Is there really any difference between building a relationship through internet and meeting someone the old school way?

Ummm, YES

I would say it's not as easy to build a long distance relationship through the internet, you would certainly need to meet up in the real world before even trying in my opinion. You can meet people on the internet that you would probably never meet in the old school way.

Welcome to Mingle2 and good luck in your search.

yes theres a big difference.

You mean besides the fact that you can read her body language, hear the intonation of her voice, hug her, hold her hand, walk with her, kiss her...?

^^^^ That, and add to it that you can really feel if there's a click and if you have something going for you. You can't via the net. You can think there's something, then meet and find out it's not there.

Nope.
Makes no difference what sparks original interest,
the dynamic is exactly the same.

In real life, a guy might wink at you..on the internet
he may just make a typo ;-)

Same effect.

On the internet, you are a small fish in a large pond.
In real life you are Moby Dick surfing a keyboard.

These are the same person.

To me yes there is a difference but only a little and that has to do with personality, their personality might be a little different in person then the internet one. It’s easy to get caught up and fall in love with the internet one when they’re doing or saying what you like but in person it might be a little different. Try to, if you can, get to know them personally and see where it leads.

Depends.

If you can put forth a personality on a keyboard, then you're way ahead of the game. I met one lady from Texas, as she was passing through my town. I got a handle on what she was like online, and she did me. You gotta put forth the effort to message, with what I call expression.

Some on here can do it quite well. I learned to, and I'm just a two finger typist. Two tips I push, is avoid slang and text jargon. And take advantage of spellcheck. Oh, three- proofread what you type.

Plenty blow it by not taking advantage of the forums. I'm a product of PoF, and DH forums. And I did yahoo instant message forums. All you really have to do, is be willing to post. And know when to stop.

Yes there is a big difference because building relationship through internet you have to know them better to see if its true or not while meeting old school friend you already build a relationship with them and you know them better.

Exactly. Curiosity and interest can sure as heck be piqued online, but you have to meet to find out if it's there in real life too.
I've been there where we both thought we were the perfect partner for one another. Everything was great and flowed. Then we met... Biggest anti-climax ever as he was totally rude because he was disappointed when I got out the car that I was tall. My height had been in my profile btw.
I tried to be polite, have at least a cup of coffee since he had driven a long time. He was and remained grumpy and rude, and after half an hour he said something so offensive that I decide to f*(k being polite and go home.
The one that seemed so promising turned into the worst date I've yet had.

I did, however find a long term partner via the net, and a very promising shorter relationship, also via the net. But you have to meet to see if you got something going for you. And that one nasty experience taught me not to wait too long with meeting as like I've learnt, you could be totally wasting your time.