>>6
this pretty much

ive been in an ldr for over 5 years now (shes moving out to me this coming year), and the biggest thing is maintaining consistency in communication. call for a few hours every day, fall asleep on vc every night, send her art and pictures that remind you of her, play vidya if yall r into the same stuff, watch shows and movies over plex, and (most importantly) pick a date for when you can next see each other irl. im going to visit my partner next in 48 days from today, having that countdown makes it really exciting and tangible. sometimes it sucks, but i really believe you can make it work if you're both invested

i don't have any advice to give as to how one should maintain a relationship over distance since i've never been able to communicate with anyone properly over the waves as it has always felt too mediated (and even in proximity, communication is not something i'm good at, i regard most of my thoughts as not being worthy of being shared), though i do have some insight i would like to share. dishonesty and disrespect are facilitated by physical separation. my favourite display of this idea is in the divide in player behaviour between local, shared-screen pvp and online pvp. the way i see it, the end goal of a long distance relationship would be to close that distance permanently as quickly as possible, since proximity is necessary for communication and respect. if you cannot close the distance in a permanent manner, do as >>6 and >>7 have said; try to meet? meat? your partner in the physical world as often as possible (without breaking your coin jar! travelling can be expensive). regardless, you should start making plans for and taking steps towards a more permanent solution. long distance communication is shoddy at best and should never be considered as a replacement or an alternative to physical proximity. it can be a good way to hold a discussion, to share ideas and whatnot, but to quote one of my favourite games: "While in-person interaction may use abstractions, such as words, much more communication is taking place via proximity." i am so clueless as to how one ought to behave when communicating with distant friends over the internet that i would much rather communicate by mail if i had to maintain a long distance relationship. and even then, i'd rarely write first and i probably wouldn't reply most of the time. nothing worth saying.