This entire thing is amazing XD. You're awesome.
Sorry for not responding sooner. I went straight to bed after my last post.
Also: My method is not the best, but it worked for me. Worked as in: I'm visiting 3 people I've met online.
First off: Figure out what you're looking for. Friends? Relationships? No-strings flings? The answer affects how you go about things. I was/am primarily looking for friends, and a girlfriend. This might actually take quite a bit of thought on your part. You want to meet people, but what do you want out of it?
Everyone I'm going to see is/was from BD. BD/DH is my little social hangout. It's somewhere I fit in, so it's natural to get to know everyone. Heck, you even get a glimpse into everyone's personality, for free, based on their forum posts. So, interact! Try to keep your interaction as similar to your real life personality as possible (barring RP.) The last thing you want is to attract people to a fake version of yourself.
I think you're pretty well known around here, but interacting and being yourself extends to any other social circle. Even IRL. Especially IRL. Is that difficult for social recluses like us? Yes, but it gets easier over time. Personally, being more outgoing online has translated into being a bit more socially comfortable offline. Just keep at it. Keep interacting.
How to interact? On the forums, PM people you want to get to know better. Introduce yourself, and a topic, or question (for ideas, figure out what interests them.) Listen to what they say, and respond. Share your thoughts. Talk (text) to them like any other person. A lot of people here you already know a bit about, and can base your dialogue off that.
Real example: My first few PMs to one friend I'm meeting, we talked about work and school (the first PM was spurred by a related forum post.) Our jobs. Dream jobs. What we're studying... more subjects popped up as we went. Talked about our past and experiences. Shared views on things... basic interaction. We had a lot in common, or at least our personalities meshed well. They're not interested in a relationship (with me, they have a boyfriend), but I had found a friend. We keep in touch, play video games, and, yes, we talk about dildos a lot
.
I don't really treat potential mates/girlfriends/whathaveyou different from friends, with the exception that I find them physically attractive. So it's the same thing: PM, talk, and see how you interact. Share yourselves. Is it going well? Keep talking. If you find someone you mesh well with, and want to meet IRL: Let them know. They might be thinking the same thing. That is exactly what I did, and they said yes. How will it go? Who knows. In the mean time, we interact fairly regularly. We're both gamers to an extent, so we spend a lot of time virtually hanging out. She's a fan of WoW, and while I'm not, we have a lot of fun playing together.
TL;DR:
Engage someone you want to know.
Talk/type. If things go well: Try and find things to do together.
If things are going *really* well: Propose meeting (if that's what you're after.)
First part is the hardest, I know :/. Best singular bit of advice (again, reiterating) is to be yourself.
Final note: This is based on online interaction. I would *highly* recommend interacting with locals. Speeds the hell out of the entire process. That said, that advice makes me a hypocrite XD.
Click to expand...