When I was telling my mother about Nilly and erika's trips, she wanted to know how we knew we weren't being taken, when we engage in group gifts. I said that in these particular cases, there was no way to be taken, as they were just love-based gifts, we were giving, and partly selfish at that, so that we could see our friends.

Did anybody else read Matt's posting, shiver, and say "We're due?"

I don't know if it will be as effective here. I can't see some random poster coming in off of the information superhighway, and managing to elicit a significant response. Many of us are cynical and don't take everything at face value. We've met each other, socialized with each other, and Random Poster has no track record whatsoever.

On the other hand, if we are talking about a known quantity that happens to be a fan-freakin'-tastic liar with a gut-wrenching sob story, then we're in deep doodoo. There is a significant investment in this case.

ETA: Or what Sunil said, and more eloquently than I am capable of at this moment.

Contrariwise, I keep a daily watch on getupgrrl's infertility blog, because she is a heartbreaking combination of funny and wise and angry.

I never would have chosen to read this if it weren't mentioned here, but the blog is hilarious and touching, Betsy HP. Thanks for sharing it!

I wrote a long post on the Munchausen by Internet stuff, dealing with trust on the internet in general, and more specifically on buffistas. Then I stopped to work on some other stuff before coming back to look it over. And I clicked on a link which opened up in THIS window, and lost the whole thing. Maybe I'll get it together to repost. t /rant

My (admittedly limited) experience with Munchausen by Internet is that there are tell-tales. To pick on Betsy (sorry Betsy):

• Betsy would become sick, and possibly become aggressively passive about it.
  
• If she were really elaborate, Betsy would chronicle a disease in the most detailed fashion possible, including the rarest and direst symptoms, all the while failing to chronicle any real-world effects this disease was having on her attention span, energy, motivation to wash dishes, and other mundane details of life.
  
• Betsy would announce in advance that she was going into the hospital.
  
• Betsy (or her "family member") would not respond to email queries about what hospital/phone #/times to visit.
  

I'm sure there are other tell-tales, but the Buffistas luckily are world-travelers and inveterate hospital-visitors. (The first example of which I recall is Gar going to visit David's ex, Gar never having met David or the ex, solely because she was in hospital in a new city and would probably be lonely and freaked. That's the kind of Buffista mitzvah action I love to read about!)

...with apologies to Betsy, her "family member", and sundry.

I'm safe on the "family member": the Bay Area Buffistas have met him. And them, for that matter.

That's true (so have I!). Still, I feel the need to apologize for referring to any real person with air quotes.

Oh, he's your "husband". Ri-i-i-ight.

Oh, he's your "husband". Ri-i-i-ight.

Suhnerk.

Hey, Victor, meet "Cindy."

Hmmm...now I feel duty bound to visit any buffista within a reasonable distance, and their friends and family members, just so we can all be sure that we're real. Darn.

Hmmm...now I feel duty bound to visit any buffista within a reasonable distance, and their friends and family members, just so we can all be sure that we're real. Darn.

Heh. It's such an onerous burden.

I do think that the unusually tight-knit community and our predilection for face-to-face gatherings helps a lot in this regard. Even for posters such as myself that live out of driving distance of their fellows, there are generally enough people with real-world means of contact that if we were to suddenly disappear from the board, someone would be able to find out what happened.