eHarmony.

Same here. What about newspaper personals? Those are almost exactly the same as 'net personals, right? (N/M you answered already.)

I think eHarmony is a lot of fluff. The commercials show all these couples who fell in love and got married through them, but what is the failure-to-success rate? How many people meet, and then decide they can't stand each other? How many of those people meet "fall in love", get married and then divorce soon after?

The way it's portrayed in the commercials, it appears that you're guaranteed to find the love of your life. In fact, isn't that what the founder dude says? (Aside from guaranteeing it.)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

You're not hating on us because that's how you hooked up with your dude, are you Dev? (And by "how" I mean "over the internet". GFF isn't really meant to be a match-making sight. (I think.))

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'm not saying that at all.

I think internet relationships are usually much different from real-life relationships. I feel this way because 99.999999999% percent of people you'll meet online are a good bit different in person from their online persona.

I've met 5 people offline after "getting to know" them online. All of them were different. (Sure, they were a lot LIKE their online personas, but there were some big differences once I met them face to face.)

Hell, 2 of the girls I've met (and spoke with frequently) online were perky (to an annoying level) online, but shy as HELL in real life. If they'd have been up my ass face to face as much as they were online, I'd have smacked them.

Getting to know people online is far removed from getting to know them IRL. It's not fucking natural (or healthy) to type back and forth with someone you're in an intimate relationship with. (That's *my standard*, but it seems like a reasonable one to me. I think it would be pretty odd to meet someone IRL who is LITERALLY named Super Mario. Also, think how close a parent would be to their kids if the only contact they had to them was through a PC.)

In essence, meet people online. Get to know them in real life. (Unless all you're looking for is an online relationship.)

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Devo

Are you saying we're unable to communiate ideas or feelings just because of the medium?

Sure, you can express feelings in text. You can also convincibly express untrue feelings (like saying you're not upset when you really are) a lot easier in text.

You can't see a person's body language, their eyes or hear the tone in their voice in an email. All of these things can give you clues as to how they really feel or what they're really thinking.

There's also more reaction time online. People who are normally slow-witted and shy can often be very out-going and witty online.

That's not to say online dating (services) are a bane to humanity; I'm merely saying it needs to be held under a different light than traditional dating.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Of course. I've only been trying to offer my opinion and advice on this sort of thing.

I was speaking idiomatically.