I see ‘dopefest’ passed around here like cake at a teaparty. I personally would not give a second thought to the idea of going to one, not even if there was one in the Isle of Man!. Not because I think there is anything bad about them just that it seems a bit of a personal thing to do to meet in person - people you have ‘met’ in an internet message board (which IMO doesn’t count as proper meeting). It seems a bit over the top.
Is it a cultural thing? I suspect that the other british dopers feel the same way as me - would not dream of going to one. Has there aver been a UK dopefest?
I am not trying to offend anyone here, I just want to understand dopefests. If I ever went to one I wouldn’t have much to say.
Also, I tend to be painfully shy when in large groups, which I don’t think is a good trait to have. I’d toyed with the idea of attending a dopefest after a few months on the board because I thought it’d be good socializing practice, since I’d feel more comfortable around people I “knew” in some sense. Took me a while before I really fully intended to attend one – I’d always find a reason not to go. Went to my first last year, and had a pleasant enough time to go to a second. It’s just…nifty.
There have been UK dopefests, and continental as well. I believe our Ozzies round it up now and then, as well. Canada does it, and there’ve been a few gatherings in the Colonies. In fact, I’ve met Brit dopers at 'fests over here.
What percentage would attend? Well, I’ve met ~250 Dopers at the 35-40 'fests I’ve attended and I would guess that my experience covers at most ~10% (that seems high) of the Dopers who attend Dopefests experience. Going with that estimate, we can then conjecture that ~2500 Dopers have attended 'fests. With ~32,000 of us now, less ~500 for troll returns, we get a figure of ~8% of Dopers having so far attended a 'fest.
I just might go to one again.
It should be noted that I pull numbers out of my hat for a living.
I have to be honest - If I told any of my personal friends that I’ve gone out of my way to attend a gathering of people who post to a message board on the internet, they would not be able to stop laughing for days.
Posting here every single night just about borders on ‘far enough’ I think attending a dopefest would be going too far (for me)
I would go to one if there was one close enough to go to. I haven’t the bucks to go to DFW, or even Vegas or Phoenix, right now, which are?were the closest Dopefests to my present locality.
Been to a couple myself, and going to another this weekend. I’ve met some damn fine people and made several very good friends from attending dopefests, and certainly don’t intend to stop now.
If I could get one of the Dopers I know in real life to go with me, I’d go. But the ones I know are all out of state, and there hasn’t been one near enough to me that I can go and not get really far behind in schoolwork and not kill myself since I already travel a good bit to keep a long-distance relationship together.
sigh
Maybe I’ll go to one, someday. But I have a morbid fear nobody would be able to figure out who the heck I am, since I don’t post scads. And I don’t know what I’d talk about, since all I do is school and I don’t know much about reality shows, Tolkien, and a few other things regularly discussed here.
Magickly Delicious, I’ve been to lots of fests, and I’ve never once discussed either Tolkien or reality shows at one. Well, I may have mentioned how much I despise the latter at one sometime; I don’t specifically recall.
We’d be glad to have you. The next one is coming up on Friday
The reason I enjoy Doper gatherings is that I’ve met some actual, real-life friends that way. We have a bunch of fun, interesting folks who like to get together to eat, drink and chat (plus, as Cecil likes to say “a few total dipsticks.”) But overall I always have a fun time with great people.
Not to be offensive, but I suspect is more of a personal issue with you than a cultural thing. I have been to a lot of Dopefests and had a blast at every single one. I have met Dopers from the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and, yes, even the UK. In LA in October 2001, I was fortunate enough to meet Francesca and AlexB, and they seemed to be having a good enough time at the monstrous DopeToberFest. Well, except for Frannie’s minor problem with a flower pot; I’m sure she wishes we would all forget that incident, and maybe after a few more Dopefests and their accompanying alcohol, we will.
Do I tell all my coworkers that I’m going to an internet party? Er, no. I tell them that I’m visiting friends. And I am. There are a number of Dopers (in the hundreds) I’ve seen many times, and in many states, and I look forward to the next Dopefest when I will see them again.
Why doesn’t it count as a proper meeting? What is a proper meeting? When you think about it, a “proper” meeting consists of conversing over different topics with a bit of laughter mixed in. This can be done online. You can get as close (friendship wise) to a person online as you can offline (as can be seen by the few doper couples and children around here.)
If I get to know someone very well on a message board I won’t hesitate to meet them in real life… In many ways I’ll know them and be closer to them than I am to most people in my everyday “real” life.
If you’ve never gotten close friendship wise to anyone online you just might not be able to understand what I’m trying to say.
You have about three times as many posts as I had when I first went to a dopefest. Of course, given that there were only four people at the first one I attended, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out who the heck I was.
I’d say go anyway, if it’s not a great thing, it’s only a few hours out of life, and if it is great, you have some wonderful friends!
I’m very shy around people I don’t know very well. I’ve considered going to MD/DC/VA area gatherings, but worry that I’d have nobody to talk to since it’s hard for me to approach people.
clayton_e I have become very close to people on the internet before (mainly from chat rooms) so I do know what you are talking about
I quess I was wrong to say it is not a proper meeting. But it does take a lot to make a meeting on the internet into a proper meeting, afterall, if you count all meetings as proper meetings then I have met like a million people on the net. There is such a thing as a proper meeting on the net, but they are special IMO. I have had a few of them.
AIH I feel like I’ve ‘met’ people here. Particularly in the ‘a’ thread (I feel like one of the crowd there) and in situations where I have been in heated arguments with people, I have felt ‘close’ (maybe in a bad way) to those, and to people who have tried to diffuse situations and been nice to me - such as Ice Wolf. I feel close to her (or is he a him?)
I wouldn’t likely go to any, primarily because I don’t drink and that seems to be the primary activity at most. That and I’ve exposed the bulk of what passes for my personality here and no-one has expressed any desire to get to know me any better, so I doubt it would be any different were I to meet anyone in person.
Of course, given that there were only four people at the first one I attended, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out who the heck I was.