The epal hunt

Why should it be so hard to find an epal today?

Some years ago, I wrote to several people - some for several years - before everything changed with online groups and then blogging and online social networks.

I got to know more about some of those people than I know about myself. There was an intimacy which you don't get online. And I thought I'd like to go back to that because quite honestly, for me anyway, online social networks have become passe.

Naively I also thought that the internet would "provide", as it had done in the previous decade, ordinary unpretentious epal sites that didn't demand extensive information before joining, finding once having joined that these also now cater to the online social network set. That had easy to access long lists of keen epal seekers that could be connected with the very same day.

Nowadays, at what stage in the relationship build does the "request email address exchange" happen? And who makes the first move?

Is it, like, getting engaged?

I didn't realise it would be such a BIG ask!