Post by Bannanachair on Mar 8, 2016 9:40:58 GMT -4
Dex and I were discussing real life meetups in the shoutbox down below, but it's an interesting topic that I think warrants a thread of it's own. These rules are a combination of safety advice, protections to ensure even more anonymity and methods to maximize enjoyment of said meetups. This thread, in case anyone is wondering, is completely serious and everything here that I say I mean.
First and foremost, and likely most important, is to set an age limit. I personally recommend the 18+ age group, as it allows for independent long-distance travel without arousing parental suspicion, makes this all completely legal, and because some of us are going to be over the age of eighteen anyway, so there's bound to be alcohol, cannabis, sex and maybe even some harder drugs - none of which are things that I personally would partake in, but knowing this community, are bound to happen. More information on this stuff will be covered in rule 6, but so as to ensure maximum legality for any any activities we may partake in, as well as lack of parental supervision and interference, just stick with 18+. As a quick tangent, is anyone curious as to why I'm curious about everyone's age all the time? Kudos if you figured it out before this thread.
Second, timing and locations are of the utmost importance. Do not pick a place and time out of sheer convenience, real life meetups are a thing that require in-advance planning. I, personally, recommend vacations, particularly tours and cruises, as they also justify constant interaction with one another in the event that rule 3 is simply unable to be followed. They also provide reasons for everyone to maintain contact months after the tour bus closes for the year (my parents would be hypocrites if they didn't approve of maintaining relationships with people that they only know from a tour. My parents also had sex at least three times, given my existence and the existence of my siblings, so fucking's allowed as well for these covers, I guess). Finally, a safety reason for this - there will be lots of other people, many of them not involved in the meetup, who will likely be a major hinderance in any attempted kidnappings or rapes. Additionally, if someone is using their house or something to host it, lots of expenses would be on them that otherwise wouldn't be, and that'd just be unfair.
Third, no plus-ones. This means no bringing along your boy/girlfriend. No bringing along your siblings or parents. If I pay money to catch a plane to Detroit to meet you, I want to meet you, not your little brother. The exception, of course, is if your significant other or sibling (but not both at once (fuck you z0rr0w)) is also a regular of the forums. This will prevent, among other things: The +1 judging you for having internet friends, you getting bored of your internet friends and going back to your real friends, your +1s being overly judgmental of your "not really real friends", and so forth.
Fourth, when possible, meet in groups. Sure, it's unlikely that you'll be kidnapped/raped from a real life meetup of internet friends, but do you want to know how to drastically reduce those odds, while simultaneously increasing social interactions and enjoyments? More people that everyone knows from the forums being present. If, for instance, I were to have a meetup with Pawz, and it turned out that I was a mid-forties serial killer, Pawz would be dead faster than she'd be able to tell. If I were to have a meetup with six people from this forum and it turned out I was a mid-forties serial killer, I'd have to either kill everyone at once in an isolated place without being foiled by being outnumbered (extraordinarily unlikely, by the way) or kill off everyone one at a time in such a way that it's obvious to everyone else what's happening as it's happening. Actually, that wouldn't make a bad murder mystery fanfic of us.
Fifth, make it invitation only. Don't post about it on the forums for all to see - some of us hate eachother and are likely to murder one another. Make sure that everyone is okay with the guest-list before tickets are booked. If I was invited to a thing and Soard or WiFi were also invited to the same thing, things would become very violent very fast. Additionally, lurkers who none of us know would add another element of danger that would be best avoided when possible. For this reason, I recommend arranging everything either on a private board on a forum or via email.
Sixth, set ground rules for what is permissible behavior. This is sort of a follow-up to rule one, but it deserves it's own paragraph, so I'll explain it a bit more. Even if everyone in the group is a legal adult, if some of the people don't want the meetup to contain orgies, a no-orgy rule should be established by the group. If someone doesn't like illegal narcotics and doesn't want to be involved with them in a federal investigation, don't give out meth to everyone else involved (even if everyone's fine with it, I still advise staying within the law, but that's just general advice and not specific to real-life meetups of your internet buddies). Ensure that everyone knows what will be done by the group in a meetup so that those whose cultural, religious or moral beliefs aren't offended at all. This isn't being "too-PC", it's giving simple guidelines so as to make sure that nobody is uncomfortable.
Seventh, try not to spend too much time on your electronic devices. Sure, this seems to be rather ironic given that it's a meetup between people who met on the internet, but if you're going to spend all that money and time to meet up with one another in real life, do stuff in real life. See a movie or play a game or something if you have nothing else to do, but at least try to set a maximum laptop time. This one's just a personal preference, though, but I figured that I might as well just put it here anyway.
And, with all that said and done, anyone up for a tour of Italy in 2019? I'm too lazy to look up tour buses this far in advance (I doubt the schedules are even up yet), but I can look it all up later.
First and foremost, and likely most important, is to set an age limit. I personally recommend the 18+ age group, as it allows for independent long-distance travel without arousing parental suspicion, makes this all completely legal, and because some of us are going to be over the age of eighteen anyway, so there's bound to be alcohol, cannabis, sex and maybe even some harder drugs - none of which are things that I personally would partake in, but knowing this community, are bound to happen. More information on this stuff will be covered in rule 6, but so as to ensure maximum legality for any any activities we may partake in, as well as lack of parental supervision and interference, just stick with 18+. As a quick tangent, is anyone curious as to why I'm curious about everyone's age all the time? Kudos if you figured it out before this thread.
Second, timing and locations are of the utmost importance. Do not pick a place and time out of sheer convenience, real life meetups are a thing that require in-advance planning. I, personally, recommend vacations, particularly tours and cruises, as they also justify constant interaction with one another in the event that rule 3 is simply unable to be followed. They also provide reasons for everyone to maintain contact months after the tour bus closes for the year (my parents would be hypocrites if they didn't approve of maintaining relationships with people that they only know from a tour. My parents also had sex at least three times, given my existence and the existence of my siblings, so fucking's allowed as well for these covers, I guess). Finally, a safety reason for this - there will be lots of other people, many of them not involved in the meetup, who will likely be a major hinderance in any attempted kidnappings or rapes. Additionally, if someone is using their house or something to host it, lots of expenses would be on them that otherwise wouldn't be, and that'd just be unfair.
Third, no plus-ones. This means no bringing along your boy/girlfriend. No bringing along your siblings or parents. If I pay money to catch a plane to Detroit to meet you, I want to meet you, not your little brother. The exception, of course, is if your significant other or sibling (but not both at once (fuck you z0rr0w)) is also a regular of the forums. This will prevent, among other things: The +1 judging you for having internet friends, you getting bored of your internet friends and going back to your real friends, your +1s being overly judgmental of your "not really real friends", and so forth.
Fourth, when possible, meet in groups. Sure, it's unlikely that you'll be kidnapped/raped from a real life meetup of internet friends, but do you want to know how to drastically reduce those odds, while simultaneously increasing social interactions and enjoyments? More people that everyone knows from the forums being present. If, for instance, I were to have a meetup with Pawz, and it turned out that I was a mid-forties serial killer, Pawz would be dead faster than she'd be able to tell. If I were to have a meetup with six people from this forum and it turned out I was a mid-forties serial killer, I'd have to either kill everyone at once in an isolated place without being foiled by being outnumbered (extraordinarily unlikely, by the way) or kill off everyone one at a time in such a way that it's obvious to everyone else what's happening as it's happening. Actually, that wouldn't make a bad murder mystery fanfic of us.
Fifth, make it invitation only. Don't post about it on the forums for all to see - some of us hate eachother and are likely to murder one another. Make sure that everyone is okay with the guest-list before tickets are booked. If I was invited to a thing and Soard or WiFi were also invited to the same thing, things would become very violent very fast. Additionally, lurkers who none of us know would add another element of danger that would be best avoided when possible. For this reason, I recommend arranging everything either on a private board on a forum or via email.
Sixth, set ground rules for what is permissible behavior. This is sort of a follow-up to rule one, but it deserves it's own paragraph, so I'll explain it a bit more. Even if everyone in the group is a legal adult, if some of the people don't want the meetup to contain orgies, a no-orgy rule should be established by the group. If someone doesn't like illegal narcotics and doesn't want to be involved with them in a federal investigation, don't give out meth to everyone else involved (even if everyone's fine with it, I still advise staying within the law, but that's just general advice and not specific to real-life meetups of your internet buddies). Ensure that everyone knows what will be done by the group in a meetup so that those whose cultural, religious or moral beliefs aren't offended at all. This isn't being "too-PC", it's giving simple guidelines so as to make sure that nobody is uncomfortable.
Seventh, try not to spend too much time on your electronic devices. Sure, this seems to be rather ironic given that it's a meetup between people who met on the internet, but if you're going to spend all that money and time to meet up with one another in real life, do stuff in real life. See a movie or play a game or something if you have nothing else to do, but at least try to set a maximum laptop time. This one's just a personal preference, though, but I figured that I might as well just put it here anyway.
And, with all that said and done, anyone up for a tour of Italy in 2019? I'm too lazy to look up tour buses this far in advance (I doubt the schedules are even up yet), but I can look it all up later.
