I have noticed of late that some members are attempting to contact one another in real life. While I appreciate this sentiment (I'd love to meet many of you in person), some of our members are minors, and most of our members do not provide easily verifiable credentials to connect a user profile to an actual person.

As such, I urge you to exercise a prudent level of background research on the person you are contacting here. One level of research you can conduct is asking for the person's real name and email address via a private message. There are tool for doing more research about a person - Zabasearch.com is one.

Always meet in a public place (the mall is always a good idea) and don't be too specific in where you're going to meet - just say "by the central fountain, I'll be wearing a blue shirt" - not "I will be at the Walden Books main entrance, wearing a Chicago Bulls Jersey and green sweats, I have glasses and blue hair and I drive an unmarked white van with no windows." - that way if the person gives you a bad vibe you can just keep walking.

Never meet in a car, or in a parking lot.

FWIW, I've met plenty of people In Real Life from my online activities - only once did I feel that things were "off" and that's a whole different story.

Do members of a region ever get together, as a group, to practice any skills or for any other reason?

I've never really thought about it before, but that is some good advice on meeting anyone IRL that you've met online.

What is this "real life" you speak of...?

The only time I've met online friends "in real life" was when I drove 400 miles to Kansas specifically for that. We all met at a shooting range, and everybody was armed to the teeth ... and then some. I think things were pretty secure around there! Of course we didn't take firearms just because we were meeting each other, ... after all, it WAS a two day shooting event we were attending! What a great bunch of folks and a super fun event. So don't avoid meeting others because of fear, you'll miss out on a lot of fun, but be sure where/how you're meeting is safe and secure.

I tried that "real life" stuff one time and boy was it a pain in the sitdown.

Anyhow, rule of thumb, if you feel "funny" about meeting someone, don't. And I echo Martin's post also.

I've met hundreds of people in real life from multiple forums, most all went well.

Doug's advice is great, and my personal advice is to don't meet someone you JUST met online. Get to know their "online" persona, and also do some google searches on their name, email, etc...

Meeting in groups is good too.

In my endurance racing life, I have met dozens of people that I only knew from online. In fact one just stayed with my family last week for 5 nights when she flew in for a race. Of course there really is no hidden life in that particular online environment.

On ETS for example or ZS, I haven't had a F2F with anyone, though I will say that the PM's, trades and purchases I have done with people have been exemplary. I would meet any of those people based on those interactions.

Key is to let others know what is happening in case of any 'drama'.

My family went to PHX two yrs ago and my son and I met DR himself, had a great lunch

BTW Doug what was the name of that restaurant?

Thanks

Mike D

Don't forget to come fix up my house... hehehe