> But now. Now there are RinkCouples almost too numerous to mention (again the names are changed to protect the schminnocent): Schmatthew and Schmaryam, Schmynette and Schmeothermatthew, Schmaz and Schmynthia, Schmorris and Schmyingcats, Schmave and SchmeeB_G, Schmelly and Schmousie -- okay, they are not really a couple, but I had to say "Schmelly" and I thought she'd get mad if I coupled her with anyone else -- not to menion the pre-existing couples, like Schmicia and Schmon, Schmarien and Schminamoon, and of course, Schmam and Schmleen.
>
> What's the deal, folks? Is there something in the RinkWater that makes unlikely couples attract? I'd almost rather have Schmonteczuma's Revenge.

I have a few responses to this. First, I agree with Sam's post about online relationships. I would never have an online romantic relationship, and I think people who do so are taking a grave emotional risk. It particularly worries me when I see teenagers getting extremely intense over these relationships -- people who may have never *had* an offline relationship by which they can judge the rate and intensity of what they are getting into. I've seen kids swearing eternal adoration and talking about future marriage and children (jokingly, I hope, or in Teenager Romantic Dream World, but nonetheless...) with somebody they have never even spoken to by phone.

This kind of blissful intensity is the way teenage romance has always worked, and it's natural enough -- but now it happens online, which I believe permits a normal infatuation to outlive its natural course, and adds a whole new dimension of deep emotional involvement at an age when perhaps neither person is ready or capable of dealing with it.

Lest I be accused of ragging on teenagers, let me say this is part of the reason I did not have an online romance with Dave. Even though I have known him around four years online, and two weeks in person a couple of years ago, I just was not prepared to base a romantic relationship on that, and certainly not coming out of an emotionally vulnerable time in my life -- when we started considering the possibility of a relationship, it hadn't even been a year since my de facto marriage broke up. I knew perfectly well, from our previous meeting, that Dave and I were compatible as friends offline, but I had no way of knowing more than that until we could meet again under the new circumstances of both our lives. I thought, and hoped, that it might work out, and I think the fact that it DID is the best thing that's happened to me in years, if not ever.

I guess the bottom line is that I don't believe in doing, saying or committing to anything online which you wouldn't or couldn't in person. This is the first, last and only Internet rule for me. And committing your love and related emotions to somebody is a damn sight more important than pretending to be a fluorescent orange flying wombat in Rinkchat.

Second: I have to differ with you on the "unlikely couple" line. Maybe it's unlikely from other people's viewpoint, I don't know. Personally, I am still amazed that somebody exists who matches me so well in almost everything, and complements me in everything else.

Brunnen-"will now be flamed by somebody who likes pretending to be a fluorescent orange flying wombat in Rinkchat"G