[QHF]

Uniting the two present topics of Iceland and online acquaintances, I went on a holiday in Reykjavik with thirty-odd people I met in an MMO once. It was boss.

[Helenia]

(Original post by flying plum)
i think people are ok nowadays with online dating, but still find relationships formed through the internet where that wasn't the precise purpose as a bit odd still (for example, through message boards). i think online dating has been normalised, where as message boards and the like are still perceived to be 'geeky', and a replacement for a 'real' social life, therefore meeting through them is 'weird' - particularly because the relationship tends to form online first, then in the flesh, where as with online dating the whole thing proceeds as normal, apart from the inital vetting process/setting up of the data through online profiles.

I have a lot of friends whom i met as a teenager through posting on the message board of a band i was really into. after about six months, we all met up to go to a gig, some of us really got on, and have stayed in touch ever since. two of them got married, and have two kids, and the lots of us have been over to the states to meet up with the american 'branches'. i still keep in touch with lots of them, and we meet up every so often...but my boyfriend, who never did messageboards, finds the whole thing totally bizarre. He can't quite get his head around going to meet up with a bunch of people you've never met, on the strength of conversations on a messageboard.

Yeah, I think this is still fairly true. I have been "discovered" by a few of my friends over the years, and some of them are fine and some are like "who are these weird internet people?" I've now been posting on forums of various kinds for the last 12 years, and I can't imagine not having a forum to go to.

I do wonder if relationships formed through forums are more or less likely to be successful than "official" online dating sites. On the one hand, often you have more time to develop your relationship online and get to know each other's personalities and decide if you're suited before you meet, but on the other hand, because a relationship is not the primary purpose of the forum, might people's intentions be less clear?

[IlexAquifolium]

(Original post by Helenia)
I do wonder if relationships formed through forums are more or less likely to be successful than "official" online dating sites. On the one hand, often you have more time to develop your relationship online and get to know each other's personalities and decide if you're suited before you meet, but on the other hand, because a relationship is not the primary purpose of the forum, might people's intentions be less clear?

I don't think you have that to worry about

[Helenia]

(Original post by IlexAquifolium)
I don't think you have that to worry about

Well, I was a little bit pouncey. Though our relationship is not a classic forum-based relationship - there was no inkling of it happening beforehand (we knew of each other on TSR but weren't close at all; in fact I thought he was a bit of an arse sometimes), and there were so many little chances that could have prevented it.

[apotoftea]

(Original post by Helenia)
but on the other hand, because a relationship is not the primary purpose of the forum, might people's intentions be less clear?

There are plenty of people on online dating websites who arn't out to date and have a relationship though, speaking from experience.

Which is why I'm glad I'm out of it and have met the most wonderful guy (even if he is thousands of miles away currently )

[sj27]

(Original post by Helenia)
I can't imagine not having a forum to go to.

This!

I also kind of think somehow maybe better to meet via a board than a dating site...there is often less pretense/artifice/married 50-year olds posing as single 20-somethings, etc. Maybe I'm odd, but I wouldn't look askance at all on a relationship that started this way. Never met a SO online, but I do have a few friends I met via a forum some years ago.

[Feefifofum]

Apart from anything else, as a person who was present at the original drunken party of mutual friends, it was always fairly clear what Will's intentions were

[Helenia]

(Original post by sj27)
This!

I also kind of think somehow maybe better to meet via a board than a dating site...there is often less pretense/artifice/married 50-year olds posing as single 20-somethings, etc. Maybe I'm odd, but I wouldn't look askance at all on a relationship that started this way. Never met a SO online, but I do have a few friends I met via a forum some years ago.

Well, I wouldn't either, but then we both have been active forum users and so it's not so "weird" to us. I actually find meeting someone on a forum, where you usually get to know each other in various discussions before initiating private conversations, less odd than via facebook, because to me it's just creepy to message random hot strangers on there.

[apotoftea]

Damnit all this talk of OHs means I want a hug now Damn you all

Why would you meet a randomer off facebook?

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by sj27)
This!

I also kind of think somehow maybe better to meet via a board than a dating site...there is often less pretense/artifice/married 50-year olds posing as single 20-somethings, etc. Maybe I'm odd, but I wouldn't look askance at all on a relationship that started this way. Never met a SO online, but I do have a few friends I met via a forum some years ago.

I agree, however I think a lot of regular people have only experienced social networking sites, so they don't have the awareness that forums and online communities aren't necessarily dating sites.

[Becca]

(Original post by Hylean)

I am indeed.

And yes, Penis Museum, or Reðasafn in Icelandic. They even have a folkloric being exhibit.

The Penis Museum sounds fantastic. I remember last time I went to the Colosseum they had a side exhibition about eros. It mainly featured Roman vases decorated with orgies of various orientations. It was excellent. It helped me actually believe some of the stuff that goes on in Spartacus: Blood and Sand and the other series in that franchise

[*Corinna*]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
[COLOR=#0099ff]

You've been together 3/4 years?

4 in October

[sj27]

I got all excited when I saw the MIT open courseware has a field seminar in IR on its system... until I saw this list of readings http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/political...2011/readings/, of which I can only access a handful

...still, at least I can access some! More reading, and helps me feel somewhat less adrift.

[*Corinna*]

(Original post by sj27)
.

any news about your cat?

[sj27]

(Original post by *Corinna*)
any news about your cat?

I posted earlier, maybe you missed it - he's booked in for a biopsy on Monday, vet has pumped him full of stuff to ease his symptoms till then. But he's deteriorated really fast over the past week or so - he's purring and stuff and not complaining, but breathing badly and hardly eating. At this point I'm not even convinced he's going to make it to Monday .

[*Corinna*]

(Original post by sj27)
I posted earlier, maybe you missed it - he's booked in for a biopsy on Monday, vet has pumped him full of stuff to ease his symptoms till then. But he's deteriorated really fast over the past week or so - he's purring and stuff and not complaining, but breathing badly and hardly eating. At this point I'm not even convinced he's going to make it to Monday .

I must have missed it

*hugs*

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by flying plum)
i think people are ok nowadays with online dating, but still find relationships formed through the internet where that wasn't the precise purpose as a bit odd still (for example, through message boards). i think online dating has been normalised, where as message boards and the like are still perceived to be 'geeky', and a replacement for a 'real' social life, therefore meeting through them is 'weird' - particularly because the relationship tends to form online first, then in the flesh, where as with online dating the whole thing proceeds as normal, apart from the inital vetting process/setting up of the data through online profiles.

I have a lot of friends whom i met as a teenager through posting on the message board of a band i was really into. after about six months, we all met up to go to a gig, some of us really got on, and have stayed in touch ever since. two of them got married, and have two kids, and the lots of us have been over to the states to meet up with the american 'branches'. i still keep in touch with lots of them, and we meet up every so often...but my boyfriend, who never did messageboards, finds the whole thing totally bizarre. He can't quite get his head around going to meet up with a bunch of people you've never met, on the strength of conversations on a messageboard.

Ooh This (and what followed) are potentially useful for my PhD. (DW I haven't started data collection yet and would ask you before using anything)

[The Lyceum]

(Original post by Becca)
The Penis Museum sounds fantastic. I remember last time I went to the Colosseum they had a side exhibition about eros. It mainly featured Roman vases decorated with orgies of various orientations. It was excellent. It helped me actually believe some of the stuff that goes on in Spartacus: Blood and Sand and the other series in that franchise

Ah well, you shouldn't to be honest. It was closer to old school Vale Tudo or even some of the Fillipino stuff (e.g where weapons were). Osteoanalysis shows that these people were also well fed and well cared for medically. Deaths were rare. Oh and they were apparently ridiculously well trained fencers too, at least during the later Imperial period when there is evidence of competition fighters being brought in to simplify and retrain the sword system taught to soldiers. Which by then had got a bit insane.

So...yeah....sorry. Never been anything on screen remotely reminiscent of Rome. Or Greece for that matter. Sad but true.

[flying plum]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
Ooh This (and what followed) are potentially useful for my PhD. (DW I haven't started data collection yet and would ask you before using anything)

Haha, be my guest

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

(Original post by flying plum)
Haha, be my guest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov4tE7XRTUA



(Sorry, I'm bored to tears of my questionnaire and am too easily amused )