How to Find Friendship and Romance Online

Online forums and special interest groups can put you in contact with like-minded people who may become your friends. One of them could be your soul mate.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Internet Access
• E-mail Accounts
• Computers

1. Join an established Internet service provider such as America Online, the Microsoft Network or EarthLink.
2. Browse slowly through the various online interest groups, looking for those with message boards that appeal to singles.
3. Choose a few forums that focus on matchmaking or on one of your interests. Visit them and read the messages (or "posts") on the message boards.
4. Find an area that appeals to you and go there regularly.
5. Post a message of your own after getting a sense of the interaction. Keep your posts brief and humble at first; soon you will be communicating with the regulars and forming friendships.
6. Let it be known that you're single and looking, along with your location and age.
7. Ask the regulars about any particular love interest you have found.
8. Use e-mail and chat sessions to get to know an appealing person better.
9. Attend a forum-hosted party in order to meet your potential sweetheart if it is possible or practical. If not, plan a real date in a public place.

Tips & Warnings

• Host a party yourself if your forum friends do not get together at parties, and meet some of those people you have been attracted to online.
• Pay close attention to the way your romantic partner interacts with other group members.
• Remember that common interests are great, but having a relationship with your mirror image would probably be boring.
• Avoid online feuds and battles. Personal attacks, also called "flaming," can get vicious in forums where strong feelings and beliefs are expressed.
• If you form a romantic attachment to someone in the group, do not announce this to the other members until after you have met your partner in person.
• Common philosophical or political views will not always get the two of you past the "chemistry test."