I have met three people that I'm attracted to from this site and find a few more that I haven't yet met to be very interesting and want to get to know them as friends. I won't name them to protect their privacy. One was 800 miles away. I have visited them twice and plan on visiting them in the future. After the first visit it became apparent that we were not a good match for a long term romantic relationship. We are still friends and because I do value my friends we will continue to be friends for a long time.

I met another person that I fell in love with. They live 400 miles away and after the second meeting it became apparent that a romantic relationship was not possible with them either. We are still friends for the exact same reasons I'm still friends with the first. Yes. I can be friends with someone I have romantic feelings for and not let that fact make things awkward or weird.

The third person I've met lives 70 miles from me and I'm attracted to them. So far things seem to be going well.

Now I know that unlike many people out there I am willing to travel much farther to meet people. I drive 30 miles to work four days a week. I routinely travel 30+ miles to visit friends and eat dinner. I have friends that live in Knoxville, TN which is 200+ miles away which I see a dozen times a year for a day or weekend. I have in the past driven to Alabama and South Carolina to meet people for dinner which I am attracted to with the intent of dating them. Some of the people I know and meet during my daily life live many hours away. Thankfully my job would allow me to work in Atlanta four days a week, work remotely on Friday from anywhere my heart desires, and spend the weekend with my "family".

Obviously my situation is different than most so I don't expect everyone to have similar positive results. I have higher standards for my eventual partner so I need to increase the sample size of possible partners by extending my search radius. So far it seems to be working just fine for me.