We’re All Here

Melissa (MoonDragon) is visiting tomorrow evening, and I’ll be picking her up at O’Hare. Sunday, we’re heading to Kenosha to meet up with other WH folk… and we’re going to see Dustin (a3dmofo) before the dinner. At least, that’s the plan… I have some concerns about us waking up in time, hangovers and all. :D

This weekend will mark my first actual, real, physical encounter with many people I’ve been talking to through keyboard and monitor. It’s a bit intimidating, a bit exciting, and will definitely be interesting. Amazingly, when I stop to think about it… everyone is so trusting of one another, me included. For all I know, I could be driving to my death in Kenosha, where all these strangers will take me into a cornfield, string me up on a makeshift cross and sacrifice me to their dark gods.

On the flip side, I could be a sociopath.

[psycho music] Ree! Ree! Ree! Ree! [/psycho music]

I guess what I’m saying is that we all have met or spoken with one another online, and we assume certain personality traits of one another…. we hold them to be true of the real person. I know I do this to people I’ve spoken to. But since online converastions are never the full picture, I guess that’s what makes meeting in person exciting and a bit scary and interesting and fun.

With all that’s bad and wrong with the world, a meeting like this of (relative) strangers is refreshing. It implies a great deal of trust in one another, and it says that we’re all believing in the good over the bad. Based on the fact that we’re all regulars on a forum, we know everyone’s cool to hang out with. That speaks volumes about were-here.

Mental note: I’ve now entered into the realm of "those people who met over the Internet." You know all those disparaging news stories about how people "met over the Internet," and it’s almost always something bad that results?

On the flip side – my friends Kent and Christine met over the web. They’re getting married soon. The world balances itself… it just takes us time to notice.

Let me clarify things, as I’m rereading this entry and it sounds entirely too negative. I’m excited to meet other WH folks. I’ve been looking forward to it for a long while, and I can’t wait to see what Melissa and Dustin are like in person. I’ve had good talks with them, and it feels like I already know them. What interests me, outside of this, is the notion of identity and persona, both real and imagined, physical and digital.

The entire online "commuity" structure has its own set of rules, etiquitte, heirarchies of power. How will this translate into the real world? Will we actually say the letters LOL out loud?