[Bardan the Slayer]

Everything you say is true, HofJ, but it is also true of people in real life. It's not only online that people can misrepresent themselves, as many many poeple would tell you. Yes - it is true that conducting a lifelong relationship over the internet would be foolish, but that's why couples who meet on the net get together in real life. It is exactly so that they can find out more about the person they have developed feelings for.

Yes, deception is possible over the internet, just as it is possible in real life. Many women and men have been taken in by liars and cheats in RL relationships, but this doesn't drive anyone to suggest that RL relationships are something only 12-year olds do.

Nobody ever suggested that internet relationships are a fine be-all-and-end-all for a lifetime, but they are a completely valid strating point for a relationship. just as valid as meeting someone at a party, in a bar, whatever.

Oh, and I also think it's unfair to say "all internet relationships are dodgy" based on the experience of some people. If we looked at life this way, every relationship would be a joke. Every woman would be involved with a drug-addicted wife-beating child molester, and every man would be married to a serial adulterer who was constantly spending so much money they went bankrupt and cut up all of his clothes when he was late home from work.

You can't judge all (online) relationships based on the fact that *some* turn out horrendously badly any more than you could slate all real life relationships because *some* of them are horror stories.