I've met dozens of eoffers...

[Peegee]

..and I have no idea why this is a normal thing. Do people in forums regularly meet each other 'IRL' or do they usually stay online friends?

I ask because I have always been in online social constructs where the idea of meeting up was a possibility which never happens. For example I used to know somebody from starcraft 1 who live(d)(s) in the city south of me. I could visit the person any time, but never did. I did meet my friend Max from Montreal but that's only because he happened to come to Toronto when I was free. I let him stay the night at my place (not sure where he would've ended up otherwise)

Then there's the piles of eoffers I've met. Granted they were in huge meetups of 5+ people but STILL is that normal? Or is EoFF just that friendly a place?

I remember Rubahs talking about another irc chan she used to go to. I forget if they had meetups or not or what. OH WELL

[Raistlin]

I think it's simply that the more people you gather together for an increasing length of time, the more likely it will be some of them will get friendly enough to want to meet up. EoFF is pretty big now and has been around for over 10 years, so I don't think it's unusual.

[qwertysaur]

I think EoFF is just a very friendly place full of love and zombies

[Rantz]

I've never been to another online community where the members organise meetups at all. When it has happened, it has been maybe two people happening to be in the same area at the same time and for that reason having lunch and maybe taking a picture together.

[Brunettepudding]

I've met two online people in my life, one was a boyfriend, the other was my best friend for a while. Never been to a forum where they really talked about it. o:

[Agent Proto]

I never went to an EoFF meeting, but I think I would like to. I did however, went to a meeting for another forum, which is kinda funny seeing that I'm not really a known member there. I went because the meeting just happened to be really close to where I live, so I went!

[Raistlin]

Rantz makes a good point that EoFF does have a tradition of talking about large meetups. This was largely thanks to the happenstance of there being a ton of SoCal members 10 years ago (resulting in Mills Day) and has since spread much farther afield. So maybe EoFF is fairly unique in that respect.

[rubah]

I think eoff has this unique trait because Cid originally had a lot of local friends around, didn't he? So that was kinda an ice-breaker as far as other groups doing it. After all, I think the first Mills Day was in southern California! Once other people do it, those who didn't might start to have the idea "well, i guess all these internet people aren't murderers or pedophiles after all" and feel more comfortable with it themselves

[Jessweeee♪]

EoFF is unusually close-knit. Mogi was just telling me the other day about how it's one of the reasons for our low newbie-retention rate!

[No.78]

If I had a good forum friend who lived nearby I would definitely go and meet them!

Usually my online friends live miles and miles away and I simply cannot afford the money or time. =\

[Parker]

There's kind of a weird stigma about people meeting from online. I think it's less of an issue due to the popularity of internet dating and so on, but it's still there. It's seen as weird or dangerous. I have two people I know purely over the internet and they're my most trusted friends. One I met last year and it was seen as a big deal for my "irl" friends who thought I was about to get murdered or something. It's silly.

[Rye]

It has a weird stigma for most people, and it really pisses me off. It's not dangerous if you actually talk to the person before, especially on a forum. You have to have a brain. After all, anyone you meet can lie and be a dangerous person, no matter how and where you meet them. But if you don't interact with anyone because they might hurt you, you'll be alone and miserable. I don't tell any of my friends I met Hux online, because I just don't want to deal with the headache of "OMG WTF THAT'S WEIRD YOU CAN'T LOVE SOMEONE LIKE THAT."

I've never gone to a large meet up. I thought it was a normal thing on forums, but it's not, apparently. EoFF is pleasantly close in many different ways. The only people I met online are Huxley and Paul.

[Aerith's Knight]

EoFF members are just attractive enough to actually walk around in public, especially in large groups due to the "Cheerleader Effect; The Bridesmaid Paradox; Sorority Girl Syndrome, and, for a short time in the 90's, the Spice Girls conspiracy.

[Rye]

There's never large groups of girls meeting up, though! The most are like, 3 girls to 5 guys, I think. It's because a lot of girls here don't like other girls because they're full of jealousy and anger! It's kind of lame. Bring on my eventual California trip to SoCal to see Monda and Shluppers and Miriel if she wants to see me and all the other SoCal ladies!

[Freya]

I would love to meet more eoffers but for me at least I've always lived in the most unlikely spot for eoffers so I'd have had to travel super far. Recently the OKC meetup was closer to me but the others had to go far to get to me! So I think it's a little bit harder for the US eoffers at least cause we're so spread out.

UK might be a little easier that's why they seem to have one almost annually even if it's just like 4 of them! Just much easier to get around over there I think due to the size.