If you fell in love with MM on the internet, there are many people who do not understand this. How did your relationship start? How did it progress? What about internet communication affected the depth or intensity of getting to know each other?

Well, a bar is like a box of choccolates. When you get there all the good ones are gone. Only a few liqur-filled distasteful ones in the corners. Besides, you go by the looks.

On the net, you connect with the brain of a person, the thing is that you get absolutely absorbed by the person, not by the looks.

It will be 2 years next weekend. He remembers me from when we both posted on drb, a BW site. If I am honest I only remember one occasion when we posted on the same string, but we shared other on line friends on ICQ. One night whilst I was chatting to SRB (hi! if you are reading!) she introduced me (us).

It's very hard for anyone who hasn't been in an online affair, to understand. I've tried to explain it as being like a microwave effect. Cooking from the inside. You have, for some reason, connected with a total stranger and day for day you share more, open more, and deepen that first connection.

You have started on the inside. You don't know what he looks like you just know that there is something in the way he writes that fills you with trust. You unwind and you write. He relaxes and writes. You find common ground. You talk about the issues in your life, about the problems in your relationships. You learn you have very similar ideas, ideals, beliefs, codes, level of integrity.

You feel love. You are not in love, but you know you love this person, this friend, this cyber partner. You haven't had to peel the layers away to find out who he is. You have started at the core and added the layers as he told you about his life. But you knew WHO he was from the very beginning.

You have no real life physical relationship to disturb this first connection. You have a mental and emotional relationship. You have so much time to explore and develop and the outside world is very far away. You ask questions and delve in to subjects that you would most likely not touch for a long time in a more "worldly" relationship.

Sure you play with cyber sex. Fantasy stories, fun stories, imagine if ..... ! But what is developing is something much deeper.

Our relationship developed along these lines for 9 months before we met.

Restricted communication methods necessitated using internet - didn't meet online - MM and I used it as a tool for exploring our deepest, innermost feelings and thoughts; and in no time, we'd written hundreds of messages (like we used to do when we dated years ago), and had fun playing and flirting and finally delving back into heartfelt love and affection. I just wish we'd had web-cams...

I fell in love once online, I swore never again, and I haven't yet. More then likely I won't since its easier to "put up a wall" online and keep chat seperated from "real" life. Its easy to wrapped up in a online affair, they usually end badly and its harder I feel when you have met the other person face to face. Just my opinion.

I met now XMM online about 3 1/2 yrs ago,it was a chat site where we could see eachother on line(yes one of those except he and I did not do anything sexual on it,others did,not us) so he saw me and he persued me relentlessly,it was fast,on line..then phone calls...then in person..it ended..now here I am,engaged to a wonderful wonderful man whom I met,you guessed it ONLINE LOL..I have seen it over and over,especially amongst married persons,the looking for love in all the wrong places,the internet is deceiving in a way,most are not honest,you think you are meeting the person "inside" the person,you are meeting whatever that person says they are. XMM was an unhappily married man looking for a divorce,when in reality was a married man looking for a side dish. Last I hear He is still married to the wife he hates,so what does that tell you? Anyway..Love on the internet can indeed happen,I am one of the luckier ones,most do not have the happy ending I am now living.

I met MM online, and we became very "involved" for three months before we met. We were both very unhappily married, and just looking for someone to talk to.

This led to an attachment. It became stronger and stronger.

When we met it was nerve wracking. I suppose it's always that way with online relationships. You know that person's heart and mind, but it takes awhile to relax and tranfer that to the 3D presence.

We've been together, F2F, for over three years. I am now divorced, waiting for him to leave. His kid is grown, the W is ready to go, we're on the cusp of making things "real."

I do believe online relationships are valid. Absolutley. Especially for the more abstract, metaphorical, intuitive personality types. For those who are more "sensory" oriented or rationals, online relationships may not work. But for all rest of us--introverted, inward drawn--online relationships can be quite intense.

i have met most of my boyfriends via the internet. the question i get the most is how do you know he isnt a murderer? well how do you know the man you drunkenly took home from the pub last night isnt a murdered?
the internet acts like a confessional, you dont quite know who you are talking to, and because you are typing and not talking it feels like you are talking to yourself. so, you are freer with your expressions, you give much more away much quicker than you would if you physically met someone. quite often sex is discussed early on, likes, dislikes, things you might not ask in person, but this isnt real, its cyber,so you can ask away.
the number of people available to you via the internet is greatly increased over the number you would meet in town on a saturday night, you can meet ppl form neighbouring towns who you wouldnt in the course of every day activities.
as a woman, you get to pick and choose who you talk to, you can delete and erase those bothersome irks, who would just stalk and annoy you in the pub.
in short the advantages outweigh the disadvantages imo

I'm 22 now. We met on the internet when i was 17.
I was surfing through an American site and he was the only other person from my country registered there. So i dropped him an email. We got talking on MSN.
We have most emails from then, but strangely, neither of us remembers how love happened. All i know is at some point of time we agreed that we were soulmates. We never once questioned why we couldnt be. a 17 vs 27 yr age gap seemed too much to digest. We'd never met f2f. We lived in opposite ends of the country.
One day. One day back then i met him for a fleeting lunch. it was beautiful. We just sat n stared at each other.
Then, we lost touch. I got heavily into drugs, and other escape routes. Shifted to another city. So it was just the occasional email/ phonecall every few months.
Then i dissappeared altogether. Rehab. for a yr. When i come back, i see an email sitting in my inbox. Hey, i moved to your old city. Btw. i got hitched. how you doin. Is there any number i can call u on.
We started talkin, and talking.. he'd call me whenver he was overseas on a shoot, and talk all night, or when he was stuck in the office all night. Every week.
Then one day, since we live only 4 hours apart, and I was going to be in his city, we decided to meet. and actually did. There was no turning back after that.Its been just 3 months. feels like 3 lifetimes.