Friday Poll: Most romantic geek proposal?

CNET News Poll

Love, geek style
Which of the following geek proposals do you like best?

"Will you marry me?" showing up in Super Mario
Words engraved on iPod
Marriage proposal tweet
Google Maps display
Diamond ring in Bejeweled
U.S. patent application

View results

This week, we learned of a guy who proposed to his girlfriend in the game Super Mario World. Using an editing program called Lunar Magic, he put the words "Lisa Will You Marry Me?" inside a game level. And (spoiler alert): she accepted.

(Credit: JD Andrews)

But that's not the first geeky marriage proposal we've heard of.

Way back in the early days of the Information Superhighway, Slashdot co-founder Rob Malda popped the question to Kathleen Fent on his own "News for Nerds" site.

More recently, one of our readers engraved a proposal on the back of a new iPod Nano. Of course, there are those who have taken the risk of floating the big question via Twitter. We even dug up an awesome patent application for "Method and instrument for proposing marriage to an individual," wherein one Ryan Grace asks for the hand of his true love, Ellie.

If none of those melt your hardened heart, Wired has a few others in its list of five geeky marriage proposals. A couple of our faves include a Google employee who posed the question via Google Maps and a guy who modded his girlfriend's favorite game, Bejeweled, so the jewel pieces formed the shape of a diamond ring. Awww...

So, what's the most romantic geek proposal of them all? Vote in our poll. And surely, some of our inventive readers have told their inamoratas (inamoratos) how they feel in a way only geeks can. Made a Facebook app? Rearranged the keys on your loved one's MacBook? Created a shmoopy comic? Let us know in the TalkBack section below.

[utznosalt]

They are all fun for others but, mine will be the good old sincere one-knee-with-a-ring proposal.

[ryanw19]

if you and your GF enjoy LittleBigPlanet, make a really extravagent level. At the end, include a picture if the two of you and spell out "will you marry me".

[Hernys]

That's so wasteful. I just sent her an appointment. And she accepted it.

[tjsocoz]

this sounds too much like Dwight from the Office!!

[rdupuy11]

I made the marriage proposal part of the EULA for installing the OS, so she accepted it - you know it. although it turned out she never read it, and she basically didn't have any choice but to accept it, since it would have interrupted her work.

Disclaimer: none of this is true. Shame on me.
I just asked her the regular way, I feel like a completely uncreative moron now. :(

Still... its not too late to start hacking into her stuff, with some declaration of love... hmmm, have to think on that.

[compuwiz12]

On a lot of motherboards you can change the logo that appears right before POST. You could change that to say will you marry me

[Mori-neko]

I think my favorite is the person that edited the intro to Monkey Island 2 into a marriage proposal.

[xxgeekxx]

Would be really interesting if, to propose, someone hacked into their other half's site (assuming they had one), made a backup of the current homepage (obviously!) and then redesign the homepage to show a photo of a ring (taken by him/herself) and a caption. Just 2 simple things on a plain background.

Optionally add "yes" and "no" buttons below the caption?if "yes", automatically send an email to the other half, if no, display a message and then send an email to other half.

[ProDigit]

What's up with telling her face to face?
It's a one in a lifetime deal (let's hope)!

I could write it on a paper that I send with my little nephew to my uncle (in law) who is going to give it to his sister (mother in law) who will relay it to the bride to be, but it's much more nice to just pop the cracker and just tell her, face to face!

[ajbright]

Whenever I get annoyed that the retarded population of this country paints anyone who understands how technology works as a weird, parental basement living, sad individual all I have to do is see an article like this to understand their point of view. The women who accept the proposals of these saddos deserve their lives.

[DigitalFrog]

I wrote a boot program for an Apple ][ back in '85 that popped the question. We're still together after almost 25 years.

[Dust_Puppy]

You know, come to think of it . . . I don't think I ever asked my wife.

Hrm . . . (tries to think back) Awwwwwkward

:D

[beowulf74]

How about just changing her Windows desktop picture to something romantic that has a caption "<Name>, will you marry me?" and a put picture of the diamond ring you got for her?

[ark_v2]

On an iPod? that's not geeky. Everybody has one. Geeks prefer non-ipod players! . Patent application of course!

[FlamingGoose]

... proposing on Youtube

[play7]

No thank you

[johnboij]

I thought the most greekly one was getting marriy in a MMORPG online, an example war of warcraft, guild war, and etc...

Anyway I chose the first one super mario haha, never saw that one coming

[theworldofjeff]

I created a shmoopy animation (and yes, I even used the word 'shmoopy'in it). I surprised her with it at a local theater. You can see it on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syxwkc36jas
And here's her reaction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARDUNJ4AMBs