Da Goddess

Why don't you also notify the police and the fire department? How about call the local news so they can come out with their camera crew and record the meeting as it happens?

Women = Paranoia with breasts.

LMAO, "Sir" that's a good one!
Da Godess, it's hard to take this advice when you don't evenfollow your own rules; especially a rule you put strong emphasis upon where it concerns children(emphasis below is mine):
"No Children - children should not be present the first time you meet someone. EVER. You are the only thing standing between the unknown and your children in this instance. Don't take chances with their safety. I don't care if you're driving 2 blocks away or flying across the country...kids do not belong at your first encounter ever, ever, EVER!
Men meeting men, women meeting women, the ferret association monthly potluck... it matters not. Get to know the people in person first.
Then you go on to say there's always exceptions, and you took them when you brought your kid along.
I would think that those are the times where there would be zero tolerance for bending the rules or making an exception. The rules apply to everybody but you? There's a word for that. There's several, but I like "hypocrite."

Good rules in general... especially the cell phone versus land line rule.

On the other hand, I've has some freaky people track me down by assembling info from various sources.

Personally, I've always had a cell phone on me, let lots of people know what I'm doing (including making sure that they can report my license plate number and other sundries in case I'm not answering the phone), and trusted my instincts.

I've had some very strange weekends and roadtrips that were incredibly dangerous in hindsight, but which turned out okay. These days, I'm a bit more careful and follow the same general rules.

Like you said though, there are always exceptions...

I hate to say this, especially since you've already had some pissy comments, but may I please congratulate you on your common sense. I think that people who have no common sense in real life won't have any on the internet, and for those who have common sense in real life you're preaching to the choir.

Stranger and Sir, thanks for pointing out the editing that I needed to do. If you'll go back and reread, you'll see where the changes were made.

Karen was the first person I met in real life from the Internet. We'd been through a lot together online and I honestly felt comfortable with my decision to meet up with her and her friends because of our online history. Tough to explain fully, but it made sense at the time.

With Inky and Stephen, I had the distinct advantage of reading archives - from over a great amount of time, and truly did feel that Greg added security to the meet up.

However, and there always is a however, the Internet has become something else entirely over the years and what I felt was okay to do once is something I've learned that I'm skeptical about now. Lesson learned.

Those are very good rules, Joanie. John and I met on the Internet 11 years ago. We used those rules - they work! And it is fun that a special place for us is that neutral place where we first met - the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City!

I too felt comfortable meeting you Joan. It is a decision I will never regret. I have gained a life long friend who is well worth the risk!!

Excellent set of rules, applicable for real life too. There was this one grand jury trial I was supposed to serve on, but didn't due to health reasons, guy got the death penalty for murdering this child of a woman he had met. Idiot had left the kid alone with him while she ran an errand. Hope she learned something.

And those new GPS cellphones are nice too, easy for the police to locate you if need be.

Great rules and I hate to say it but when I met Patrick (my husband) I broke some of them. *lol*

As someone who'll celebrate seven years of wedded bliss with a woman he met on the internet, let me add this to your thoughts: ditto.

Nice post, Goddess.

Remember what Stranger told you, guys.

Learning from your actions makes you a hypocrite, because you didn't obey your current precepts in the past.

Remember, Stranger, that hypocrisy is action contrary to admitted principle. At, you know, the time of the action. Not some later principle that conflicts with an earlier action.

Just sayin'.

(PS. Has anyone ever mentioned that olive drab on light orange is very hard to read?)

"Karen was the first person I met in real life from the Internet."

How can that be?? Didn't you meet both Acidman AND Greg via the 'net???

just wonderin'

Excellent post and yes, common sense. I wouldn't have felt particularly comfortable meeting fellow bloggers, even folks I felt I *knew*, had I not had my guy with me. And it's not at all hypocritical to learn from experience and decide that you're no longer going to be quite so trusting - I just hope that this post wasn't made in response to something icky happening...

Apologies for the shameless plug.

I wrote something similar, albeit different in detail, on "how to make an online relationship work:"

http://www.amcgltd.com/archives/000334.html#000334
(On-Line Love)

Speaking of paranoia...

One thing I have tried to sell to my daughter and her friends: leave yourself a message on your cell-phone voice mail.

Plans change, accidents happen. In the worst case - if one disappears - it would be reasonable for the police to get a warrant and listen to your voice mail messages.

Suppose you left yourself a message " Just met Steve Y at the Starry Plough; he's so cute, 6'1", blond, tells me he's 25. We're going to take his red Corvette (CA license 5 FFF 123) to the Berkeley hills to do a little Zeppelin Race watching."

If the impromptu date turns out OK, listen to your mail and delete it. If you don't come back, well, the cops have a place to start looking.