meeting people in real life that you've met online...done it?

who has? i never have but i've met some people online who i wish i could meet in person. if you've done it before what was your experience? are the people the same in person as you had imagined? are they different? is it best to keep an online relationship online?

edited to add..

also, where online did you meet? how old are you/were you? does that make a difference?

One guy I met up with at Disneyland... I was there with my family and he lived in So Cal, so he drove up to see me for the day. The next time I saw him I flew down to CA from WA. I was 15 almost 16 ( I think ) when we met at DL, and when I flew down to his house I was almost 17.

The guy I went on a date with, I think I was 19 then, and he came and picked me up at my apartment (where I lived alone... probably not the best idea haha)

And the guy who was a friend of a friend came over to my apartment too, but seeing as a ton of my childhood friends knew him, I was pretty sure he wasn't a psycho stalker. That was around the same time, I think I was 19.

I've met quite a few people from on line and so far I've been lucky. *knocks on wood. Ha Ha.

My first meeting was with a couple who owned a fan site of a celebrity I liked and I had been on their on line forum for awhile (still there today, in fact.) I was 16 at the time. I had found out that the wife's parents lived around my area so we met up at a local McDonald's (where I brought my mother, sister, and cousin for the hell of it...it was my first meeting after all and I was a minor. Heh.) They also brought their 2 year old son. (he's now almost 8! Hard to believe,) Anyway, my mom invited them back to our house afterwards for a bit and we all just talked and stuff, it was nice. I've known them ever since. In 2005 we also went on a road trip and there I also met another great guy from the site who they had previously met in person. This guy and I totally hit it off and became great friends. He actually gave me my first tattoo...FREE, since he's a wonderful and very talented tattoo artist. Every time I see that tattoo I think of him. We still talk as well.

I recently met another girl from the site where I met the others who happened to live around my area. Which was pretty cool since I really did not know anyone around here or had any friends. (actually this girl is my only friend around here still.) we also hit it off since we had similar pasts. My fiance and I met her about a year ago and we are still all friends. In fact, I just talked to her on the phone last night. :)

I met a guy from around my old home area. I remembered his sister from school who was a grade ahead of me and I vaguley remembered him as he was in the grade under me, but I never talked to him before. Well he found me on myspace and we decided to meet up. We also became really good friends and shared a lot of interests. We are also still good friends.

I met my current fiance on the net as well through myspace. Well he saw a post I made on imdb.com and in the post I made I had put a link to my myspace and he started e-mailing me and we totally hit it off. His e-mails were just so humorous and witty. We had first started talking in late March and his parents and him came to my parent's home for a day and stayed over night and we hit it off even better. By September I had moved in with him and we have been living together for almost 2 years now! (Very hard to believe, but he is my very absolute best friend and I love him, dearly.)

Oddly enough, I may be meeting someone I've talked to on and off for a few years. Well now he's living close around my area and we are trying to set something up to meet sometime next week. However, I'm not really sure if this will happen as he the type that says things, but doesn't really pull through with it. Heh. But, who knows? It may just be another one to the list. And hopefully he will turn out to become a great friend. :)

I think meeting people on the net, is indeed, a very dangerous thing. And you should be careful. My tips are to talk to this person at least for a few months. Talk to them on the phone a couple of times, meet in a PUBLIC place and if you can bring a friend or two along...Some people are just creepy. Ha Ha.

i meant....where ONLINE are you meeting the people? i would NEVER meet in a private place for the first meeting, maybe not even until like the 10th...lol. it just depends on the feeling but i meant where do you meet them online, initially?

Well that depends. People who are looking for love usually venture the online dating sites. (Never been to them.)

Some people meet from finding people with similar interests on such sites as Myspace, Facebook (and sites like them.)

Joining a site of a person/ or something you take interest in and communicating on the site's online forums (much like CC) is a good one too. You can form really good bonds since the people there are generally interested in at least one thing you are as well. (hense why they're at the site too. Heh.)

The last choice is how I met most of the people that I have.

There is this service called "couchsurfers" in which if your traveling to a certain place... instead of booking a hostel or even if you just want to meet someone from the place itself rather than hang out with other tourists who are just as lost/informed as you, you can ask them if they would be up for receiving you.

The only recomendation is to choose someone with previous positive comments. Its kind of like hostelworld in which you see the amount of stars a certain place has in order to give you a feeling for what your paying for. So others will leave comment like, "this person was very friendly and helpful", "she knew exactly where to take me to go out at night.. had great fun with her", "kind of quiet and shy, yet lives in a great location".. etc.

Once I ended up in a squat house in Brussels with a group of squatters who were all traveling and ended up liking the place and forming their own community and loved to have visitors over. I still keep in touch with many of these people who I really didnt even speak to before actually seeing them in person more than by a simple email.

I also met quite a few people when I used to manage a fan website for an english gaming company. Went several times to Guildford for that and met people from the community.

I've met a few people from the internet (mostly guys). My online meeting people history:

My first bf. Met on ICQ (anyone remember that?). Dated long distance. Sucked. Stopped talking after 2.5 years of that. Never officially got dumped but I knew he was seeing someone else.

Met another guy on a social networking site (pre-Facebook/Myspace). Chatted online for years, then reconnected. I flew to Ottawa to meet him. Total disaster. Big embarassment.

Met two guys from thespark.com (which I think is called something else now). Turned out to be great friends.

Some random guy msged me on Myspace. Dated briefly. Got dumped, which lead me to ...

Plenty of Fish. Met two guys who sucked. Then I met my current bf, with whom I've dated for almost 3 years and will marry some day soon. So there you have it.

Oh, I also met a pretty good girlfriend through Pearl Jam web sites, though we've never actually "met" because she lives in a different city.

Met husband on a band's fansite.  He posted something about a song, I responded...yadda yadda yadda...6 years later we were married.

Original Post by pgeorgian:

i met starlitocean a couple of weeks ago :)

i've dated a couple of guys i met online. one ended up being an ass; the other is a friend now.

CD, i'm still here and you're not invisible. and i'd love to have a few beers with you, but i'm not coming to toledo.

(speaking of invisible, remember that time i blocked you, because you were so annoying, but then i had to unblock every time you posted because i couldn't stand not knowing what you were saying? that was funny.)

i met PG a couple of weeks ago!  :)

ps - she's awesome.

i've also met a couple of other awesome girls from this site too. 

I know it seems like it, but just because you meet them online doesn't make them any creepier than the guy you just met at the bar. Just sayin'. Freaks are everywhere, online and offline.

I met my husband in a Napster chatroom! He was being rude to me, so I messaged him in private asking why he was so rude! We became friends, some point later on we met. I met him the airport, I was SO NERVOUS! I blushed and was all shy the entire time. Ugggh. But we hit it off just fine (obviously). Got married 5 years later, been married 3 years now since. :D

My husband was also the first british guy I ever met, and the first person I ever spoke to over the PC! He took my voice chat virginity and then later, webcam! :0

Edit: I've never met a friend online, I don't think anyone would wanna be my friend. Not saying I'm a bad friend or person or anything, nor am I being emo-ish, I'm just a recluse by nature and that seems to make friends disappear. I'm shy and not very socialable... I'm terrible at this stuff. I don't see how I could ever get a friend and if I did, manage to keep one.

Original Post by chrissy1988:

there are so many CCers that i want to meet in person but none seem to be nearby. i live in los angeles, you'd think there would be more people on here from around the area :(

check out this thread in the Lounge

http://caloriecount.about.com/local-regional- cc-groups-meetup-directory-ft50358

Original Post by clairelaine:

Original Post by chrissy1988:

there are so many CCers that i want to meet in person but none seem to be nearby. i live in los angeles, you'd think there would be more people on here from around the area :(

check out this thread in the Lounge

http://caloriecount.about.com/local-regional- cc-groups-meetup-directory-ft50358

Took a look - unfortunately, the Pittsburgh, PA thread died in late 2007...

i have met people online before, i was really shy when i was younger so it was hard for me to meet people (or so i felt). i would be super nervous and meet up in public places.. ive had lots of dissapointments but i did end up meeting my fiancee online! so i guess it worked out.

I've been meeting people I talk to online for a couple months now. I've been on about 5 or 6 dates with different guys, in obviously public places. Some of them were nice, other ones were not, some were creepy, etc.

The one I'm "seeing" now is fantastic. We talked online for a few weeks and then spent the next week or two on the phone for hours at a time. I met him, he was cute, sweet, funny and just generally fantastic. We clicked. I've been seeing him ever since (ok, well not that long, but about 3 weeks now).
I really like meeting people that I talk to online. It's nice to get to know someone before you meet them. There's no blind date feel to it as long as both of you are honest about what you look like (if you're talking a dating site, otherwise, a friendship thing wouldn't relate to the looks department).

Overall, I've really enjoyed meeting people online this way. Some people think it's weird, but I've had a lot better luck meeting really nice guys online than I have in real life. I wouldn't even know where to start looking honestly. =)

Met my current bf on Christian mingle. I was just looking for friends, but he is pretty awesome. To me, it is just as random as meeting someone anywhere else. You can run into a complete weirdo at the bank or any other public place. (Trustme, I did. And he was not adding to a savings account as I later found out- but paying off a negative account).

My and bf talked over the phone first and he was nice and friendly. We hit it off and have not looked back.

I've met close to 100 people in real life that I met online first. 

I help moderate an online (music) fansite and about 5-6 years ago or so we began having meet-ups all over the world.  I helped host some of the first meet-ups in my hometown and had people come stay with me and I've been offered places to stay practically all over the country (US - LA, Seattle, Chicago, NYC, Miami, Phoenix, etc.) and have also visited folks in London, Manchester and Amsterdam. 

I'm not so much for the big meet-ups anymore, but I still travel a few times a year to catch up with people I've already met and occasionally meet a few new people.  I've been lucky in that I've never had a bad experience.  People are usually pretty close to how they portray themselves online.  I also have gotten to know people fairly well online and a few phone calls before actually going to meet them.

i'm like carrie, i host an online art group that has over 200,000 members and have both traveled and hosted meet-ups. i have friends all over the world and an open invitation to crash pretty much anywhere i want to go. my best friend lives across the country and gave me keys to his place, so i can hop a last minute $100 flight to SF any time i feel like it.

before the art group i went on a ton of dates (mixed results), made lots of friends, met my husband (divorcing after 7 years), and eventually met the person who i am with now (very nice and total opposite of 1st husband). next week art people will be flying in from the bahamas, and after that i'll be heading over to the UK to visit friends and work for a few artists i know.

i love the internet for the way it has blown open the ability to meet people and socialize based on mutual interests rather than the happenstance of meeting in a bar or a library or whatever.

life is very very good.

I have a friend who married a guy she met online, and he's fantastic, but I met a guy once from the internet, and it turns out that the cyberspace was necessary to mask his body odor. It was terrible.

Original Post by chrissy1988:

there are so many CCers that i want to meet in person but none seem to be nearby. i live in los angeles, you'd think there would be more people on here from around the area :(

 

WHERE ARE YOU GUYS MEETING THESE PEOPLE?? THAT'S THE IMPORTANT QUESTION :)

 I live in LA and I know at least 4 or 5 others that live in the area as well. I've met up with a few of them and we've become good friends. I know fitnessgirl lives out here somewhere, I'd love to go to her gym and see what kind of butt-kicking she gives!

When I was in college I was an avid poster on a message board run by and filled with students at my school.  I knew a couple of people from class or student government, but I met a lot more from the site.  They would have parties every once in a while and afterwards pictures were always posted online of who got drunk and which girls were cute.  I would always try to place the faces with the names.  One day my res hall floor had a Halloween party.  I posted about it on the site, and sure enough 3 guys game.  I remember standing in my room with my door locked and staring out the peephole wanting to meet them but being terrified.  I eventually went to some of the parties and got to know them.  Five years later I still keep in touch with quite a few of them (the joys of facebook) but I am close friends with only a few of them. 

I really like the safety of the internet.  The anonymity of it allows me to be myself without holding back or pretending to be someone I'm not.  When people get to know me online, they are seeing me as I really am.  So when we make the jump from online friendship to face to face friendship, that relationship is based on them really knowing me. 

Well I am coming in on this one a little late but I have met 3 girls here on CC and since 1 of them was not very impressed...I can at least say I have made two very good friendships out of it.

We meet up for Happy hours and go on walks, hikes and things like that:) I feel very blessed to have met them and think the support we all are able to give eachother is  great:)