Have you ever met someone from a chat room?

Yep. Lots. Never had it go South, either (except with the one I lived with for more than a year). YMMV.

I’ve talked about this on here a few times- I met someone I knew from an online forum and its chatroom. He knew I was in a secure relationship, and I thought it was clear that I had platonic intentions. We talked for a few months and seemed to get along great. I thought I was doing it safely- I met him in public with a big group of friends, including my boyfriend. The night ended with security being involved, drinks being drugged, and me being groped.

I don’t want to imply that all strangers on the internet are dangerous. I’m on the internet and I’m perfectly safe, and I’ve met people on dating sites that weren’t a match for me but were perfectly decent people. It’s very important to remember though, that people on the internet can be anyone, and they can pretend to be anyone.

@laureth- ymmv?

yes, it is very dangerous, for this reson i only talk to girls that seem decent (i’m straight btw) I just don’t want to take a chance and my boyfriend would be pissed anyway,

I’ve met a few people I have met in chat rooms

Never from any chat room but I have met several people (friends) from online sites such as wis.dm and a few from way back myspace, no horror stories.

Yes, but after a long chatting relationship… and it was out in the public in NYC

I used to chat a lot, back in the mid to late 90s and went to several chat room parties and a couple gatherings at bars. No bad or weird things happened. I was always really cautious- letting people know where I was going, always meeting in public, etc.

I’ve met people I met online. They are humans. I didn’t have anything bad happen. Humans though are sometimes dangerous, regardless of how you meet them, and there is perhaps more risk of making assumptions based on little information, when the only information you have is via an Internet connection.

I have, i met two online buddys (and actually stayed over w/ their families) on a long trip. I was just like you a bit sceptical, but they turned out to be exactly as great as i found them online and we connected instantly. Doing a bit of skyping might with the person makes you get to know them a bit better too.

Newbee, nice that you are so worried about your friend’s behavior. I am under 60;-) and my advice is: ask her if she will tell you when she is meeting someone and will give you any info she has on the person and where she is meeting them; time, place, etc. You could also ask if she would call you when she arrived home. If she would agree to your suggestions, you won’t be wearing yourself out worrying about something you can’t control. At least if she didn’t call you when planned, you would actually be able to do something constructive about it. I’ve been there with some of my relatives and it is comforting to have any information or in my case, promises that if they decided to kill themselves they would call me first.
I think she’s lucky to have such a concerned friend.

yes i have, good sex from it too.

@Likeradar: YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary

Means, “This is what happened for me, but you might get different results.”

Yup a few :) and Im in a 7 year relationship with the last one I met.

Yes I have. He was a decent enough guy. But I was young, and stupid. And of course when you meet up with guys on chatrooms and purely chatrooms, high chances are that they’re in it for the sexual pleasure.

Your friend is probably getting hurt as we speak, just that she’s doing it slowly to herself. I assume that she screws around with these guys she meets on these chatrooms, yes?

@Saturated_Brain: Maybe she’s just in it for the sexual pleasure too; consider that?

I’m sick of this stereotype that girls might get “hurt” by having sex with guys who just want sex. SOMETIMES GIRLS JUST WANT SEX TOO.

@girlofscience Never did I deny that she’s just in it for the sex. But meh, I’m somebody who believes that just having sex because you want to isn’t good. I believe that sex is something special meant to be shared with those you love and care for and anything else is just lust. Sure, you can gain pleasure out of that, but isn’t it so much better when you’re experiencing sexual pleasure with somebody who you care for and who you want to make happy? Also, I would find it awkward to really have a proper friendship with somebody who you screw around with just because you want to. It’ll be more of a “screw-buddy”, no?

@laureth Ah, got ya. Thanks.

Yes, I met a woman online in late 1992, early 1993, before the world wide web, I had been accessing the internet at my college since fall of 1991 when only one other person in the world that I knew even knew what the internet was. He was a friend of mine from high school and he told me about this telnet site in Cleveland where we could go to chat and keep in touch. One day when I was in an IRC room at this site in Cleveland, I “met” this woman with whom I hit it off amazingly. We had a lot in common, at least on what I now realize is a very superficial level…basically similar tastes in music, humor, and other media consumption.

We began to chat online every night, then one day she called information, in every area code in Minnesota (I was in a small town in western Minnesota, and she was in Cleveland, OH) until she found me. We talked for 6 hours, and we both felt that we’d fallen in love. We knew very little about each other that wasn’t superficial and we’d never seen each other. We exchanged pictures via email, and she wasn’t “exactly” what I thought of as my type, but I’m really not that superficial of a guy and I decided that this was worth pursuing. When I graduated in May of 1993, I immediately made plans in June to drive to Cleveland and meet this person, she was also a college senior, my age, basically in her last year of school, but had to pick up a few more credits over the summer, so she was on campus at her school (where the telnet site was), and so she managed to get me a dorm room to rent for 3 weeks where she lived.

I was socially retarded and had never had a real girlfriend, so I was still a virgin when we met (I was 22) but that changed about 3 hours after I got there. My biggest problem was always shyness, and basically it was the first time a girl had made the first move (well, the first time a girl had made the first OBVIOUS move, I know now that at least one girl I really crushed on in high school was dropping hints left and right and I never picked up on them). She called me the first time, and between phone calls and letters over a few months, she got me extremely worked up so that there was no question what was going to happen when we met. The first week was great, the second week so – so and the third one downright scary at times. Long story short, she turned out to be an emotional basket case.

Yes I have, they are very good people also. I have been close friends with one for 5–6 years now, met him in person after about 2. I also met a friend I met on a poker site. I don’t think meeting people online is much more dangerous than meeting people in person. They can pretend to be anyone in person or online, just be careful everywhere.