Or if you're dating Bob, and then you develop a relationship with Jim, while Bob develops a relationship with Lucy, that's still polyamory even if you haven't had sex with Jim and Bob hasn't had sex with Lucy.

I'm assuming that in this situation both you and Bob are aware of and okay with it all. Because otherwise I'd call that something else.

Well, of course. Poly isn't cheating, and it isn't swinging, but neither is it the stereotype of a threesome. It can be, but it often isn't.

And I'm starting to annoy even myself with my constant lectures on non-mainstream sexuality, so I'ma shut up. If you want info on polyamory, that's what the internet is for.

pretty sure Toddson was speaking tongue-in-cheek.

This is an important point. Leave it to me to miss the joke. Perhaps I'm particularly sensitive to the poly = sex issue since I'm not getting any. To sum up: poly is my orientation. I get techy when I feel like people are making incorrect assumptions about me. I will try to lighten up.

Where's the line between friendship and relationship, then? I just kind of assumed that it was at some kind of "potential for sex" place. I mean, that's how I'd define the difference between someone I'm really good friends with and someone I'm dating, I guess.

But sexuality isn't sex. One is an act the other isn't.

Ok, so a relationship can be sexual without involving actual sex.

With that framework, to be more accurate I should have said:

Sex uality isn't the defining factor of the relationships themselves, but sex uality is what makes the other relationships not monogamy.

Without that element, I'd say "real good friends" (and my grandparents would feel much better).

I think of the "stereotypical threesome" as the straight guy version of 2 girls and him, which I don't think applies to the majority of romantic relationships involving more than 2 people.

So it's the "all involved know about it and are okay about it" aspect that makes it poly?

Is an "open marriage" poly, or does poly mean that all people involved have feelings for each other?

I would think the difference in whether someone is a friend or a boyfriend/girlfriend is if you have romantic feelings for them or not.

Is an "open marriage" poly, or does poly mean that all people involved have feelings for each other?

I would think they can, but don't have to. Though I would hope if I were in a relationship involving more than one other person that everyone at least had compatible personalities.

To sum up: poly is my orientation.

I don't really get this. And, it's none of my beeswax, so please feel free to ignore, but does this mean that you only want to be in relationships with more than one person? Like, if you were in a relationship with just one person it would feel as wrong to you as, say, a gay person being in a relationship with someone of the opposite sex? (And, just so you know, I'm not at all judgmental! Just curious!)

Is an "open marriage" poly, or does poly mean that all people involved have feelings for each other?

I would think they can, but don't have to. Though I would hope if I were in a relationship involving more than one other person that everyone at least had compatible personalities.

Poly doesn't mean spouse-approved fucking around. That, more or less, is swinging.

Poly means you have a "primary" relationship, with your spouse/main squeeze/SO/whatever, and then "secondary" relationship(s) with others; the secondary relationships may or may not be mutual with your primary partner.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that more often than not, primary partners don't share a secondary partner, though it's also not *un*common to share.