Long before the Buffistas ever took definitive form on the Table Talk boards, I'd already met Betsy HP, Lysana, and Mitch Wagner in passing at SF cons and the like. So I had a degree of comfort in considering going to a group watching at Nora's or inviting the proto-Somervillains to my house....

My first F2F meeting was April 1999 in DC, when I met a group of people from my first discussion board (Fourth Turning, the Strauss and Howe generational history website). That F2F was really unusual, since it was co-organized by the authors, involved an NBC camera crew following us around most of the weekend, a taping of C-Span's BookNotes about being an online book discussion group, and a tour of various memorials with commentary by Neil and Bill (which drew attention from other tourists, who were wondering if they were "somebody famous").

I fell out of keeping up on that board after discovering Salon and Table Talk, (and eventually all you guys!) but it does lead to "Hey, I know that guy!" moments such as when I was watching a History Channel show on Sacco and Vanzetti, and saw one of the 4T F2F people featured as the major talking head in the documentary due to his recent book on the pair.

The first online people I met were all pre-WWW.

Some of them I still talk to on a regular basis. Some of them I dated and don't talk to. Some of us had wild times and occasionally talk, though we don't really hang like we did, back in the day.

The first WWW people I met were from Vinery.net, back when it still had a BBS. My bridal shower was scheduled for that day, so I didn't make it to the track until the race after the big race, and thus missed my chance to go to the backstretch with everyone else (one of the people who was in town for the event was a former exercise rider who was pretty social and connected--Deb reminds me of her, in a way) and meet Budroyale.

But I did make the dinner and get to hear some hilarious gossip about various racing personalities.

My first b.org meetup was with Smonster and Amyth. We met at a local music and crafts festival. I think the theory was that the crowds would protect us from potential ax murderers and the music and suchlike would give us something to talk about if F2F conversations lagged.

Nowadays I'm over at Amyth's once a week or so, hanging with her and Smonster and usually watching fun tv and chatting. They're great to know in person (as some of you will soon find out). I'm very glad I did the whole mini-F2F thing.

I met shrift and ita and Theresa W. at my apartment within like a week of delurking. Which is RIDICULOUS. People, I could have been an axe murderer, you don't know!

Oh yeah, I had met at least one person off the interweb before Buffistas -- a guy I met through the discussion part of the old GirlsOnFilm.

People, I could have been an axe murderer, you don't know!

And that was a pre-krav ita, wasn't it?

shrift was an old hand at meeting online people by that point.

My first online friends meeting was driving up to Dallas to meet some Nikita fans, right before I went to the first Nikita con.

My first Table Talk F2F was at Deb's.

And I think the first time I met Buffistas (excluding those I already knew from Deb's) was at the first F2F in Chicago.

I met shrift and ita and Theresa W. at my apartment within like a week of delurking. Which is RIDICULOUS. People, I could have been an axe murderer, you don't know!

Yeah, but instead there were asspics, weren't there? A whole series of them?

People, I could have been an axe murderer, you don't know!

I am still getting over that disappointment.

that was a pre-krav ita, wasn't it?

Pre-krav, but post-tae kwon do, post-capoeira, post-kung fu, post-muay thai.

I met people off of USENET first, soc.culture.african-american. Then...I'm not sure. I think it was a F2F at Deb Grabien's, during the TT (and pre-Buffistas as entity) days.