So since you’ve found friends on the internet, your parents think you’re an insane axe-wielding maniac? 
In point of fact, when I went to the US Consulate in Vancouver for my K-1 (Fiancee) Visa interview, there were three other people there all for the same reason. Of the four of us, only one had met their intended the old-fashioned way. It’s much more pervasive than anyone thinks.
Funny, I can’t imagine anyone looking down on me for being somewhat of a geek. I mean, I am a geek, but there’s no shame in it for me. I’ve only been to one Dopefest (and fun it was too) and no one really gave me a hard time about it. I met some cool people! I ate tofu hot dogs! Why wouldn’t that be cool?
Of course, it isn’t like I tell a whole lot of people about my Internet activities. The people I associate with a lot of the time (coworkers, mostly) mostly don’t own computers, and I fear that their eyes will glaze over if I ramble on too long. They seem to have some respect for computers, though. Or at least they pretend to around me. (Well, maybe it’s disinterest, I don’t know.)
All I know is that I cannot fathom why anyone would “look down” on an activity where you get to “discuss” (virtually) so many different issues (policital issues, current events, social issues, what’s on next week on “24”). I mean, it’s the coolest thing ever! And then there are the other things I do on the Internet, which are mostly my web pages. Because of my web pages, I get a commission from Amazon.com totalling a couple hundred bucks each quarter, interesting emails from people all over the globe, and the warm fuzzy feeling that I’m sharing someting interesting with people who care. I mean, how is that not cool? And the fact that I can look up just about any interesting info (IMDb.com anyone?) and just about anything that interests me.
If the technophobe people out there are secretly laughing at all us computer geeks, that’s fine and dandy. Let them stew in their own juices and talk about what’s on Jerry Springer or whatever. Their loss.
I know that look, Weirddave. I’ve gotten it a few times when I talk about reading something here.
To heck with it. My mom met her current husband online. I’ve seen the number of relationships this (and others) board has created. I don’t have many close friends to begin with, so the folks I laugh with here are no different from the folks I laugh with face to face.
Eventually it will not be so “dorky” or frowned upon. Hee, we’re just cutting edge, people!
See ya Saturday, LA folks!
This has been a non-issue for me; all of my non-doper friends and a lot of my family are geeks anyway, so who the hell are they to look down on me? 
I’m really not joking - all of my non-doper friends are either college friends (I went to an engineering college) or friends from work (either from a national lab, or from various engineering companies, or from the IT group of a teaching hospital). They’re all geeks. My family is also rather odd - not necessaily all geeks (though certainly plenty of those), but just somewhat … on the fringe all in their own way.
I met my SO at a Dopefest. When people ask how we met, I say “We met at a party thrown by an on-line group we’re both members of.” I really haven’t gotten any strange reactions yet. I tend to avoid throwing around the word “Dopefest” because I really don’t want to have to explain that no, I’m not doing drugs.
I think there’s a certain closeness that is already established after knowing someone on a messageboard for a few months/years. THink about it. We talk about private details of our lives, give our opinions, rant/rave about what bothers us, share sexual/medical information that would usually be inappropriate to talk about with strangers.
I’ve found that I feel closer to the people I know from messageboards much faster than a normal friendship due to the intimate knowledge of the person. I think we all disclose way more on here than we would if we met one another out in a bar. My .02