How many of you guys really **REALLY ** know each other?
Have you seen each others faces?
Work together?
Know each other strictly from posts?
Go to get-togethers (are there such things?)
I think this will make a big difference in whether people subscribe or not.
Am I butting in on you guys conversations or are we out here to get diversity?
I like feeling around and seeing what other people think, and some of you guys are so funny! Maybe your all professional comedy writers or something.
We have about 7,000 active members here and of those, I would say a couple hundred or maybe even a thousand know each other. Granted, it isn’t one hugely massive group but instead smaller groups of twos, fours, etc but there’s a definite community here… especially in places like Chicago, the Mecca of the Dope.
Refer to number one. I personally live with someone I met via the Dope.
Some of us do.
I’d say that’s more than 3/4 of us.
You must be really new. Never heard of Dopefests?
The boards are nominally about fighting ignorance so we need diversity. But only the right kinds. 
Well, most of us personally know at least one other Doper, either in real life or online. Some of us have friends or relatives who are also members, and there are a great many Doper couples. Others of us have formed email friendships with other posters, and still others have met at gatherings we call Dopefests. Personally, the only other Doper I’ve personally met is my husband, who introduced me to the boards. I’ve had sporadic email correspondance with a few others, though.
It’s a really big, fairly loose-knit community, and it can take a little while to really get a feel for the place. Sarcasm and scatalogical humor are always held in high regard, and newbies who aren’t just looking to be pains in the ass are enthusiastically welcomed. We like fresh meat, trust me. 
Jump on in, babe, the water’s fine!
I have been lurking since 2000 and posting, well since whenever my thingy says I have been posting. I exist in a shroud of mystery. I have never been to a gathering or met another doper. I really should just get off my ass and go to one of these dopefestivals, but I always imagine some reason why I can’t make it.
This is doubly vexing as I am a MAD and there are tons of us here. So all I know right now is from people’s posts. There are many posters whose genders, ages and occupations I couldn’t begin to guess at.
When I first came here I had the feeling that I was stepping into a party where I was the friend of a friend of a guy who was invited. It really isn’t that way. I am slowly posting more often and feeling more comfortable with it. I used to write posts and then delete 80% of them before posting.
I hope the newer people decide to stay and aren’t afraid to post. The occassional newbie pile on, even if deserved, is a shame. We need to have new people so this doesn’t turn into the same people rehashing the same issues over and over again.
Well, I live with the always lovely, seldom-posting Morelin. We’ve been to a couple Atlanta Dopefests (and ATL Dopers, I’m sorry if I’ve forgotten you in this off-the-toppa-my-head list) and met: Quasimodem, Geobabe, Unclebill, mouthbreather, gooti, Labdad. We’ve also met Archergal twice, but always wind up on the other side of the restaurant from her. I know there’s a ton more I’m forgetting. Outside that list, I’ve traded emails with Johnny L.A., played in Osip’s SDMB League (fantasy football) with 7 other Dopers, played NationStates with a bunch of other Dopers, played in a short-lived Yahoo Groups DnD game with a couple more Dopers. I sometimes wander into the unofficial SD IRC chatroom on Undernet.
There are get-togethers all the time. I know there’s a couple big ones in New York and Chicago and there are smaller Dopefests elsewhere. We tried to go to one in Knoxville, for example, but I wound up getting sick.
This is a community, but they’re pretty welcoming…as long as you don’t, say, go into Great Debates and swear a lot and behave in a jerkish fashion or start stupid threads in the Pit. Like the terms say, “Don’t be a jerk,” and you’ll be fine. You can be as involved or disengaged as you want. I post a lot, simply because this is my major avenue of socialization.
And I’m not a pro comedy writer. I am a wannabe screenwriter/novelist, though.
I’ve met about twenty other Dopers at the last Toronto Dopefest. I have three online Doper email-friends, one of whom I’ve met in person. By the way, Osgie, are you going to come visit this summer or not?
I mostly know Dopers online.
Just for balance to the above: I have never been to a Dopefest (though I would), and other than one fantasy football league, I’ve never done anything with anyone here. But I still like it and keep coming back.
New here, but comin’ your way
I know Burnt Sugar in real life - we met up IRL after we discovered we went to the same Uni. I think that may be it for Brisbane dopers that know each other though. 'course, I could be wrong.
I don’t know anybody.
I’m just sitting out in the middle of a cotton field, all by myself. 
I will be going to my first DopeFest- the lovely FairyChatMom’s “leaving Florida” party- this April. I’m very excited.
I’ve been able to get lots of people to start reading the Dope itself, but nobody has taken up my suggestion that they join the boards yet. Never met a Doper face-to-face, although there are quite a few close enough that they’d probably hear me if I yelled. Ivylass and furt, for instance.
Don’t be intimidated, myrnajean. You’re not butting in on private conversations. I’d guess that the majority of posters don’t know any other Dopers in person. The only Doper I’m sure I know in “real” life is my husband, Left Hand of Dorkness. I’d be into a WNC/East Tennessee Dopefest, though, if anyone is interested.
We post here because we like talking to a bunch of people we don’t know! One of the reasons I enjoy posting here so much is that there is such a great combination of regulars, newbies, and lurkers-who-rarely-post. If we wanted to have a more exclusive conversation, we have plenty of opportunities.
Look at the Dope as the town square. Everybody goes there to hang out and watch the world go by. Part of the fun is that you never know who will show up. Sometimes, people go off in smaller groups to have a drink in the pub or screw in the bushes, but the town square thrives on big numbers and lots of diversity.
So, please join in!
To answer your other questions:
–Have you seen each others faces?
I’ve met well over a hundred dopers over the 4 years I’ve been a member here.
–Work together?
Not me.
–Know each other strictly from posts?
In almost all cases, I know people strictly from posts–even those I have met face-to-face. Even if I meet someone briefly at a fest, I still know them mainly by their posts. I have gotten to know several Dopers pretty well, and I count a few as real life friends. And Billdo is my brother. He introduced me to the boards.
–Go to get-togethers (are there such things?)
I’ve been to a number of Dopefests, both large and small, all in the NY area. A lot of people go to frequent gatherings and/or travel long distances to go to fests. I’m just not that sociable, ha ha. But it definitely sounds like fun. I doubt I’d get on a plane specifically for a fest, but if I was going to a faraway city, I might well throw up a thread and see who wanted to get together for dinner.
Ok, I know 1 other person from the SDMB, and that’s because I introduced him to it.
With that out of the way, I actually like that fact that I don’t know 99.99% of you IRL. No, I don’t mean it that way. :rolleyes:
I would like to think that I’m not effected by racism, sexism, ageism, but I know that if I walk into a room, I’m more likely to end up talking to someone “like me”.
But here, I have no idea what most of you are like physically.
Twice my age or half my age, stutterer, strong accent, gorgeous or ugly, red, green or purple (hair or skin, you pick). I can’t tell, and I don’t care. All I see is your ideas and your words.
I think that this is exposing me to a whole range of people that I usually wouldn’t be.
I don’t know any other dopers either but I was invited to dinner with a group from my area (Philly). Although I was made to feel very welcomed to go, I didn’t. Maybe next time I will, who knows.
…and this thread just made me realize that I’ve been here for a full year this month.
I didn’t know that! I like learning these things. I love this board.
To respond to the OP…
How many of you guys really REALLY know each other?
I don’t REALLY know anyone on this board personally. But as I think about it, that is also not quite true either. There are a few Dopers who I’ve corresponded with off the boards via email for one reason or another, and I feel like I “know” them better than others as a consequence.
Have you seen each others faces?
Only from examining the pictures on the various (out of date) attempts to create web sites with photographs so that we can put names with faces.
Work together?
Not me.
Know each other strictly from posts?
Yes, for the most part. See my response to your first question.
Go to get-togethers (are there such things?)
There are such things, though I’ve never been to one. They’re called Dopefests. Other posters have already described them.
I think this will make a big difference in whether people subscribe or not. Am I butting in on you guys conversations or are we out here to get diversity?
You are absolutely not butting in. We welcome diversity with open arms. One of our biggest concerns actually with this new subscription policy is that it might result in a smaller and slower inflow of “new blood” which helps to keep things lively and interesting. Please join us.
**How many of you guys really REALLY ** know each other?
I know nobody.
Have you seen each others faces?
Some, in the photo threads.
Work together?
Like I’d get anything done!
Know each other strictly from posts?
I guess.
Go to get-togethers (are there such things?)
So I’m told. They could be part of an elaborate hoax.
**I think this will make a big difference in whether people subscribe or not. **
Okay.
Am I butting in on you guys conversations or are we out here to get diversity?
Are those mutually exclusive? I imagine that the bulletin board is sort of based on the idea of butting in on each others coversations.
I like feeling around and seeing what other people think, and some of you guys are so funny!
That’s all part of an elaborate hoax.
** Maybe your all professional comedy writers or something.**
Oh, I’m something all right. Definately not a professional comedy writer, however.
Rooves – there’s actually two separate cliques of Philly dopers – come join ours! We’ll be having dinner at King of Prussia on Tuesday, April 13th. There’s a thread in MPSIMS that I’ll be bumping again closer to the time…