h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay, so we all know which way I am going to argue this. It's just since the announcement I have been completely overwhelmed by the lack of cynacism people have shown. Either we are at heart a nation of romantics or we are all very good actors because not one person has asked me if I am pregnant or has cast aspersions on how long they think the marriage will last!

My view is this: I think relationships that begin on the internet have as much chance as any other as long as you don't just go looking for it (Every time I tell anyone I met Doug on the internet I always quickly say but not on a chat room or dating page!)

I can quite honestly say that I knew more about Doug before I met him than I knew about any of my ex's by the time we had finished! Certainly I knew more about him than my friends did about any of the men they had picked up in clubs and pubs.

The secret to the success of the internet relationship is to treat the internet part as a beginning, a preamble and then let the relationship move on. We may have met on h2g2 but, believe me, h2g2 has nothing to do with why we are still together.

What does anyone else think? Do internet relationships work? I promise I won't take any of this personally!

I think a lot depends on expectations and motive, and of course, the high probability that anything that develops will be a long distance relationship - and that can put a lot of strain on things. Although, that didn't stop a friend of mine, who ended up leaving everything in England and moving to Canada to be with a girl he met on the net. They're still happily married and have been for five or more years...

I was talking about your romance to some of the (single) girls at work. They are not net users, and thought that it was impossible to know someone unless you had met them face to face. But I think you know them even better than face to face, because you don't have to get past mannerisms and shyness and appearance. And of course you have something in common to begin with. I have met quite a few net people face to face now - and apart from being surprised that they were say, taller than I expected, or whatever - they were really very much as I expected them to be. As you stay the net can be the start of something really good, but only the start.....

The 'net can be a wonderful start to a relationship.... I'm a beliver, but thats because its how my girlfriend and I meet, and we are getting along wonderfully. It was no internet romance, we met on the net, and met in RL, at a internet club RL meet, but before that we were just friends, honest! *G*...


As long as you remember that the idea of the relationship is for it to work in RL, as opposed to the virtual space of the internet you'll be fine...

*HUGS* to bothe of you, have fun together!

hannah.

Maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic, but it seems to me that romances that start on the internet stand just as good a chance of surviving as romances that start anywhere else. If you meet someone and decide that you like them enough, it will inevitably lead to phone calls, meeting in real life and so on, in the same way that if you fall in love with someone you meet in the pub, you don't spend every waking moment with your beloved in that same pub. Yes, another tortuous metaphor, but you see what I mean, don't you?

I think I understand you very well! We were both sensible and neither of us actually said we were in love before we met in RL, but we both knew that this was more than an internet friendship - there was a real force pushing us together! Do you know that if I hadn't taken redundancy at the end of March I would never have bought the computer, and if I hadn't bought the computer I would never have logged onto the net, and if I hadn't been playing a silly computer game that night I would have been watching domething on telly that wasn't Tomorrow's World so I would never have known about h2g2 and if I hadn't been going to write an article on Pantomimes I would never have done a search and started the forum - all it would have taken is for one of these things not to happen and Doug and I would never have met!

People's idea of "fate" can be attributed to the fact that life is very obviously a series of coincidences.

-- I am now working in multimedia. This is due to a whim at college that it might be nice to compile a CD-ROM to show off my various types of work (sound, video, etc). This was only there due to a number of coincidential meetings allowing the multimedia tutor a position at the college. I was only at art college in Cardiff due to being turned down by Bath. I only went to Cardiff to visit 'cos a friend wanted to go.

It goes further back but you get the idea (if you're still awake)

Also, the other point - an "internet" relationship has as much chance of success as any other. it can be seen as very similar to people who meet over writing / phone / etc

The problem is that the whole thing is very new, and due to its origins has a "geek" aura, despite the fact that most 'net users probably have a very healthy social life away from the screen. I imagine when more people have 'net access this sort of thing will be (reasonably) commonplace.

Thinks of yourselves as kind of pioneers!!! And hey, a movie was made about this sort of thing recently too ...

Once again, congrats.

...and of course, love e-mails arrive much quicker than love letters!

I don't think either of us could afford the stamps to send the number of e-mails that have whizzed their way across the country. The phone bills were bad enough - mine was £280 approx (usually £50) and Doug's was £400 +. Be warned!!!!!

There's a lot to be said for having free internet access at work!

That was ON TOP of the free internet access at work!

!!!!!! *emits a faint squeaking noise before falling over*

You'd better start saving EV because it didn't get any cheaper once we met up either - I reckon the holiday cost approx £900 each for one week - but Oh what a week!

And no, the £900 wasn't *just* the wine, pasta and ice-cream!

No! £200 was spent on pizza too!

It was a big pizza!

so it was love at first *byte* too was it?

*groan* That was worse than my pun!

*actually* I quite liked yours!

I liked the pun too - and my boyfriend, whom I met in a chat and are constantly nagging to join in here, did too

for us, it works, even if there's nearly the whole of germany between us - and I very much had the feeling to know him better before we met than anybody I met in real live recently.
CONGRATS again!!