Meeting "online" friends

[Nidan Melbourne]

Now this is something we all need to be careful of. BUT out of curiousity, how many people here have spoken to someone online for years and finally got to meet them in person? 

For instance for members here; i've physically met @wayneshin and @RJCKarate. Both Aussie instructors, and lovely humans. 

And have spoken to several of my fellow moderators (past and present) over Zoom. Always a fun time. Especially when it came to one of our milestone years. 

If you hit up Melbourne please let me know. Cause I love meeting KF Members in person. @Patrick the travel bug I'm looking at you haha. 

One day I'd love to see an in-person worldwide KF Seminar being run for KF Members by KF Members. Which would be particularly entertaining. 

[KarateKen]

I've done thins several times over the years.  I met a few people off Myspace back in the day, and some other places.  Two of my longest running friendships started by meeting on a discussion board over 20 years ago.  However, it has been a very long time since I have done anything like that.  

[Nidan Melbourne]

6 hours ago, KarateKen said:

I've done thins several times over the years.  I met a few people off Myspace back in the day, and some other places.  Two of my longest running friendships started by meeting on a discussion board over 20 years ago.  However, it has been a very long time since I have done anything like that.  

OMG I forgot about Myspace. I loved using that back when it was popular and Facebook wasn't around.

[sensei8]

I’ve only had the privilege to meet 2 KF members face to face; Brian, aka bushido_man96 and Ken, aka wagnerk.

 I trained 2 days with Brian on 8/20/2011 and 8/21/2011 in his home town of Hayes, KS…14 years ago this August. Great time and I’d love to share the floor with him once again before I pass away!! 

My wife, Linda, and I meet Ken at lunch while he was in Tulsa, OK from UK on 7/22/2018 for business…7 years ago this August. It was a great time.

Patrick, our beloved KF Administrator, is on my bucket list to meet…he lives in Hollywood, CA with his wife, Kara, and their son PJ…just a mere 5 hours away from me.

If any of you KF members ever come to Las Vegas, NV, please drop me a line, and perhaps we can either train together and/or have breakfast or lunch or dinner; I’d welcome that in a second!!

[Patrick]

I've met @bushido_man96 (thread) and @gheinisch (thread) in-person. Always up for meeting folks who are visiting Hollywood. Love to hear about in-person meetups between members.

Virtually all of my closest friends are people that I first met online that I have met in-person - and even see somewhat regularly. Half of my closest friends come from an online community, the SitePoint Forums. One of them is now the godfather of my son. I know my wife because of online communities. They've really changed the arc of my life.

[Nidan Melbourne]

You look so young in those two photos @Patrick. 

It would be funny one day to have a proper KF meet up somewhere in the world in the future. 

[bushido_man96]

As @sensei8 mentioned, we got together quite a few years ago now and trained together for a weekend.  I got to meet @Patrick at a conference in Kansas City.  Both were great experiences.