Lindsay Pereira

Important question No 1: Would you marry a guy you met in a chat room? Important question No. 2: Would you marry a guy who logged on with the nickname ‘Lunatick Werewolf?’ My answer to both queries would be an emphatic ‘No!’ for obvious reasons, my sex being one of them.

Sara from Denmark, however, disagreed on both counts. She met Bob, the aforementioned werewolf guy from America at a newsgroup. They chatted, fell in love, and were promptly married two years ago. Today, they’ve moved to better places, got themselves a cat, and enjoy life together.

While you can log in at Sara's Garden to read about the ups and downs of a LDR (long distance relationship), this story is actually about how the Bobs and Saras of cyberspace express their love online.

There are articles on the rules of ‘propah’ online dating, of course, at sites like Lily and Zopop's Love Online and the Love Online Guide for Cyber-Dating. But that’s just for those who love, pun intended, doing it all by the book. For incurable romantics, all the Web’s a playground, where everything from hugs to Java sunsets can be shared with those special people in their lives.

‘Can’t do it in real life? Do it on the Internet’ says the Intel ad. Which is probably why sites like Animated Virtual Hugs and Kisses came into existence. Apart from love cards, floral fantasies, and CandyGrams, this colourful page lets you send virtual soft kisses, colourful kisses, candy kisses or, everyone’s favourite, ‘Kiss Attack.’ You can also get downright mushy by sending a ‘fluffy bunny hug’, ‘super teddy hug’, ‘icemelting hug’ or ‘big scary spider hug.’ And hey, if that’s not blatant enough, use the step-by-step instruction page on how to kiss.

Let’s say you’ve had a fight about that all-important issue: who’s hotter – Shah Rukh or Hrithik. LovingYou offers you ten creative ways of making up with your partner. This self-professed community for ‘getting, falling and staying in love’ also gives the lovelorn a poem of the day, a ‘dating toolbox’ and, best of all, a page on ‘things to do online’ like getting free phone calls to your beloved! There are love forums a plenty, along with loads of helpful links.

Getting back to basics, expressing love online is still best done with ecards. You can take your pick from those on display at Blue Mountain, love email from EmailCard, mush from Free-E-Cards, and even ‘love toons’ from Cards-n-Toons. Want to go really hi-tech? Try a Rotating Cube Java Applet that says ‘Wish I had your eyes’ or a Rain and Water Java Applets spelling out ‘It's raining smiles for you’ – all courtesy the people at Quick'E'Greets.

Considering the fact that chat rooms have a huge role to play in propagating love, you could pick up a couple of interesting emoticons. The Thrive Chat Help site, for example, shows you how :-* means you’re ‘puckering for a kiss ’ or how xxooxxoo spells ‘love and kisses.’ Netmag tells you how your keyboard can depict drooling by a :- )~~~ or a rose by @>~~,~~’~ Then there is the Virtual Chat Center Users Dictionary, for unusual chat abbreviations like Hanging On Your Every Word (HOYEW), I Will Always Love You (IWALU) and, for those tired of desperate men in a chat room, Let’s Just Be Friends (LJBF).

Now for the quintessential element in any love story: a sunset. Miss those moments spent walking down Marine Drive at 6 pm? No problem, simply share a Virtual Sunset. This site gives you the sunset (obviously), along with a mushy tune, and mushier poem to boot. Picky about the kind of sunset you want? Choose one over a pond, through the trees, or even a storm front at sunset, all at Free Ecards. More sunsets can be found at the Wired 2000 Virtual Postcards site.

Finally, for the lucky few with happy endings, ‘Will you marry me?’ cards can be found at Cyber-Cards.com and 123greetings.

As with all things online, there are always options other than the ones mentioned here. One guy, for example, set up a site for the sole purpose of proposing marriage to his girlfriend, Chrissie. The condition was she’d agree only if he managed over 1,000,000 hits by December 16, 2000, Chrissie's 24th birthday. Last time we checked, the site was no longer available. But what we did find on the subject was more interesting. Another smart alec decided he’d had enough of the love stuff, and set up a counter site called Don’t Marry Him Chrissie. What was it all about? You get the picture.

Then there are those who set up pages for those they haven’t even met yet. I Love Chrissy (What is about girls called Chrissy?) is dedicated to ‘the best girl in the entire world’. And Marcus Bowman, the guy behind it all, says: “Someday I will meet her and see what she's like in real life, not just on chat.”

Chilliwack Personal Love Pages lets you do the same thing -- set up photo journals, propose online any way you want, send pictures, or make announcements. All for a flat fee of $25.

‘Can’t buy me love?’ Think again, baby.

Sites featured in this article:

Sara's Garden:
http://www.angelcities.com/members/aras/p_love.html
Lily and Zopop's Love Online:
http://love-online.tripod.com/main.html
Love Online Guide for cyber-dating:
http://www.singlesites.com/articles/article004.html
Loving You:
http://www.lovingyou.com/
Animated virtual hugs and kisses:
http://www.hugkiss.com/
Blue Mountain Love Ecards:
http://www.bluemountain.com/eng3/love/
EmailCard Love Email:
http://www.emailcard.com/pages/love/lovecat/lovecat1.html
Free-E-Cards:
http://www.free-e-cards.com/love-ecards.html
Cards-n-Toons:
http://www.cards-n-toons.com/
Quick'E'Greets Greetings and Emotion Love Romance:
http://www.quickegreets.com/love/index7.htm
Thrive Chat Help:
http://prod132.oxygen.com:4080/chat/world/html/thrive/emote.html
Netmag Emoticons:
http://www.netmag.com.pk/library/emoticon.htm
The Virtual Chat Center Users Dictionary:
http://www.kindred-souls.org/kinsouls/emoticons.htm
Virtual Sunsets:
http://www.geocities.com/dcbda_99/night.html
Sunset Ecards:
http://www.free-e-cards.com/virtual-sunsets.html
Wired 2000 Virtual Postcards:
http://postcards.wired2000.net/Greetings/Animals/Sunsets/
"Will you marry me?" cards:
http://www.cyber-cards.com/Special/proposal/index.shtml
Will You Marry Me? Ecards:
http://www.123greetings.com/love/bemine/
Chilliwack Personal Love Pages Home:
http://www.wutzon.com/personals/menu.htm
I Love Chrissy:
http://www.geocities.com/kbear1015/Chrissy-Page/chrissyshrine.html

Tell us what u think of this article