> 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.
>

That's what I was trying to say, but I couldn't quite find the words. No wonder I couldn't find them as they ran away to New Zealand for a vacation.

Very well put, BG, and I agree wholeheartedly. And I'd like to add a little bit: I'd say most if not all (I'd be surprised if it WASN'T all) long-distance-relationship couples in our little community know enough to think beyond the words of the screen, any emotions they induce, and think seriously about what their implications could be were they absolutely true. And this can be downright... scary.

Love stuff is not all shiny happy bouncy bubbles of effervescent joy, regardless of long-distance or not, and it can BE SCARY. And with long-distance, there's this added bonus: for anything lasting AT ALL beyond friendship to come out of this, the relationship has to become close-distance. If you're serious, that means one or both people have to uproot their lives and *move*. Just an example of the scary stuff...

I suppose the scary part of love is something that has to be faced in all relationships, but somehow the online factor makes it a lot easier to overlook. And there are other things, as Sam mentioned, that get hidden... things you might not even think about. Take me, for example. I can be very snippy and stubbornly pouty at times... but do any of you see this? No, because I just don't come online when I'm in that kind of a mood. Am I my usual cheery self all the time? No, but if you judged only my RinkChat appearances you might think so... again, just an example...

And I fear that since it's kind of late and I'm tired, that I am rapidly getting incoherent. But I hope at least some of that made a modicum of sense.

Sosi"has never pretended to be a fluorescent orange flying wombat"qui