Message board close encounters

In My Humble Opinion
1

OK. Let me set this up:

I belong to the message board on matt_mcl’s metro web site. A tour of the giant complex where they repair and maintain metro cars and their components was organized.

So matt and I walk into the lobby of said complex, and I see this guy who works for my company, albeit in the building across the street. I told matt (in Italian, so the guy wouldn’t understand), and he asked who he was. I said I didn’t know; I just recognized him from the bus. matt said I should go talk to him, but being the social phobic chickenshit I am, I didn’t. I just put on a fake “don’t I know you from somewhere?” look for a second, then ignored him for the rest of the tour.

I know, that was retarded.

Anyway, I said to matt that it would be like finding out there were other Dopers where I work. It’s not the gay thing, since I’m out at work - it’s that I often discuss personal matters here, and occasionally bitch about work, my manager, my co-workers, and the company in general. I’d find it kind of creepy, at least at first.

Now, granted, the metro forum only has a few dozen very active posters, but it just weirded me out that one of them works across the street from me, posts to the same message board, and so on.

Next time I see the guy, I’ll say something, like, “Hey, weren’t you on the metro tour? I thought I recognized you!” because I feel bad for the guy, and pretty stupid.

As for the SDMB, even though it has a trillion members, there aren’t many Montreal Dopers that I know of. But where I work, there are about 1200 employees (well, more like 1050 after last week’s layoffs :frowning: )

So, have you had any SDMB or other message board close encounters of the sort? How did you react, and what did you do? And if you haven’t, how do you think you’d react?

Anyway, the tour was cool. I got to walk under a metro train and see newly-crafted wooden brakes get deep-fried in peanut oil (no, seriously), among other things. (That’s one mofo of a deep fryer! :eek: ) And holy crap, those trains are tall when you see them off the tracks!

2

You know, scott, I think you’re one of the coolest cats on here.

I’m not sure if I’ve had any close encounters, but it’s possible, since so many live or work in Washington. In fact, I think there’s quite a few near Dupont Circle…

3

God, that would be aweful to just randomly meet someone! I’m not exactly shy (quite the opposite) but I definately don’t want people knowing this much about me if I’m gonna just randomly meet them on the street!

4

I have a very interesting close encounter!!

I am a teacher at a local small college and over the summer session – I was teaching a summer sprint course – I had a student that had as SDMB T-Shirt on. When I did a double take on the kids shirt he asked if I was a Doper, I gave him the quizzical “Doper? What do you mean?” look and he just blushed and said “Oh sorry, never mind”

It bugged me for the whole sprint session which is a summer class for three weeks and we met everyday from 9 till noon. I wanted to ask him what his handle was on the boards, but he would have made me and definitely figured out my username. As the class was a philosophy class on John-Paul Sartre.
There goes my plans to have a Connecticut Dopefest :smack:

5

I thought I recognized yojimboguy on the Capitol Square in Madison, WI when I was there for a weekend about a month ago. However, I’d only ever seen him in one Dopefest photo, and so I didn’t risk walking up to him and asking “Do I know you?” I E-mailed later, turns out I was wrong anyway, but I was kicking myself until then wondering if I’d missed an opportunity.

6

That was you?

heh-heh. Just kidding.

I think you did the right thing. I’d hate to be a teacher and have one of my students be a doper. I can see it now, the final exam is turned in - totally blank except for the URL of my post in Scylla’s sweaty ball thread. The boy gets an A.

7

One of my students turned in a paper citing a Straight Dope column as a source. I can only hope she didn’t decide to check out the message boards while she was researching it.

I also had the slightly surreal experience of recognizing a newly registered Doper as my younger brother (he didn’t become a regular), but since I told him about the boards I guess it doesn’t count.

8

If I’m not mistaken, I see Fretful Porpentine around the UNC campus occassionally. I kept thinking I knew her and it wasn’t until I started posting back here that I realized where I knew her from. We had met at a Raleigh Dopefest about two years ago. Strange world. Anyway, next time I see you…I’ll say hey. Now that I’m working on campus.

9

Not that close an encounter, but several months before I started lurking on the Dope I attended a lecture held by my department. It was given by a man who had written a book on Medusa. Later, when I was a lurker but not yet a poster, I was reading a thread about cover art on books and followed a link given by one poster to his book’s cover art. Thus I discovered that CalMeacham was the scholar who had given the lecture at my school. I think I took an opportunity later on once I had registered and was posting to let him know, but I don’t see him regularly or anything. It was simply an odd “connection between the SDMB and real life” moment.

10

I think romansperson works on campus, too; I haven’t got the slightest idea what she looks like, so we may well have crossed paths without knowing it. Strange world, indeed.

11

I doubt I will run into anyone ever, unless it was planned. There are so few of us Hawaiians on any message board (except for the Hawaii-based ones), that I doubt I would just “run into” someone. I’ve met up with people before, but we had planned it.

12

I kind of had one in reverse… three or four years ago, I went out on a date with a woman from relatively nearby. Nothing came of it.

Six months ago or so, I recognized her profile on SDMB, although she’s not particularly a regular.

13

Ok, yeah, I had one. I am a doper’s brother’s secretary. For real. :smiley:

14

Then there’s the relative oddity of three of us (me, Asylum, and John Corrado) living in the same town and never meeting… Or have we? :wink:

15

I think I have a close encounter once or twice per week.

There is a new girl at my fencing school where I have trained for about two years. She looks devastatingly familiar, and I can almost swear that we cursorily met at the last enormous NYC dopefest or perhaps another such large, chaotic milieu.

One of these days I’ll get around to asking. But it’s pretty incriminating. I don’t want to use the crusty old “don’t you look familiar” line on her, nor do I want to blow some of my credibility as a senior student by revealing my internet social connections. :wink:

So if you are reading this, Relatively New Person at my Fencing School, do let me know.

16

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Blue Curls around – we go to the same uni, it’s not that large a one, and I live pretty close by to it.

But seeing someone and recognising them are a bit different :). I’m just going by odds.

17

There are SDMB T-shirts?? I want one!!

18

Just in case you were serious…

:smiley:

19

MaxTheVool,

Was it me?

20

I am plain terrified of meeting someone from the board in real life, and I know there are quite a few of them where I live. It’s not that I’ve revealed anything incredibly personal, but there would be no mistaking who I am (all they’d have to do is discuss one of the topics I’ve posted on, and I’m sure I would quote another doper or repeat my own post), and, from that point on, I would feel the need to be very careful.