Since my husband and I met over the internet, I always feel some obligation to chime in on these threads. Dread Pirate Jimbo and I met through an internet dating service over three years ago, and will be celebrating our first year marriage anniversary in three weeks. (Congratulations, Ginger! You beat us by a month!)
We emailed for awhile, talked on the phone for awhile (which was kinda strange, because Jim is no phone talker, but I figured he wouldn’t keep phoning if he wasn’t interested), then we met in person fairly quickly - if there’s no magic face-to-face, it just isn’t going to go anywhere.
That would be my recommendation to you, Planky. Meet up in person ASAP, and find out if the spark is there. If not, you can still have a great long-distance friendship.
followsDaveBear* like a good student, carrying the "the real Davebear … legendary, man! cite banner*
Internet relationships! Absolutely!
I can only lay claim to have made friends with one of my best friends, over the net, 4 years ago! She and her husband live in the LA area while I’m in the North end of the state. (6 hours drive, at Top highway speeds … but we’ve maintained the friendship and manage to get together fairly often!)
In the same chat room where we met, several other couples met and married. One of those couples were both on-line friends of mine. She here in the S.F. Bay Area while he was living in Australia. Was Quite a courtship, memorable wedding and a beautiful relationship! (they fought the I.N.S. and THEY won!!! but that’s a W H O L E 'nother thread!)
Absolutely Go for it! Hell, a vacation in Maryland will be an interesting experience even if it turns out you only like talking with each other!
[moment of unnecessary reality] as to being able to drive from Silicon Valley to Maryland … uh … just for perspective, think driving from London through the chunnel (if you could) to Moscow … however, the Boston Area has it’s own lil’ “Silicon Valley” and it’s dang’d close to Maryland![/unnecessary reality]
yeah, i know about the distance between the 2 Wyatt, but the fact you can actually drive it is a major difference for me, cos i really love to drive, especially with some metallica blaring up at 11
Plankspanker, do not discount Maryland and Northern Virginia’s plethora of high-tech employment opportunities. Washington, DC, is right on the border of the two states, and there’s a lotta geeks needed around here.
I can only comment on this thread through my own wonderfull experience. It was only just over a couple of months ago that I posted a thread on mpsims about guys being too nice, and amongst the many people who replied (thanks to all by the way) was one person who I just felt I had to communicate with. She turned out to be the most amazing person I have ever had the priveledge to talk to, the most caring and loving human being, the most stunning friend I have ever had the luck to find. We have met up in her home town (Dublin) and mine (Barnet) and at each and every meeting, and from the first meeting I might add, we have fallen deeper and deeper in love! Very few people find their true soul mate, (and who to say that it isnt possible to find your own through an electronic medium?), but we have, and through the Straight Dope. Her name is Honeydew to all you Dopers, but to me she is the love of my life.
Just chiming in to second the person who said make arrangements to meet in person. If there’s no spark, you just can’t manufacture it. I’m not saying the person you’re with has to be particularly attractive, but they do have to be attractive to you. So saying there’s no lust involved is not IMO necessarily a great thing – of course you’re smart enough not to want it to be just lust, because that burns out, but a little lust is not a bad thing at all.
I had one Internet relationship, and it was pretty intense but in the end did not work out. I don’t think it that had anything to do with how it started, though; I think if I’d met the guy in a bar (or in church) it probably would have ended the same way at the end of the day.
And I also have a bit of a crush on a Euro-Doper guy who doesn’t know it, and who probably never will. I admire those of you who took that big plunge (especially transatlantically), but I wouldn’t have the courage. So this guy won’t know unless we meet in person and I like him in person and he seems to like me and I get tipsy enough to confide . . . in other words, chances are hell will freeze over first.
Anyway, good luck. Keep your heart and your eyes open.
