Meeting People From the Internet [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Quincunx

2009-12-12, 07:19 PM

Con: "People you meet online don't make good tour guides; this is because they spend all their time online." (He ended up visiting us anyway, but he ain't wrong.)

Pro: The awkward phase ends the instant you hit upon the same topic you were discussing online, and has a very low chance of recurring once conversation flows to a different topic.

I've done one-on-one meetings up to a group of about. . .ten or so, enough for a full board game at any rate, with encounters of a few hours at a video arcade up to multi-day hangouts, and one case of moving in. :smallwink: The only weirdness about it is a) identifying people (and it doesn't get less weird over time if someone badly mismatches your mental picture) and b) people staying at the host's place who haven't 'clicked' yet (that gets less weird the sooner you can find common ground: see "Pro" above).

[EDIT: Oh yes--take and answer the bloody cell phone, exchange cell phone numbers and real names beforehand, and if you don't trust that person with that information you're not ready to meet them.]

Koury

2009-12-12, 07:26 PM

Well the first person I met online I ended up dating for three years. That wasn't anywhere near the plan when we met (she had a boyfriend) but *shrug*

If you exclude the ending, that was a good experience over all. This person I've been talking to for almost two weeks and I'm convinced enough that they aren't an 80 yr old serial killer or anything. But I suppose there is only one way to know for sure.

EDIT: As far as exchanging real names, well, everyone knows my real name, I guess. My name is spelled oddly enough that I can just use it all by itself for pretty much anything. My XBL gamertag is plain Koury. My username on a lot of boards is just plain Koury. I don't really have a problem with name-sharing :smallbiggrin: This whole edit is off-topic, but still.

wxdruid

2009-12-12, 07:29 PM

Yep, and my parent's think I'm crazy.

But I've been to 3 GenCons now, one Chicago meetup and met up with Pwenet and the LLama. I've always enjoyed getting together with other playgrounders.

blackfox

2009-12-12, 07:37 PM

This has happened a lot with college, actually... I got into my school early decision, so I did some networking over Bookface and found a few people in my major, and ended up meeting in person with most of them.

This also happened with Zeratul, unfortunately for him. :smalltongue:

Force

2009-12-12, 07:39 PM

Done it twice. The first time involved someone who was local, when I was a few years younger. Did not go well because Dad insisted on coming along, sitting in a corner, and STARING (!!) at both of us. Second went much better-- long-distance motorcycle trip to go see someone I've known for over four years.

Make sure that you have real-life pictures, in a couple different settings, have contact info (cell phones & stuff), etc... and carry whatever you need to to protect yourself. I had a two-foot-long breaker bar in my bag that was one of my bike tools, but would've doubled quite well as a weapon at need.

onthetown

2009-12-12, 07:42 PM

I met one of my best friends online. We had already been online friends since we were 10, though, so it wasn't that big a deal. She flew up to Canada and spent the week with us a couple of years ago (I think we were 16 or 17), and we became nearly inseparable that week and it was hard to get us away from each other at the end of the week. My mom says she's never seen me get that attached to somebody in such a close period of time.

I generally don't like hearing about little kids wanting to meet their online friends, but if you've been talking for 6 or 7 years (both on phone, webcam, AIM, etc) and you're both mature enough, go for it.

Granted, my mom still thought she might be a killer right up until we picked her up from the airport :smallbiggrin: Now she loves her like another daughter.

The Orange Zergling

2009-12-12, 07:56 PM

I've been to the first two Midwest GitP meet-ups and the anxiety wears off extremely quickly and they were both pretty awesome. That was... I think two years ago now, haven't met any online friends since then but likely will at some point in the future. One of my closer online friends met his ex-girlfriend on World of Warcraft (they've since broken up, but that's not the point), too.

Koury

2009-12-12, 08:06 PM

One of my closer online friends met his ex-girlfriend on World of Warcraft

My initial reaction: Huh, weird to meet over a game.

Then I realized I met one of my exs randomly on MySpace and am probably meeting someone soon who I met through CL. *shrug*

Solaris

2009-12-12, 08:13 PM

My initial reaction: Huh, weird to meet over a game.

Then I realized I met one of my exs randomly on MySpace and am probably meeting someone soon who I met through CL. *shrug*

To be fair, you don't meet over the game, you meet because you met them on the game and want to meet up offline. I've done it once, and it turned out reasonably well.

SMEE

2009-12-12, 08:17 PM

I flew well over 6,000 miles to meet people from the internet. :smallsmile:

And it was really worth it.

Manicotti

2009-12-12, 08:18 PM

One of my closer online friends met his ex-girlfriend on World of Warcraft (they've since broken up, but that's not the point), too.

Happened to me, too. /grumble

But yeah, a lot of my best friends I know via online. The main problem that stops us from meeting more regularly is that we live on opposite ends of the country.

Katana_Geldar

2009-12-12, 08:21 PM

People still find it dodgy even if you take a few precautions, like meeting in a public place and having coffee or seeing a movie or something. I don't tell my parents I meet people form the Internet anymore, even though I tell them I know them and have for years.

For every creep on the Net, there's ten that aren't like that.

Of course, kids should not meet people they meet online.

Koury

2009-12-12, 08:25 PM

Solaris

2009-12-12, 08:28 PM

Thes Hunter

2009-12-12, 08:28 PM

DON'T DO IT!

EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET ARE WEIRDOS! EVEN YOU!

ha ha ha ha. Just kidding.

I for one am glad a playgrounder flew 6000+ miles to meet people from the internet, because she is da bomb! :smallwink:

I have met a ton of people from the internet. Some have been creepy, some have been weird, but most have been really cool.

None have been serial killers etc. Sure there is a risk to having an adverse event from meeting people on the internet, but you can screen fairly well just by talking to the people for a while, and meeting in public, etc.

Serial killers, and other people up to no good are more likely to use things like Craigslist or etc. where they do not spend months building a reputation, and presence on a forum just to get one victim. Can it happen? Sure, but it is much less likely.

As always, use common sense, and trust your instincts. If things don't feel right, if something seems rushed, if you feel pushed by the person to move past your comfort level, these all should raise alarms. If a person raises alarms, that is a sign they are in it for their own interests which are likely not yours.

So basically, meet people as you feel comfortable, but set boundaries.

Katana_Geldar

2009-12-12, 08:30 PM

If you're feeling unsure, then ask a friend to give you a way out if needed. Have them call you, if you don't accept the call it's going fine, if you do they can pretend there is some emergecy and you have to leave.

Koury

2009-12-12, 08:36 PM

I personally am not feeling unsure at all. Am I coming off that way? If so, it's unintentional. I'm closer to excited than I am to nervous. I just wanted to know about other peoples experiences and kinda judge where mine fall in comparison. Plus its always fun to hear peoples stories.

Lord Blace

2009-12-12, 08:40 PM

I've been to two meet ups. During the first one I got the whole, "THEY COULD BE TRYING TO MUG YOU!" from my mother, but after I came back in one piece and some fun stories, she trusted me enough not to nag me the second time around. And now I'm dating a playgrounder. -Points to Mauve.-
Not to mention I've met some really awesome people at the meet ups.
Zeb, 'Larra, Rabbits, and Troggy I'm looking at you. :smallwink:

SMEE

2009-12-12, 08:48 PM

Weird... when I told mom that I was flying abroad alone to meet people from the internet, she was all "Take tons of photos! We want to see them all when you're back!" "We're so excited that you're going to meet your friends!" "Have tons of fun!" and other phrases of encouragement... :smallconfused:

Not once I got this whole "They're from the internet" thing...

Innis Cabal

2009-12-12, 08:53 PM

I flew well over 6,000 miles to meet people from the internet. :smallsmile:

And it was really worth it.

Similar distance...similar experiance. The person is now closer to me then my blood family. Not that its the general happening, just saying, its not always bad and can sometimes end in far better results then expected.

Solaris

2009-12-12, 08:58 PM

I gotta admit, there're a coupla chaps on this board I wouldn't mind running into offline. Heck, some of 'em I'd even like to meet outside my usual haunts of corpse-strewn dark alleys.

Coidzor

2009-12-12, 09:03 PM

Well, I was willing to head to one of the playground meetups, but, alas, some things came up.

*shrug* I'm a 21 year old male and I'm too old and unattractive to really be valued for anything other than torture, robbery, and killing.

And I'm not really all that valuable for robbery, come to think of it, due to the whole aforementioned 21 year old male thing.

Plus, y'know, white male privilege means I don't worry about my physical safety unless certain non-board safe criteria are met, which are basically the equivalent of the totem warnings left outside of a goblin cave.

Pyrian

2009-12-12, 09:07 PM

I've met a lot of people whom I first met on-line. :smallcool: Never had a particularly bad experience with it.

rayne_dragon

2009-12-12, 09:15 PM

I do it every so often - in fact I did this today. It almost always seems a bit off in that they seem different than they do online, but I try accept such differences with grace and poise. I've never had a bad experiance with it and hopefully have never been a bad experiance for anyone meeting me. However, I still prefer meeting in the normal course of everyday life to meeting someone online first.

Tharivol123

2009-12-12, 09:21 PM

I've had good and bad experiences with it. In one case I ended up finding out said person was roommates with a person I already knew and suite-mates with a person I graduated from high school with. Made for a bit of awkwardness, especially looking for each other at the bus stop and running into her roommate before her, so our first real meeting was her finding me and her roommate talking about that previous summer.

As for the not so good, I met a girl I dated for about a month the same way. She very quickly became obsessive and semi-stalkerish. Everything was fine the first couple times we met, but then we actually became a couple it was like a switch flipped for her that made every minute we were apart torture (and being 100+ miles apart, there were a lot of them).

Hell Puppi

2009-12-12, 09:49 PM

I've met a lot of people whom I first met on-line. :smallcool: Never had a particularly bad experience with it.

Same...actually mostly people from another forum...which I never post on. It's always seemed to go well.
I did have one experience where someone else was meeting a friend from WoW...but she ended up excusing herself and left this WoW friend at my apartment. So it's was just me and me roommates giving each other awkward looks until he (the WoW person) left.

*shrug* I'm a 21 year old male and I'm too old and unattractive to really be valued for anything other than torture, robbery, and killing.

You only think that because you've spent too much time around me :smalltongue:

charl

2009-12-12, 10:02 PM

My very best friends I originally only knew online. Then I started hanging out with them IRL too, and before you knew it we were going on vacations in Germany and the Netherlands together.

I have met many people that way. It's never been bad, really. Some of the people I didn't really like in the end, but I've never had a wholly bad experience doing this.

Green Bean

2009-12-12, 10:26 PM

I haven't met any of my online friends, with the exception of my offline friends who became online ones due to moves and whatnot. I did however get asked to tag along with one of my friends when she met someone she knew online. It went pretty well, but I understand why I was asked to come along. Use common sense and it'll turn out fine; take someone you know along, don't mail you apartment key to them, etc.

Solaris

2009-12-12, 10:31 PM

It's not the initial meeting you gotta worry about, because you're already friends. The problem is that there is sometimes a very good reason this person is meeting their friends online.

FoE

2009-12-12, 11:00 PM

Be wary before meeting anyone from the Internet.

Trai

2009-12-12, 11:07 PM

Are there ever any plans for some kind of... tristate area Playground meetup? I'd love to meet some of the folks on here :)

That being said, I have met one of the people I met on the Internet, I'm going to meet another in a couple weeks, and I'd really love to meet the one I'm closest to in a couple years. Anyway, it's a long story, but I met a group of friends through online RPing and introduced one of my other friends to the same group. She got closer to one of them than I was (which was a bit annoying, but whatever) and eventually invited her to her sweet sixteen after they'd met before that. I met her officially at the sweet sixteen and we exchanged phone numbers and such after that (I only wanted to do it after we'd met in person). She was just as wonderful as the person I knew online and I had no problems with it whatsoever.

It was actually kind of funny, because once you meet them, you end up forming a whole other set of associations. Not in a bad way, but I remember she said to me that once she'd met me, she started thinking of how I reminded her of certain other friends in certain ways I acted, etc.

I've actually never met one of my closest friends-- she was part of that same initial RPing group, and since then we've gotten really close (it's been three and a half years). We built up a trust between us as we talked more (after knowing each other for about a year, year and a half) and now we view each other as best friends-- I tell her a whole lot of things I don't tell other people. So comforting to have a friend who doesn't know any of my other friends when I need someone to talk to about things like that. I'd love to meet her someday, if I ever get the chance.

Krade

2009-12-12, 11:12 PM

Gonna have to chime in about how awesome it can be. I mean, without meeting people online, I would have never known the glory that is KUBB!!! (Speaking of which, I finally got my own set. Solid oak. Very nice. Only $65 for the wood.)

First time I met people from online was Ranis on these boards. We had worked out a deal that he would give me a ride to and from GenCon and I would buy his badge. Then I got to meet a whole bunch of other playgrounders: Zeb, Allara, Indurain, Renegade Paladin, AngelSword, Pheokun, ZRS, Llama, Trog, Thes, and there were probably more but that's all I can remember from that far back (Two whole years). I do remember $2 Whole Bananas though:smallbiggrin:

For a first time of meeting people from the net, it went really well.

For everyone who might be reading this, if you ever get a chance to go to one of the "official" GitP meet-ups, go. It's a garunteed good time and relatively inexpensive compared to most vacations.

Edit: Well Trai, I can't say I know exactly which states are in the "tri-state" area, but there is a meet-up every year in Johnson City, TN. Lots of people go and you may be able to get a ride.

zeratul

2009-12-12, 11:16 PM

Meeting people from the interwebz is pretty fun. I saw an epic Children of bodom concert with B-Man last year (or maybe two years ago? My sense of time is somewhat lacking) and he chilled in NY for a few days which was cool (was also in my first moshpit that concert! \m/ ) And I've hung out with Blackfox a few times both of which involved awesome food and hilarity, so meeting people from online has good connotations for me.

Edit: Well Trai, I can't say I know exactly which states are in the "tri-state" area

Tri state area is New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

The Extinguisher

2009-12-12, 11:20 PM

I wish there were more accessible meet ups for me. They sound so fun. But There aren't really any Canada meet ups planned (and that would probably be in Toronto >.<) and I haven't really noticed any north west US meet ups.

I would love to meet you guys in person.

Jacklu

2009-12-12, 11:27 PM

Jacklu has met many many people from the interents. All at the same place too! Gencon was amazing, because it was a big public place to meet people. Though I have to say I was super nervous arriving there, as I was rooming with a complete stranger who was picking me up from the airport. O_o Needless to say, Lex Kat killed and murdered me and dumped my body in a ditch somewhere after she robbed me. It was tragic. Also, I got a chance to flirt in person for once, which is something I can't normally do unless I know somebody really well. Actually, I like online relationships for that. It lets me meet and get to know people based on who they are rather than what they look like. Gets past some of my issues nicely. ^_^

Green Bean

2009-12-12, 11:31 PM

Be wary before meeting anyone from the Internet.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bears_online.jpg

Yes, avoid people from TVTropes. They scare me. :smalleek:

Crimmy

2009-12-12, 11:34 PM

I have met people from the internet, but not as many as I would like to.
I mean, I'd love to meet the English Playgrounders, the American Playgrounders...

I'd like to meet ALL of the playgrounders.
Yet, I'm stuck in this little 3rd world country. Not that I don't like it in here, but there's so much and so many aout there.

charl

2009-12-12, 11:36 PM

Gonna have to chime in about how awesome it can be. I mean, without meeting people online, I would have never known the glory that is KUBB!!! (Speaking of which, I finally got my own set. Solid oak. Very nice. Only $65 for the wood.)

Kubb is awesome. Good, traditional feeling there. :smallamused:

Is there a Scandinavia meet-up? I've never heard of one.

Krade

2009-12-12, 11:58 PM

Kubb is awesome. Good, traditional feeling there. :smallamused:

Is there a Scandinavia meet-up? I've never heard of one.

In case you haven't heard, Kubb is the "official" game of playground meet-ups. It was introduced to the playground by one El Jaspero, the Pirate King at one of the first meet-ups here in Indianapolis (I didn't attend due to lack of living here at the time). I believe that was in 2006. It has been played at least once at most of the meet-ups since. At least it has at all the ones I've been to.

RabbitHoleLost

2009-12-12, 11:59 PM

People Rabbit has met: Lord Blace, Llama, Alarra, Zeb, Shadow, Troggy, Vael, Phoe, Ceika, Ego, ZRS, DivaDe...OMFG, I can't list everyone from the second JC meetup, but it was a lot of people, and I love all of you to pieces.
Twobi and I live pretty close to eachother, so we met and hang out from time to time, and I've met Destro and Reinholdt.

Annnnnd, I'm going to see Reinholdt in about three weeks =)

Lioness

2009-12-13, 01:36 AM

I've had a couple of meetups, but none official. One of them was from a dancing forum, where me and another lady noticed we live in the same city, and that we were going to the same dance. We met up there, and have become fairly good friends (considering she's probably 35 years older than me.). I recognised her, because I get hunch feelings about these things, and I sort of recognised her from her forum avatar.

Another one was also at a dance thing, for another forum. Three of us were going to a major competition, and we had been talking on msn. We exchanged photos (not that that helped...everyone looks so different in comp attire), and at the competition sort of found each other one at a time. We're going to meet up again next year at the same comp.

All in all, slightly awkward, but because there was the shared interest, it wasn't too difficult to get over it.

Serpentine

2009-12-13, 01:55 AM

Speaking of creeps, does anyone know anyone who has had a BAD experience meeting someone online (aside from eventual break-ups?). I personally don't, but it seems like all the stigma surrounding meeting people has to come from somewhere (and it can't just be those Dateline specials.)

Side note: I love watching those Dateline specials.I think there were a reasonable number of nefarious goings-on in the early days of Popular Internet. A friend of a friend may have known a girl who was lured through the internet, kidnapped for an extended period of time, had nasty things done to her, and ended up committing suicide sometime later.
I would hope, though, that internet safety education is ubiquitous enough that few people would be really at risk.
I've met 2 internet people in person. From this, and a few other clues, I'm afraid that I have a tendency to lose interest in a person as soon as I've met them :smallsigh:
I tried to go across the world to see an internet person, in Canadia. He pulled out right at the last minute (costing me $800) because he "didn't have enough money to do anything with me and didn't want to have a disappointing time" or somesuch. Like I was going all the way to Canadia so he could spend all his money on me or something :smallannoyed: Not that he told me that at the time - his excuse then was that his mother had a relapse and needed his help or something like that :smallsigh:
I still intend to meet him in person, and one of the first things I'll do is kick him in the shins (fragile scar or no fragile scar) for that :smallannoyed:

Weird... when I told mom that I was flying abroad alone to meet people from the internet, she was all "Take tons of photos! We want to see them all when you're back!" "We're so excited that you're going to meet your friends!" "Have tons of fun!" and other phrases of encouragement... :smallconfused:

Not once I got this whole "They're from the internet" thing...You were a full-grown adult at the time though, right? Not too likely prey for the devious deviant pedophile :smallwink:

Crimmy

2009-12-13, 02:23 AM

You were a full-grown adult at the time though, right? Not too likely prey for the devious deviant pedophile :smallwink:

Yeah, well, it could also be the fact that her family isn't as touchy about the internet as others'

Serpentine

2009-12-13, 02:26 AM

That's obviously a potential contributor, but do you really think they wouldn't at least make some comment if she were a 14 year old girl?

The Extinguisher

2009-12-13, 02:29 AM

I'm not sure what my parents would say if I went to see people from the internet :smallbiggrin:

On one hand, they're pretty big on the whole "be careful you might die" kind of thing. On the other, I go to parties with people I don't even know at all. At least internet wise I know people a little.

Aww, now I really wish there was a meet-up coming soon in the area. :smallfrown:

loopy

2009-12-13, 02:46 AM

First people I ever met off the internet were unfortunately rather weird. Ended up hanging around until the end of the day as we'd originally planned, then didn't see them again. Shame, because they were the first D&D players I'd ever met.

Second girl ended up being my first girlfriend (surfer type as well), which was awesome right up until she cheated on me repeatedly, lol. :smallamused:

Third girl I met took me to a music festival, bought me drinks all day, and generally had an awesome day/night together. We don't hang out as much as we used to, seeing as we live a couple hours drive from each other and our interest have kinda diverged, but I still think she's awesome.

Aaand I'm fairly sure thats it. :smallsmile:

Koury

2009-12-13, 03:23 AM

loopy

2009-12-13, 09:38 AM

Well thars your problem right there.

...

:smallbiggrin:

Ah come on man, if I could resist saying it on these forums you have to do it as well, otherwise it just ain't fair! :smallbiggrin:

Reinboom

2009-12-13, 10:08 AM

First time I met people from online was Ranis on these boards. We had worked out a deal that he would give me a ride to and from GenCon and I would buy his badge. Then I got to meet a whole bunch of other playgrounders: Zeb, Allara, Indurain, Renegade Paladin, AngelSword, Pheokun, ZRS, Llama, Trog, Thes, and there were probably more but that's all I can remember from that far back (Two whole years). I do remember $2 Whole Bananas though:smallbiggrin:

I am forgotten :smallfrown:

Aside, I've lived with 3 playgrounders so far, all of which I met online first, and only one of which I met before deciding to live with them (or rather, they decided to let me live with them). The one I met before deciding to live with became my fiancée.
So, yeah, good experiences.

Krade

2009-12-13, 12:32 PM

I am forgotten :smallfrown:

If it makes you feel any better, I remembered when I saw you were the last poster and I had a hunch that you were gonna say something along those lines . As I said, it was a little over 2 years ago and events get a little fuzzy for me after around 1 year.

Solaris

2009-12-13, 02:44 PM

Ah come on man, if I could resist saying it on these forums you have to do it as well, otherwise it just ain't fair! :smallbiggrin:

Well, when ya set 'em up like T-ball...

Thufir

2009-12-13, 03:14 PM

Another forum I was a member of was just populated by a group of friends from my area, so I knew most of them already, but being on this forum meant I got to know them better, and a couple I only met on the forum, and then in RL. Nothing notable there though.

Playgrounder-wise:
Two weeks ago yesterday, I went down to Oxford and met CurlyKitGirl. 'Twas awesome, we got on very well.
And then yesterday I went to the UKitP meetup in York, and met Last_resort_33, KuReshtin, Dr. Bath, Glug, Lorn, Kobold-Bard, skadisphoenix, Aubit and TraXy. Was good. Meetups are fun.

Amiria

2009-12-13, 04:04 PM

I have met only one person that I met on the Playground first in real life so far. Once 2007 in Hamburg, once 2008 in Wacken, but probaly not this year.

Catch

2009-12-13, 04:15 PM

With a Canadian girl, I had a brief online fling, which visited the real world and asphyxiated almost immediately. Be warned, internet relationships can be obligate anaerobes. (Also, get recent photos, from multiple angles.)

The upside is that her ex is now one of my best friends, and we visit once a year and have a fantastic time. He is still a bastard for not warning me.

Trog

2009-12-13, 04:32 PM

Meeting people from online is fun, generally. :smallsmile: I've had lots of fun at various meet ups with GitPers and other more intimate meetings for gaming and such. Met a couple of girlfriends online through various sources too. Nothing that worked out long term but that's life, internet or no. :smallwink:

As with meeting people in real life you always run the risk of not getting along with a person somehow that presents itself only in person and not online. But at least you already know you have some of the same interests through your prior online interactions and such. Plus there are things you can only do in person. Like kubb and such *hugs his kubb set* ^_^

In particular I have to say that GitPers are, by and large, a good bunch to meet and hang out with. Most awesome people on the nets, really. :smallsmile:

Pyrian

2009-12-13, 04:44 PM

(Also, get recent photos, from multiple angles.):smallbiggrin: The whole strategy of putting, erm, unrepresentative photos on the internet strikes me as foolish. What do these people think is going to happen when the people they're trying to date find out what they really look like!? Sure seems to happen a lot, though. :smallconfused:

Player_Zero

2009-12-13, 04:51 PM

Meeting people normally is a horrible experience you should avoid at the cost of your life. So why would you meet people you've met online?

Decoy Lockbox

2009-12-13, 10:12 PM

All of my friends are in meatspace. I feel so alone :smalleek:

Anuan

2009-12-13, 11:22 PM

I met my best friend nearly six years ago online. He's my room-mate now. Works out well :smalltongue:

Alarra

2009-12-14, 12:18 AM

I have met tons of people from the internet, not only on gitp. Back when I first joined the boards I met a guy on here that I dated for four years. I 'dated' a couple other board members, then met Zeb and we've been married a year and a half now. A lot of my best real life friends are ones that I've met on the boards, and now we play a couple time monthly rl d&d game with some of them. I don't think I could even list all of the playgrounders that I have met, I've been to dozens of meetups. Personally, I think the internet is a great place to meet people.

Mary Leathert

2009-12-14, 04:36 AM

Well, first when I was something like thirteen, I met a person I had personally contacted through e-mail because I noticed that she was from the same town as me, and I wanted friends who would share my interests (Digimon, at the time). We became friends. I wasn't afraid that she would be something else than she said to be, because it was quite a small site and Finnish.

Some years later I met with the core group of this RP-forum I was going to. The six of us are quite close to this day (at least for three years now), even though most of us live in different cities/towns. But when we have time, we spend a weekend or a bit longer period together and have fun.

And I have been to larger meetings of people from certain forums. Those meetings were some of the best times in my life.

So in general, my life would have been a lot more antisocial and boring if I had refused to meet people from the Internet.

Eldan

2009-12-14, 04:40 AM

I met Ashtar, from these forums here, a few weeks ago. He showed me the local game shop (for Warhammer miniatures) and we went out for a drink, mutually wondering about why there are so damn few DnD players and other nerds in this country, or, if there are, why we can't find them.

arguskos

2009-12-14, 04:48 AM

I've met two folks from these fine forums: Sstoopidtallkid (met for gaming, became friends, is generally pretty awesome) and Bor the Barbarian Monk (a gentleman of honor and fortune he is, none like him in the world).

So far, I've got a damn solid track record! I'd say it's pretty safe in general. Just, don't do something silly like give them your address, house keys, vital identifying information, etc, and you'll be just fine.

Fan

2009-12-14, 05:11 AM

While I've only met... 3 people IRL that I met on the nets (not on these boards, and these 3 people happen to be the 3 that got me into Roleplaying in the first place.); I can generally agree that if you spend say... 2 months or more getting to know someone with a decent trend on these boards, I think the chances are almost null that you'll end up having a bad experience. (Our wonderful mod policy keeps the trolls, and those who would perpetuate these kinds of bad things pretty much out of the boards.)

After all, if your friends online, what stops ye from being friends irl if you meet? :smallconfused:

Koury

2009-12-14, 05:47 AM

You know, whether or not its a good thing, I always usually end up asking someone what their SSN is when I start talking to them. I throw it in casually and see what they do. Usually get some 555 joke. One of these times though, someone will answer me. I won't do a single thing with it (and really wouldn't know what to do with it anyway) but it'll be funny to me.

Well, honestly, I'd most likely assume they just made it up.

I wonder if I've ever made anyone stop talking to me because they thought I was serious...

ghost_warlock

2009-12-14, 07:10 AM

Hm. I find it kind of odd and a bit annoying that I've never actually met face-to-face with anyone that I initially met on the internet. The closest I've come is adding a few people as friends on Facebook. :smallfrown:

I suppose if anyone ever wanted to come visit me for some reason, I could put you up on my couch for a few days. As long as it doesn't turn into something out of the first season of The Guild. :smalltongue:

KuReshtin

2009-12-14, 09:48 AM

I've been to a whole bunch of meets with people from the interwebs.

First was a couple of small meets when the internet was still pretty young (well, around 1995-ish) and the instant messenger of choice for people were PowWow. ICQ hadn't been invented yet and web-chats tried to compete with IRC.

Biggest of those meets were a 40-man get-together/party where we ended up sitting around a bonfire, drinking beer and other assorted alcoholic beverages.

A bit later (June 1998), I went for my most exciting meet-up, which ended up being a 3½ week tour of the southern states of the US, meeting a lot of people I'd got to know at one of the GeoCities webchats. There were a couple that had met over the chat, got together and got married, and invited al the regulars from the chat to join them in New Orleans for a wedding ceremony/party for a weekend. We ended up being about 20-ish people that weekend in New Orleans, including one Brit, two Swedes, a Canadian and an Australian, all of who had travelled to the US from their home countries to meet up and have a bit of fun.
For a 3½ week trip, I had 4 nights booked in a hotel before i touched down in Nashville, hoping a couple of friends would be waiting for me to pick me up. Had they not been there, I don't have a clue what I'd have done. I would have been on my own, in the US, with very little money, and at 23, I later found out that I'd have had a problem being allowed to rent a car as most rental companies require you to be 25, at least if you had a foreign licence only.

Fast forward again a few years, and the web-chats as I'd known them had passed, and I found the H2G2 community. A bunch of people living in Scotland met up on 5th August, 2000 in what turned out to be a bi-annual meetup where we usually always ended up at a pub all day, even though we always tried to think of something else to do, like Laser Quest, 10-pin bowling, Halloween Ghost Tours in Edinburgh and stuff like that.

A couple of my very best friends is from that group of people, and I just attended the wedding reception of two of them the other week, and I'm going to spend New Years with another couple that also got married that met through that group.

And the latest in the string of interwebs meet-ups are the UKitP meetups, where I've been to 4 of the 6 that have been planned and I've met a whole bunch of playgrounders from the UK including, but not limited to, Glug, LR_33, Lensman, Castaras, Kantur, Thufir, Charity, Dr. Bath, Lorn and Kobold Bard.
(Sorry for anyone I left out, but there have been quite a few at the UK meets over the years)
I'm hoping to be able, at some point, to attend another playground meet or two (the Dutch one being the most convenient as its not too far away).

So, I have no problems at all meeting people from the interwebs.

Sorry for the post going on and on and on. :smallsmile:

Zeb The Troll

2009-12-14, 10:09 AM

Tri state area is New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.Funny, Wikipedia says that there are 34 places in the US that refer to their locations as "the Tri-State area" so you'll pardon me if I don't just take your word for it. :smallcool:

As for me, my story mimics Alarra's largely, except she's got a couple more meetups under her belt than I do. There are a few of us around that have more or less made an art of meetups, though. Namely those in the Johnson City, TN area though Alarra and I are trying to match up with them on the scale of "let's do this at the same time every year". We're a bit behind the power curve, though, since we a) don't have as many locals who are able/willing to help out, and b) don't have the same sorts of contacts/COOL PLACES that Johnson City has. (Nope, I'm not jealous, not at all... :smallsigh:) :smallcool:

Long story short, I'd rarely turn down the opportunity to meet internet people who share interests with me if there's any way I can get there.

Destro_Yersul

2009-12-14, 10:23 AM

I've never technically been to a meetup, and I've only made one trip to meet Internet people. Met Rabbit, Twobit, Teru, Noir and Reinholdt. All of whom are awesome, Rabbit especially. If I missed someone, you're awesome too, you just slipped my mind because it's 7AM.

On one separate occasion, my friend's ex came up here for a visit, and I got to meet her. That was kind of interesting, though we didn't have much to talk about.

And, come March, I'll be off on another trip to visit another person I met over the internet. Should prove to be a fun trip.

Neko Toast

2009-12-14, 10:39 AM

People I've met on the Internet. Well, I met Kara Kuro... but I met her in real life first. She joined the forums a while after that. So, that really doesn't count.

I got nothin', then. Couldn't make it to the Midwest meetup because of school and monetary issues.

Cristo Meyers

2009-12-14, 11:10 AM

Been to the last two Johnson City meetups and hosted one of our own here in Chicago in November, each one was a blast.

Maybe this place forms the exception, because I've seen other boards attempt meetups and fail miserably.

valadil

2009-12-14, 11:26 AM

Met my fiancee online. Does that count?

I did a decent amount of internet dating before I got to her. Nothing overly weird ever happened. That said, I'm a guy. Almost every girl I met online had horror stories. What I learned from them is that you should talk on the phone first, meet in a public place, and have an escape route of some sort planned. A popular option for the escape route was to have a friend call 30 minutes into the meetup and use the call as an opportunity to bail.

Reinboom

2009-12-14, 11:59 AM

If it makes you feel any better, I remembered when I saw you were the last poster and I had a hunch that you were gonna say something along those lines . As I said, it was a little over 2 years ago and events get a little fuzzy for me after around 1 year.

Wah? You saw me 4 months ago. I was at the last GenCon as well (and the two before that). Gothic Lolita dress. :smalleek:

Ashtar

2009-12-14, 12:11 PM

In 1996-7, I spent quite some time on one of the online chats and ended up meeting several of the people offline. My best memory is meeting "Merveille", a beautiful, charming and intelligent woman with whom I went partying. She brought along her girlfriend and we had many a good times.

Later, after online rpg meetup, I had a string of people I knew and would visit, mostly spread across France. For several years, I corresponded with some Parisians and went to spend week-ends there.

I also went to the Chaos Computer Club meet-ups in Germany for several years running, first the Underground style one in Hamburg, where the riot police threatened to storm the building after the club hacked bank terminals. Then the tamer, but no less fun ones in Berlin.

I've been to one of the Dutch meetups, which was concentrated awesome, met loads of playgrounders and wonderful D&D. Shout-outs to Zweanslord, Dallas-Dakota, MrEdwardNigma, Lord Herman, InaVegt, Tamis.

A couple of weeks ago, Eldan and I went for some drinks and shared books. So I guess we had the first in-official Swiss GitP meet-up.

In all my time, I've never had bad experiences, at most realizing that you communicate better online than offline.

CurlyKitGirl

2009-12-14, 12:18 PM

I have had three miniature meetups now.
First time was, oh my, about two years ago. It was me and Dr. Bath, but Curly's Best Friend came along too. We had fun and for my first internet meetup it went pretty well.
Nerves, sure, but I got over them pretty quickly.
Second time around was last year. Me, Bath, Kaelaroth and RightHandLess in Londinium of all places. Quite an intimidating place to meet, but again, lots of fun.
Last time was a fortnight ago. Me and Thufir in Oxford.

In all of these places I was in a city I had either never been in before, or had not been in for very long.
Somehow that made things better. Best thing to do do is to relax and have fun.

EDIT:
And out of those two (three including Best Friend) now have my address, and all but one have my mobile number.

Mauve Shirt

2009-12-14, 12:30 PM

Cristo Meyers

2009-12-14, 01:13 PM

My father continues to hate the idea of meeting anyone from the internet and reminded me of that loudly last night. :smallsigh: Oh well, I'm almost 21. I wish I had a job and a method of transport so I could be actually independent of that kind of crap.
This is the only internet community I'm a part of with people I actually want to meet. Someday I'll go to the JC meetup.

Talk to Alarra and Zeb, they come from that general direction.

It never ceases to amaze me what people seem to think of us sometimes. Once we go from "party" to "internet meetup" we apparently attain all sorts of strange deviances.

It'd be a shame if they ever found out we were actually normal (for given values of the word "normal")

randman22222

2009-12-14, 01:34 PM

I still need to meet a bunch of you guys. I came close to tase meeting Cristo, but that died. Oh well. I'll definitely go to Chicago again some time.

Cristo Meyers

2009-12-14, 01:53 PM

I still need to meet a bunch of you guys. I came close to tase meeting Cristo, but that died. Oh well. I'll definitely go to Chicago again some time.

Blame the US economy and me getting laid off at the time. I travel 10 hours to Johnson City every year, a train ride downtown is nothing :smalltongue:

Krade

2009-12-14, 06:30 PM

Wah? You saw me 4 months ago. I was at the last GenCon as well (and the two before that). Gothic Lolita dress. :smalleek:
I'm thinking there's a misunderstanding here. When I gathered that list of names, I was speaking specifically of GenCon 2007. Not a complete list of all the people I've met. That list would've been much longer and definitely would've had you on it.

Tawmis

2009-12-14, 07:11 PM

So, it seems like I will soon be meeting someone in real life who I met online. This would be the second time I'd have done this.

Is it weird to meet people online still? What about you guys? You guys ever met anyone in real life who you met online? And I don't mean like someone from craigslist who you give $20 for some game or something either.

The person I met online is the person I married; and she and I have been married like 13 years now. Granted, it wasn't the Internet per se... it was - what was back in the day - way ahead of it's time - an online gaming site/service called ImagiNatioN (also called The Sierra Network). We had met there and talked - she flew out. We met. She left. Flew back out. Never left. We got married.

I have also met a friend by the name of Lindsay, who I knew online for something like 10 years before we ever met in person (we used to write together - an ongoing fan story!) - and she is perhaps the bestest friend I could have ever asked for and love her absolutely.

As for it being weird - not at all. No worse than picking someone up at a bar.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll

2009-12-14, 10:19 PM

Never met anyone I met online. Except this one guy I see walking down the street sometimes who I SWEAR I recognise from the YOU thread of this forum. Blonde hair, ponytail, walks north on Queen street? No?

Anyways, being only 15 kinda puts a damper on most meet-up hopes. Still hoping to make it to GenCon in the next year or two.

Zeb The Troll

2009-12-15, 01:19 AM

Talk to Alarra and Zeb, they come from that general direction.We actually had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Shirt at our Baltimore/DC area meetup that we had in October. Admittedly she had other things on her mind at the time, so we didn't get to spend as much time as we'd have liked, but we enjoyed her company enough to know we'd love to have her back over some time when she's not doing the whole "school" thing.

As far as that goes, I can't think of a single person I've met from here that I would say no to meeting again, even for no reason in particular.

That being said, I've been to a couple of gatherings that got very large (OotS Con II and GenCon Meetup '08 both approached 40 people) and that made it harder to get to know a lot of people as well as is possible in the smaller ones. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that ~20 is the "sweet spot" for being able to meet a lot of folks and actually get to interact with them over a 3-day period.