they’re not for an indefinite period of time.
In other words, you’re excessively paranoid. Relax a little bit, dude.
[2 cents]
You could always just make out with people at Dopefests. Should tide you over for a while if you’ve got the hots for a fellow Doper. 
[/2 cents]
For those of you slightly confused, it seems that Seng is committing suicide-by-Mod prior to his “guest” status expiring… he pretty much admitted this in the Pit a few minutes ago. I was gonna link to the thread involved, but it seems to have disappeared! (maybe deleted?)
If I understand your question correctly, the answer would be no. The SDMB is not a dating service.
Perhaps this is all a little misunderstanding???
The OP wrote:
When I first contemplated that (having a relationship ONLY via the web), I thought “Hell, that’s NUTS!” Maybe that’s what Senggüm was responding to.
Then someone switched gears and started talking about MEETING on the net and then carrying on the relationship into real life-- and of course there is nothing wrong with that at all. But Senggüm in his first post was, it seems, responding to the idea of a romantic realitionship ONLY via the SDMB