Mods, I’m thinking this is mundane enough to belong in here, even if it does have a factual answer, but if not, please feel free to move it. (not that you need permission :D).
Anyway, the title says it all, have any dopers, particularly those who have (or had?) a really adversarial relationship here, ever met in real life?
If so, what came of it? Did you realize you really really DID hate each other? Did you become friends? Start dating even? Bury the hatchet?
I once got involved in a real knock-down Pit fight with Demo (over what, I have no idea) a few days before we were going to end up at the same Dopefest. Doesn’t quite fit your OP, though, because it was a one-time fight, not an ongoing grudge, and by the time the Dopefest rolled around, we’d both cooled down and backed off each other in the Pit thread anyway.
I was curious, I used to belong to an online gaming type forum and there were some people who’d been real snots on the board to each other, but after they met IRL they realized they had a lot more in common than they’d thought.
And I know that there are a lot of dopefests so I was just curious if any of the real feuds had ever been resolved at one.
Not on the board (still have yet to meet a Doper, although I understand there are a few Dopers in Winnipeg (and even one In Winnipeg )) but back on a BBS I used to frequent (should speak for itself how long ago this was) another user who was considerably conservative at the least, right-wing at the most in his politics and little old leftist-socialist me (have gravitated closer to centre over the years) used to argue all the bleeping time in every politics thread that came about. I always considered him a stubborn, arrogant person who would never change his ways or see how wrong he really was, and I’m sure he felt the same way to me.
We met a couple times at BBS meets, and I count him as a very interesting, fun friend that I’m glad to have as a friend. It might have been tempered by the fact that any non-politics thread he and I were involved in I’d enjoy reading his posts, and also even after meeting in IRL and being friends I still tore into him on every political debate.
I’ve been to several Dopefests, and I keep hoping for a nasty fist fight. Unfortunately, the consumption of tasty food and the drinking of alcohol seem to keep putting folks in a good mood, and everyone ends up all friendly-like.
Per my habit of jocking your every post, I decided to look up what you are talking about. The thread is from 2004, when I was still a chubby cheeked babe to the SDMB. It may be one of the funniest threads I ever read. Why didn’t you link to it. Never mind. I will. And I shall quote some of the funniest shit.
After Liberal said that if Demo left, Lib would tear his garment in twain, ETF responded:
Then, later, Miller, when you called the thread mean,woodstockbirdybird posted:
Joe Diamond and whatsername … ringing any bells? I can’t recall their user names exactly, but they were uber-Christians and uber-Dopers … that is, not afraid to let the fur fly in The Pit. I had my words with both of them.
Then they came to one of the NYC Dopefests. There wasn’t any big hoo-de-doo with them, but I can distinctly recall being cordial and then ignoring them as best I could.
I think Zenster may be the only Bay Area doper or former doper I’ve actually met in meat space. Of course it was just the one time for a brief meal and it was just him, me and Cervaise, but he wasn’t that bad on that occasion. Very slightly eccentric maybe, but aren’t we all ;)? The only thing that I was slightly annoyed about was that he diverted us from Le Cheval in downtown Oakland where I had wanted to meet, to a Le Cheval outlet in Berkeley that turned out to be a UC cafeteria-type setting. But nobody realized that at the time, he was very apologetic about it and truthfully it wasn’t that big a deal.
I had a whole bunch of huge, knock-down-drag-out arguments and flame-fests with former member weirddave, and i also met him a couple of times.
The first time we met, it was just the two of us and his son, and we went to a lacrosse game together - his alma mater Towson University against my grad school Johns Hopkins. Some time later, i also went to a holiday Dopefest at his place, where i met his wife, Ginger of the North, and quite a few other former and current Dopers.
While we had argued a few times on the SDMB before our meetings, our biggest confrontations happened after our face-to-face meetings, so they didn’t lead to any IRL discomfort.
I should say that it was clear to me, even at our first meeting and before our personal bust-ups on the Boards, that he wasn’t someone who i’d be especially interested in hanging out with regularly.
This is not intended to reflect badly on him; it is simply a recognition that we had rather different interests and different personalities. I simply felt that, after initial getting-to-know-you stuff and maybe some shared affection the Baltimore Ravens, we didn’t have very much in common. Neither his fault nor mine; just the way it is sometimes.
The rest of the BADs sort of collectively decided that he was obnoxious. It got brought into a thread on the SDMB, it was ugly, and Zenster’s feelings were hurt. I remember this episode with unfortunate clarity because I said some things I really wish I hadn’t. I kind of cringe at the memory.
But this is sort of the opposite of what the OP requested. I agree with Jack Batty, though, I was afraid something bad was going to happen when Joe Cool and Jersey Diamond showed up at that Dopefest, but nah - a good time was had by all. (Although I think I heard that later she dumped him for a woman? Just some gossip for y’all.)