Taking SL to RL..

I knew I should've drawn a picture. Damn these bloody words!

What he was really trying to say... shy though our Starax is... that in RL, his wand isn't nearly as magical as it is in SL.

I bet I could make you disappear with it.

I think you misspelled "grin innanely"

You win.

I've met so many people through the internet and publications in general that I really can't say anything bad about people meeting up through SL. Yeah, I've had some bad experiences, but I knew the risks when I went into the situations, and everything worked out in the end. We're not talking about a 12 year old meeting up with someone, we're talking about adults.

I think the main important thing would be to tell your friends and/or family where you're going, keep a cellphone with you, and call your friends/family once you've arrived and have met up with the person. If people know where you are, or where you said you would be, if something bad did happen, at least the situation can be looked into quickly.

I think people have WAY too much paranoia around meeting up with people online. Most of the paranoia comes from news stories, which usually preach "Be scared. Be very scared."--I mean, does one forget when there were news stories after 9-11 suggesting that people basically put plastic wrap all over their houses? One has MUCH more of a chance of getting into a fatal car accident driving to a convenience store than getting into a situation in an online date that they can't get out of.

I'm relatively new to SL but I've met plenty of people in real life that I've met on the 'net. I think it's all a matter of common sense. Most people are really cool. And some you won't really care to meet ever again. Granted, I never met anybody in any sort of romantic way, but I think that it wouldn't be much different. Perhaps ones own illusion and phantasies are going to be destroyed if the person you're looking to meet doesn't quite fit what you originally had in mind. I don't see the big deal, though. Then again, I'm not female.

He is!!!

Personally I always carry my M72 LAW (Light Anti-Tank Weapon) with me when I meet someone from the internet. It's lightweight enough to fit in a trenchcoat, yet powerful enough to blow any pscyho to pieces.

I thought that might be a little too much to ask

Falling on floor multiple guffaws.

Or you can just invite the police to go with you on the date.


Seriously tho, careful is good.

Even though some of the advice I gave in my first post was a bit extreme, I still say it to women when they tell me they're about to go meet someone, because I figure the average woman might take at least one thing off that list and use it. But even with all my extreme advice, even I still feel in my own relationship I can trust him and I worry about myself less than I worry about others. I have a feeling thats what most of us end up doing whether its right or wrong.

So a question, just out of curiosity... what do you MEN do or not do when you're about to meet someone for the first time?

Well I probably have an inflated sense of my own personal power, so I would do anything about my own personal security.
I would be more concerned with the woman and trying to give her a good positive impression of myself and to just be a nice
considerate person.

As sometimes my obscure humour can be offputting before someone gets to know me.

correction, Not do anything. hehe.

I recently met my best friend from SL in RL just a few months ago actually. It was great, we hit it off like we had known eachother our whole lives. Although we had known eachother for a little more than a year before I flew to see her.Of course I prolly would have done it a lot sooner, it just never came up. So I suppose if you feel you're really ready to do it then go for it!!

I didn't do the whole hotel thing though, I stayed with her at her house, even slept in her bed a few times too!! Just goes to show, SL to RL isn't such a big deal.

As long as you feel he's a good guy and he's gonna treat you right, then rock on!!

Here is a picture of Kim and I. Lookie she's kissing me!! We hit it off great!



(This was like my second night there!)

I fell for someone from SL, met her 3 and half months after we also started conversing by e-mail and about 2 and a half after we moved on to phone conversations. I flew to Toronto and stayed at a hotel, met her, hit it off and she is now my wife.

As for precautions, well, I wasn't too concerned. I think guys worry (and probably for good reason) a lot less in this type of situation.

I was staying at a hotel, we first met in the lobby there (ie public place) and went wandering the city.

My family knew that I was in Toronto to meet someone but not much more. Her family knew she was meeting me, my name and where I was staying.

I even met a big group from of her family on that first trip as it was Thanksgiving in Canada and they were having a get together. Talk about being thrown into the deep end.

Wendel

So did you.

I know, but by the time I noticed, I wasn't going back to correct it.

I've met quite a few people now from SL! Most on a friends basis and it was a blast (the time I was awake - yeah i'll get that joke out KRitter ), I stay with my sis Willow Caldera every couple of months for a few days and we get insanely drunk! All good.

I went to meet a "boyfriend" once, although I had been friends with him for over a year, we had only just started dating, he was a charmer that one and well lets just say I don't regret meeting him, I just regret believing his crap Meh, maybe i'm not being fair, but he did some really shitty things and handled things in the worst possible way and ended up hurting me a great deal and ultimately destroying our friendship almost beyond repair, although I beleive I am far better off without him in my life!

But I wish you the best! It's exciting and nerve wrecking at the same time and hopefully I will be going through it all again soon, but this time, with a goodun

A couple of years ago my Sister met her supposedly "Mr. Wonderful" while playing Everquest. She was at that time in her freshman year at an out of state university.
Our family found out about it when we got a $2000 phone bill. Anyhow, they'd had decided she'd fly up and stay with this guys Mother and visit his apartment during daylight hours. Well turned out his mother had no idea what was going on, he picked my Sis up at the Airport and took her straight to his apartment. He was 32 and she was 19, anyhow turned out her knight in shining armor weighed nearly 400lbs, had no steady job etc, and to make a long story short, my folks had a family friend in that city (Chicago), that was able to go get her and put her on a plane the next day for home. I dont know what would have happened if she'd stayed there.
Some time later, she finally realized she was really in love with her high school sweetheart, a boy she'd known since 4th grade. He'd joined the Air Force and was making something of himself. They got married and are expecting their first baby early this November. I've known him a long time too, and he's truly crazy about her.

I'm not saying all the online relationships are bad, but you cannot be too careful. Which is why I do not under any circumstances phone, skype, webcam etc. It just brought our family too much misery.

I had a bad experience of meeting someone rl that I had met online about ten years ago. First it evolved into a really bad stalking problem, and then it got pretty messed up, with headless pictures being sent through the post and allsorts I don't think it's only women that need to be careful, women are still capable of some pretty messed up stuff lol. Anyway, I had certainly met this person way too early, and jumped in with both feet with my eyes closed, a huge mistake. That episode didn't put me off, it just made me a little more cautious. (and the subject of many jokes from my friends lol)

If you are good a good judge of character rl, I think you can be almost as good at sussing people online. Of course, you won't get the full picture, and perhaps you may not get it spot on, but if you are a good judge of character, you will just kinda know. Certainly, no matter how much you do feel you know someone, you need to always take the precautionary measures that many have listed in this thread.

There are a few people that I have met in SL that I would love to meet RL. Maybe it's time to arrange a meet-up

Umm, you do realize that if she'd webcam'ed with the guy she would have figured out he was around 32 and weighing 400lbs, right?

I agree with Siobhan.

I had an online relationship with a man I met in The Sims Online that lasted several months. He wanted to meet right away, like after a couple of weeks, offering to fly from Southern California to Florida for a weekend soon after. I was cautious because I was a single mother and had a 9 year old girl, so I told him we needed to take it slow. It was a very intense relationship, we talked on the phone every day, spent several hours online each day. He pressured me to set a date to meet, all the time. I finally agreed to meet him after 6 months. However, shortly before we were to meet in real life, everything fell apart and that was very painful. I felt like I'd invested an awful lot of time and emotions into this relationship, which I had, actually. Once I "got over" the heartbreak, I decided that long distance online relationships were NOT for me. I met my now husband online (yahoo personals) and since he only lived 35 miles north of me irl, we only chatted online and talked on the phone for about 3 weeks before deciding to meet. I wasn't going to spend months and months getting to know someone again and have it fall apart. We met (in a public place, of course) and hit it off really beautifully. The rest is history and we've been married for over a year now.

I wouldn't spend months and months getting into something really serious in SL if the intention is to "meet" someday. Meet quickly, no strings, no expectations and of course, in a very public place, having taken all the necessary precautions. Online relationships can be so intense and you think you really know the person, you feel like the only thing left is to meet and sparks will fly. But the sad reality is, no matter how you feel online, meeting someone for real will make or break the relationship, because if there aren't any sparks, there won't be any relationship online anymore either.

Aww :'[

I disagree, by the time you've hit a year odds are you already know if your going to mesh or not. Or should at least have a DAMN good idea. Physically will you mesh? That depends entirely on how honest you were prior....

I still say a month is to early...