Since I'm still a relative newbie..

In My Humble Opinion
21

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…

22

I don’t know anyone here, though I’ve been here a while. I still always feel like I’m butting in on conversations between friends. Some year, I’ll get over that.

23

I know quite a few Dopers, have dated a couple, and even married one (UncleBill).

There are gatherings all the time, in lots of different places. I’ve been to 'fests in the DC area, NYC, Michigan, Chicago, Ohio and Florida–and may be forgetting some. I used to keep a list of how many Dopers I’d met, but haven’t updated it in a long time; the count was at 135 as of two years ago, and there have been many additions since then.

Many of the Dopers I’ve met have become very dear friends, and I love the community we have here. I know it can seem a little intimidating because so many of us are friends IRL as well as on the boards, but don’t be afraid of feeling left out. I always tell newbies not to be timid about coming to gatherings, because as many Dopers as I’ve met, I would love to meet even more! Whenever I see a post from someone I’ve met, I go, hey, I remember that person. It’s a nice feeling.

24

We’re a really neat bunch of people. Overall the group is very friendly and welcoming to new people. For a while I felt like I was butting in on other conversations but eventually people started mentioning they remembered me from some thread or another or I’d pop into a thread and see that someone posted that they hoped I would come by to post on the subject :eek: That was when I knew I was really at home here.

I’ve been to dinner with a few dopers. I’m trying to organize a fest for this summer right in my backyard. There’s a thread in MPISMS about it (I’m in Northern MA myself) I’m married to a doper, Parallax, he introduced me to the boards and mostly lurks.

I started mostly posting in MPISMS and IMHO but now I realize that over time I’ve posted something in every forum! I learned a lot and have met some wonderful people here.

Come on in - the water’s fine…