Can I ask how, or is that too personal? What was it that made him get past his initial worry about where you were meeting new friends, and what caused the initial worry?
Not at all. For reference, this was earlier in our relationship, before I delurked on b.org. I never made the distinction about how I knew these friends. Not meant to be malicious, but I didn't think it was important, and he did. We talked about it, worked through the issues, and he's good. It didn't help that there was other stuff going on around us that contributed to some communication problems. Now, if I meet Vortex or meara for dinner, there's no quibble. He knows they're my "Buffy friends" and the only thing he says is, "Have fun!"
He had no idea that there were people online who weren't looking to cheat on their significant others, scam the elderly out of their hard-earned retirement, or hack into sensitive government databases. Like I said upthread, he was really and truly clueless as to how the internet is today. There were some unresolved trust issues that he had to deal with, stemming from his last relationship, and he projected that onto me. Once that was dealt with and he understood I wasn't undergoing a 180 personality swing and trying to kick him to the curb, we moved on.
My initial post was for illustrative purposes. There is a large group of people out there who don't get the phenomena of online communities and friendship. Didn't Nilly have to reassure her family that she wasn't headed off to meet with mass murderers, who are the same people who raised a significant amount of money for someone they'd never "met"? I don't think my situation was all that different. It's like trying to explain BtVS or AtS to someone who's never watched--you really can't without it sounding a bit silly and simplistic. For that person to understand what either show is about, they'd have to watch.