Yes, several times. Insultingly enough, I've heard that I look exactly how I "sound" online. But I've only ever met people that I had already grown close to by correspondance (including a whole group, once). So, it always felt very natural, very sweet, very warm - sometimes with an immediate feeling of having been friends since birth. The switch from online to face to face felt seamless, a natural continuation of the conversation. Maybe I've just been lucky. More probably, I've only befriended safely excellent people.

Unfortunately, I'm not very very good at sustained sociability.

^
This :)

Although technically there were a group of us and we don't speak to any of the others any more.

I met my last GF on line. One day she called me collect and dumped me. TRUE.

That was twenty-four years ago. XD Sadly, also TRUE.

Yeah, matter of fact, I dated a girl from Norway for a few months. We met online, she came to visit a few times, and eventually, the long distance kinda killed it. But yeah, I've met a few people from online communities, but mostly people I've interacted with for extended periods of time, which I think is key.

Same here - met my better half online :).

Met plenty of other people too, some I've kept in contact with, some were not my kind of crowd. Never had any shocks or anything as opposed to what I was expecting before I met them IRL, but I guess that also depends on what online image some choose to project.

*joins the club*

She was something like person #100+ from online which I'd met; just another person from a random online community who through long association became a friend - and then more.
Most people I've met turned out to be pretty decent to hang out with - shared history from an online community means always having something basic but not inane to talk about - several have become close friends, and a rare few I just didn't mesh with at all, and was glad to never see again after a first couple of hours. But from all the dozens upon dozens of meets over the last 15 years, I don't think I'd describe a single one as a bad experience.

Basic precautions: meet somewhere public first, preferably with a small group of people from a community rather than just 1-on-1, and let a parent or someone like that know that you're doing so.

You sound fine to me. I don't see the insult :)

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