Topic: Meeting People From an Online Medium
started by: TheTaxMan
Posted by TheTaxMan on Jun. 30 2002,08:09
You see it on TV.You hear it on the radio.
You read about it online and in the newspaper.
Meeting people you've met online leads to disaster.
Or does it?
In the past, I had litle desire to meat anyone I'd ever met online. Over years of playing online games with the same people, eventually you start to talk about your life and how awful it is or how you got a BJ five minutes ago. Most of the time, you find that these people live at least a few states, if not countries, away. "Why would I want to meet these people anyway?" was generally how I recieved it. However, a situation arose eventually. One of my MUD'ing friends lived in Florida and, guess what, I was moving there. Hm. Interesting. We had always toyed with the idea of meeting each other in New Orleans eventually, but I knew (even if he didn't) that this would never happen. But now I live in the same state! Why shouldn't I see this guy?
So I did. He drove to my house over spring break and we hung out for a few days. He's one of the best friends I have and I've only seen him in person twice.
I look at all the reports on 20/20 and 60 Minutes about how kids haved destroyed their and their families lives becasue they ran off with some internet stranger and laugh. There must be some truth behind it all, but there is truth behind kidnapping children from playgrounds as well.
From the results of the poll on DetCon, I can more or less tell how this post will be received. How much validity is there -really- in Barbra Walters "Internet Horror" melodramas? What do you think?
Posted by Beastie Dr on Jun. 30 2002,08:20
I think I will stalk the 13 year old daughter of Barbara Walters posing online as a 14 year old boy and rape her.
Posted by forumwhore on Jun. 30 2002,10:45
Damn Beastie, if these were moderated forums you'd get hammered on the pedophelia thing...I met Wiley and we went out for drinks; other than I smoked, I think he had fun...
All but one of the hot teen bitches delivered to my inbox daily, turned out to lie about their weight.
Like by being off by 50 pounds/22kg...
The one who didn't lie was just expensive.
Posted by ShakerMaker on Jun. 30 2002,11:09
Met heaps of people (males and females) of the net from forums like this one, just meet up at the footy as we support the same team. Never tried to pick up chicks off the net either. Not that desperate... Yet.
We get few reports of old guys posing as kids and trying to pick up young boys/girls of chat rooms etc. But I've yet to meet anyone that is completely fucked in the head.
Posted by richard on Jun. 30 2002,11:31
Hey, I live in New Orleans.
Posted by WillyPete on Jun. 30 2002,18:07
I'm on a few other forums, principally about snowboarding.I've started and helped plan a whole bunch of get-togethers.
I've even organised a discount trip to Les Arcs in 2000 for 10 of us who got together off a forum and one of my best buddies is a guy I met off one.
To be honest, yes, you can meet some real wankers, but the rest far outweigh the one or two morons.
One thing that does help, is to have something in common. to fall back on and discuss when you finally meet up. Aside from pc's, a lot of us at detnet have varied interests.
If you do get together, make sure that most of you drink. Drinking games will ALWAYS break the ice and you'll have something to laugh about afterwards.
Posted by kuru on Jun. 30 2002,18:43
Like kuru's east coast tour, eh?I've met askheaves, morganisms, CK, Wolf and Anztac from the forums and Swish from #detnet and was supposed to meet SLATE but his mom wouldn't let him go.
No unfortunate incidents of insanity or anything that would get ratings on Dateline NBC, and I am still alive and still meeting detnetters.
I can't tell y'all how many people I know both online and in 'real life', some of whom I knew in the 3D world before the 2D and some the other way around.
It would be just silly to say that it's impossible to meet good friends online, because to be realistic, the 'net is a part of modern life. It's not something that exists separate from life, it's a part of life. And the people you get to know online are just as real (and sometimes a hell of a lot more worthwhile) as the people in the 3D world.
Posted by waltre on Jun. 30 2002,19:46
Has anyone ever met anyone in person, then met them online?This would be a massive coincidence.
Posted by Marauder on Jun. 30 2002,19:56
Some of the best friendshis were made when the gaming community at my college decided to get together in RL for scheduled dinners. The dinners thing didn't last too long, but I met all of my future clanmates and all of the staples of the gaming community. And most of us are fast friends even today.And about that abduction thing, I seem to recall a statistic that states that the vast majority of abductions are carried out by family members or close family friends. So I'm not against meeting. Besides, you can abduct me any time - I can't stand home and then you'll have to put up with me.
Muhahahaha!
Posted by Bob_the_Cannibal on Jun. 30 2002,20:13
waltre: yeah, I met one of my friends from school a long time (and few cities) ago online, and, by coincidence, he lives a few blocks away. trippy.
Posted by waltre on Jun. 30 2002,20:33
Imagine if you decided to meet one of your online pedophile friends from 'AustNet: #pedophile' in real life, only to discover they were a 10 year old kid."The ironing is delicious" - Bart Simpson
Posted by Wolfguard on Jul. 01 2002,13:17
I never had a problem with meeting people in the 3d world (like that term) after meeting them on line.Met the Mrs on line in fact.
Posted by kuru on Jul. 01 2002,14:38
I liked your admission when you got out of the car wherever the hell in PA that house was - that you were drivin there with me following wondering if I was going to draw on you and demand to know exactly where the fuck I was. 
Posted by ic0n0 on Jul. 01 2002,14:41
Beastie Dr lives like less then a mile from me, but I have never met him.
Posted by Wiley on Jul. 01 2002,15:23
Years ago I used to hang out on IRC a lot and eventually went out to a bar with all the regulars I chatted with. Most of them were pretty cool, but there was a certain dork element that some of us tried to ditch early into the evening. That's when I realised that despite the fact that we all chatted every night and there were no social cliques online, once we got into the real world it was just like any other group of people getting together ...we broke into small groups and spent the evening with the people most like us. Everything was different online from that point on as well. You kind of loose the mystery about some people which can be a bad thing. I remember thinking to myself "My god, I thought he was joking about being such a looser" and "I wonder how long she spent in Photoshop on that pic she sent me where she actually looked hot". Then again I got friends who got married to people they met online. It can go either way I guess, you just gotta keep an open mind because you never know what's going to happen.
Posted by Necromancer on Jul. 01 2002,15:36
i'm up to 6 12 year olds and the police still have'nt tracked me down
Posted by demonk on Jul. 01 2002,16:40
/me makes phone call to police...
Posted by jim on Jul. 01 2002,19:11
Meeting people from online is cool.I just got back from a huge rifle shoot with the guys from the www.ar15.com forums.
Imagine meeting a bunch of people for the first time, and everyone of them is armed to the teeth with Class 3 weapons.
Posted by Wolfguard on Jul. 01 2002,19:44
Now that is cool.