Meeting net buddies for real

[claire_louise]

I can see how people can form strong relationships over the net. My boyfriend and I met at school but we were always in different friendship groups and never really spoke to each other in person, until a friend gave me his email address and we started chatting over msn. It's a lot less embarrassing and you feel able to be yourself more when you're not face-to-face. We became really close talking in that way and eventually got up the courage to meet up - almost five years later, we're still together.

[Ryan]

Yeah, Dan has had the pleasure of spending a night with SDA.

[Eli]

I think I would meet up with internet friends, but there would be a few criterias of course.

Firsty I wouldn't just meet up with some random person I met on myspace, I would want to have spoken to the person more than one place, like added him/her om msn and spoken for some time.

Also I would look at how much the person would give away of him/herself on the net. Like, if you see someone's blog over several years, photos and talks to him/her om msn that makes them a bit more trustworthy (IMO) than a person going by the name of "pretty-girl-742465".

Also I would definitely only have the first meeting somewhere public, like a café or a coffee house or something. I wouldn't wanna meet a net-friend in some dark alley in a huge city, or by ringing the doorbell to some shabby apartment

Text messaging, calling and letters (not e-mail) is a plus before you meet, cause then you'll have personal contact details for the person, which somehow makes me feel more secure at least.

[Vivica]

I think i would do it but i would only meet them if i've talked to them over msn etc for a long period of time and i wouldn't go alone and like Eli meet in a public place!

[Zetti]

Meeting a net buddy would be a possibility but I would be very careful

[lollipop_lover11]

I would do it but not until I really got to know them.

[matty92]

I have nothing against, if you met someone on the internet, and actually become really, reeeeallly great friends with them, I think it would be good to make the friendship possible in person. The only probelm is working out a 'safe' way of meeting up.

[Skykat]

I was always dead set against meeting up with people I'd met on the internet because there's so many risks involved. Over the years though I've made some great friends on here and with things like msn and facebook, its pretty easy to tell whos for real and whos not. When their family are posting things on their facebook page, any lies they might have told become glaringly obvious. We actually and by we I mean a number of the moderators, were very good friends with somebody on here but when one of us got hold of their bebo pagew it became clear that we'd been lied to for several years over pretty big stuff. That's the preoblem with meeting people over the internet.

That said I'm planning to go and live with two people I met on here in a few months time and I've never met them face to face before. I'm pretty confident it'll be okay though because we've been talking to each other on here and msn for years and we're on facebook and have each others mobiles.

I know this is an old thread I've dredged up but I was just wondering if the new things such as facebook have effected anyone elses outlook on this?

[Cal]

We actually and by we I mean a number of the moderators, were very good friends with somebody on here but when one of us got hold of their bebo pagew it became clear that we'd been lied to for several years over pretty big stuff. That's the preoblem with meeting people over the internet.

*shudders* I still find that really freaky... That's why I need pictures and msn/facebook/myspace because without those, I feel like I could be talking to a bald fifty-year old bloke who wears a batman t-shirt.

I don't think I'd have the courage to meet up with people here. I could definitely trust some of them, but I wouldn't be able to actually go to X point and meet them. I'd find it really difficult

[suzannelgnz]

We actually and by we I mean a number of the moderators, were very good friends with somebody on here but when one of us got hold of their bebo pagew it became clear that we'd been lied to for several years over pretty big stuff. That's the preoblem with meeting people over the internet.

*shudders* I still find that really freaky... That's why I need pictures and msn/facebook/myspace because without those, I feel like I could be talking to a bald fifty-year old bloke who wears a batman t-shirt.

I don't think I'd have the courage to meet up with people here. I could definitely trust some of them, but I wouldn't be able to actually go to X point and meet them. I'd find it really difficult

I think that if I really got to know someone, I probably would but it'd have to be somewhere I knew really well.

I hate it when you get all of these randoms adding you even if your profile is set to private on facebook/bebo. I have never had any problems with Msn (mainly because so few people know the e-mail address I use for it).