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now im gonna tell ya somethin we from the cyber age...every thing happens online pretty much......but now all i see on tv is this online dating sites....now i dont know if its cuz i havent been with a girl in a while or what....but i just dont get ow kids around 14 get on gaia and date with out even knowin a thing about them...is that how liek match.com works..or what i mean......if i knew for a fact datin online worked for em to meet my true life partner then frickin right sign me up........what do yall think

I am sad to say I have had many online relationships that didn't work out, but am still of the belief that one could possibly have a successful one that turns into a real life relationship.

I was in four different dating clubs, back in 2001. Two were on-line, and two were photo-book and activity based. What I found is that the group events were far better than sitting alone at night, but the date-shopping function doesn't work.

Great Expectations cost me a bundle of cash and hours of effort to get started: photo shoot, video shoot, questionairre, picking guys out of the books to email. I got ZERO responses to my 25 emails! And nobody sent me any at all. I quit after my year was up; what a waste of time.

Match.com is all on-line, cheaper, easier, and fun to use. I ended up emailing back and forth to 4 different guys. Two of them actually turned into dates, but a third was stalkerish and I refused to meet him. The two relationships fizzled out eventually, but they were okay as steps to recovery from Husband #1.

Equally Yoked had group events, at which I learned to trust men again. Also to sing karaoke, play spades, and dance the waltz; but no dates. Their date-book thing just didn't work for me, but my friends there pointed me to eHarmony.

eHarmony was all on-line, and pretty fun. I ended up with 4 pen-palls, but no dates. I think most guys on there are looking for somebody younger, sweeter, and with fewer kids than me.

But I have to say, I'm glad those businesses are out there, because it gave me safe outlet for my frantic loneliness, during those years.

Personally, I have no idea. I don't see how they can work, but, some actually do I am happy to those that have had online dating work out for them. To me, I would miss the one on one contact (specially if it was an long distant online relationship). I guess I must be old fashion or something.

My marriage is the result of an online relationship.

Joseph and I met completly at random on secretsofwar.net its a free game. I was chating with another girl about how much we hated makeup when out of the blue this guy whos screen name was ghostbear poped out and typed "I hate Makup" and then I got involved in talking to him, not expecting much more than an online friendship. We talked for about year on SOW and msn getting to know each other he became the person I would chat with when I was having a rough day and the person I looked forward to chatting with when classes and homework was done for the day, we had a lot in common as well as being quite oposite. After about 6 months of chatting I gave in and gave him my dorm phone and mailing adress and he sent me Love A Lot Care bear for my birthday!, and then On Valintines Day he sent my my first two dozen roses, that was recived by a guy that was not my father. It was not untill A couple months latter that I decided to take the risk of meeting him irl, and we did on labor day weekend 2005 i think i kind of lost track, Almost a year later on July 2 2007 he proposed to me at Shawnnee Mission Park in Kansas. We were a long distance relationship the entire time and we lasted and now have been married for nearly 3 months!

So Yes I bealive online relationships can work, but it takes a very strong couple with lots of trust in each other and lots of work for the both of them to work.

I met my husband online, he lived half way across the continent... we have been married for 9½ years now... so something worked out.

This pretty much sums up my thoughts with the important part in bold. In a way, I think online dating is actually better because due to the lack of physical contact, all you can do is talk and get to know each other, which allows you to know the person better before you actually get physically involved. However, this doesn't always work for everyone... some people require face-to-face interaction to really open themselves up to someone. It requires a lot of trust and honesty for an online relationship, which are things people look for in a long term relationship anyway.

I do not know how online dating sites work, however, I know that online dating can work because my spouse and I met online. We knew each other for a year and a half before meeting in person. Another year and a half later we got married, and have been for almost a year.

At the same time I had decided to get married, my brother had actually gotten married. He met his wife at a bar and they lived together for a few months, and he thought his relationship would work out better because he met and knew her in person whereas I had only seen my spouse in person for a 1 week visit. However, as the plans for my wedding were really getting in the works, my brother divorced. He was married 6 months, and after that he admit that I was right about knowing my spouse better despite the lack of physical contact. Most of what he knew about his wife was how much he liked looking at and having sex with her sweatdrop Most other aspects of life they could not agree on.

I would strongly suggest really knowing the person before meeting in person because a lot of things can go wrong. The steps my spouse and I took were gradual... first there was email, chat, and IM... eventually sharing pictures {we did not show pictures to each other until we had known and trusted each other enough to do so. I find this better than sharing pictures immediately because then you know that they are actually interested in you and not just your looks} then we worked our way into talking on the phone and using webcam {this is a pretty good way to get to know if the person you're talking to is the same as the picture they sent you}, then exchanging addresses and eventually meeting.

Previously my spouse and I had both had online relationships that didn't work out so well... my spouse had one that even went into real life because the person did not live too far away, but it was a bad situation that they deeply regret. However, it taught them that you have to be very careful in how much information you share and how soon when it comes to building a relationship online.