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Actually, you're probably best off finding friends at a LARP club or a game club of some kind. There are just too many types of geek who will be interested in computing and so any attempt to find friends/relationships amongst Linux geeks will be futile. Too large a collection of too many utterly divergent personalities.

No, you need to find a way to isolate a much, much smaller pool of geeks, ones who share multiple interests in common with you, and the only way to do that is to find groups that share your interests.

(Looking online very, very rarely works, mostly because online spaces allow people to be totally dishonest. If there's no honest representation, you cannot find people by presupposing they are being honest.)

Assuming guy looking for women: church, craft stores and shows, classical music concerts (musicians), amateur theater, Mac computer organizations have more women, Word SIGs, camera clubs, community college night courses. Married co-workers' wives have single friends. Volunteer groups, food banks, Salvation Army,

I met my wife online too, but before that, a motorcycle did wonders for my social life (in fact, it was the bike that gave me the confidence to meet her in person.)

Before I had the bike, I was shy and had low self esteem ... I was dateless for over two years. Within a few weeks of getting the bike, I was getting 2-3 girls a week asking me out! Seriously.. a motorcycle turns "shy and introverted" into "dark and brooding". (But don't assume that every woman will ask you out - if one comes over and talks to you about your machine, chat with her a bit about the bike and offer her a ride.)

Some caveats:

• Find a bike you *like*. Nothing looks stupider than someone who isn't comfortable on their chosen machine. Be comfortable on it, and you'll exude confidence, which is the most powerful attractant there is.
• Dress for the bike. Similar to the above point, a racing suit on a Rebel 250 will just look silly, as will a leather jacket with fringe and chaps on a rice rocket.
• It doesn't have to be a Harley or a rice rocket - a guy on a Shadow or Intruder (or even a Rebel) is just as impressive as long as he looks comfortable on it.
• Learn a little about motorcycles, so you can hold your own in conversation. Don't talk about them endlessly though - that's just boring.
• If you're the "fat WOW-playing" type of geek, lose some weight, unless you're also growing a zz-top beard and riding a Fatboy.

Perhaps it has been so long that it just seems like Slashdot use to be an actual site you could turn to every day and read a nice cross section of laypeople and industry experts discussing interesting technology topics.

Can't all these inane 'Ask Slashdot' - aka Please Give Me Attention!!! articles be done away with?

Just. Fucking. Google. It.

This is one of those things that a nerd can't ask normal people and get an answer worth two cents.

Ask a normal person how to be social and they'll list a million things that the nerd can't do/doesn't understand/won't get the nerve to go through with. Ask a slashdotter, and while the advice may not be so great, at least the nerd should be capable of doing it.

Yes, yes, it's Slashdot and supposedly the blind leading the blind on this question. r-d-r-r. I get it. But I've been enjoying this site for a full decade now (late 20s) and I find that whenever these sorts of non-tech/science questions come up, the responses are often some of the most highly thoughtful and interesting on offer. So as long as we're all here and considering justshootme's question of "where do you meet fellow geeks -- preferably including some of the opposite gender", I would like to ask about fellow geeks interested in meeting the SAME gender for said purposes implied in the original question. I find that this exceptionally difficult, as there are very few other gay dudes willing to tolerate discussions about supersymmetry or the history of thermodynamics or mediaeval history for more than a few milliseconds at most. Should I resign myself to the fact that my demographic is simply to narrow and settle? I am beginning to think so.

Agreed. Asking this question on Slashdot is like asking Helen Keller if your socks match.

Try this little experiment:

1. Reply to an ad in women 4 men, or casual encounters.
2. Wait 2 minutes.
3. ??????
4. DO NOT PROFIT, IT'LL BE A BOT

There are scant few real women trying to find relationships there...unless you're looking for the paying kind, or the old (read, 50+) hopeless romantic.

International singles clubs, also.

Here in Silicon Valley, I met a lot of interesting women. Foreigners don't know you are a geek, they appreciate guys with a good salary, career prospects.

You learn all sorts of things, e.g. I met Dr. Wang, learned that she was a dentist. Observed that she had perfect teeth. Realized ALL dentists I had ever met had perfect teeth, form, fit and function. Decided my next girl-friend had to be a gynecologist.

Finally married a Russian. We fight about things I could never have conceived of previously, so life is not boring.

You really have to read this and have Google Images open elsewhere wtih pictures of ESR to appreciate the humour fully.

I've met quite a few gorgeous women in "non-geek" settings. They love that I'm smart and quirky, and I make a great living. It sells itself. Just be confident and find things you like to do socially, and the rest will work itself out.

I think the most important tip everyone seems to give here is to get out and about. No women likes a couch potato, even geek girls like to go out and show off their tail feathers. Besides, they gotta show you off and impress other women. Think of yourself like a Gucci bag. A cock shaped Gucci bag that knows complex mathematics and earns a paycheck.