Statisticians, what are the odds on Dopers meeting?

Factual Questions
1

I discovered I’m moving into the same apartment complex as another Doper, entirely by coincidence and with no foreknowledge.

What are the odds? Is more info needed to figure it?

2

Actually, I didn’t discover it, I was informed of it by the other Doper, Aristides.

3

I met cmkeller at a wedding a few months back. Neither of us knew the other would be there.

Zev Steinhardt

4

I can’t help with the statistical approach. While I’ve met literally hundreds of Dopers IRL, those have all been arranged meetings. I’d love to meet a Doper by coincidence.

The statistical analysis of the probability seems a daunting task.

5

I am not sure how you would recognize a Doper right off the bat? I could be bumping into Dopers all the time without knowing it. Is there a secret handshake, nod, password, what?

6

I posted a link to my new home on SDMB, and Aristides came across my post.

7

I had met Chaim by a Doperfest a few months earlier.

He also knows relatives of mine IRL and I know relatives of his(something I didn’t realize until about after a year of posting).

Zev Steinhardt

8

I daresay that for some of us, a more compelling question would be the odds of two Dopers mating. :smiley:

[d&r]

Perhaps the best chance of recognizing a fellow Doper is by espying this familiar screen at work on someone else’s monitor?

9

I recently became aware that a fellow doper is in my CS class!

Hi ITR Champion.

10

A couple of weeks after meeting Tevya and Mr. Tevya at a Dopefest in Columbus I chanced into them when we both went to the same showing of Monsters, Inc. at a Cincinnati theater complex. I would have still run into them if we hadn’t gone to the Dopefest, but I would have never known it.

11

They carry oranges and talk futively about koalas. Some of them have homosexual keyboards.

Or so I’ve been lead to believe…

[/obscure Melbdope references]

12

The thing is, Dopers aren’t uncorrelated. We tend to be intellectual, for instance, so we’re more likely to be at places like universities. I’m not sure how one would estimate the degree of corellation a priori. On the other hand, there are plenty of examples of Dopers meeting by chance, so I would say that empirically, the odds aren’t too bad.