7 years. There are advantages and disadvantages to everything. I suppose chatting online first gives you a sense of what they're like and whether you have similar interests etc, and then decide on whether you want to meet based on that. You know more about each other by the time the first date happens. But also, people lie on the internet so....
Sometimes though, it's nice to let things happen naturally in person. No online nonsense, no games etc.
The other half for some reason was looking at our marriage certificate. I asked to see it saying "I haven't seen it since it happened." Thereafter the marriage was referred to as 'The Happening'. No wonder it didn't last.