Quote:
Originally Posted by Hakon
I think I am one of the only downers that has never met another downer. I know I have not even been a member for 3 months but still.
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You're taking it a little hard if you think that. It's more than just a matter of time on the Downs, though that is certainly a part of it. My first Downer meeting (with Brinn: awkward "hi"s in the doorway followed by a rather long evening of non-awkward shared Downer talk) was 3.5 years after I joined the site, my second (alluded to already by Fea) was about another year later.
At current speeds, unless I find someone in driving distance--and, importantly, I'm not playing WW then--isn't likely to be for yet another year--or longer, that's just when I expect to have options. Because, as I was saying, it's more than just time online to be considered, it's a question of other things. Like logistics. There are no major Downers in western Canada, active at this time, other than me. Or, at least, I'm not aware of them.
Even so, I could list several Downers who have been active in theoretical driving distance that I've never made a move to meet. Because, in addition to travel distance, it's a question of who you're comfortable enough meeting. You've noticed already that a lot of the people on this thread have been members for quite some time. More important than the amount of time that they've had to argue Canonicity or lynch each other as Gifteds is how well we've managed to know each other generally.
In my own case, I admittedly didn't know Brinn especially well. She's an older member than me, and went dormant before I joined, and didn't come back until I'd started going a bit treeish myself. But we followed each other's LJs to an extent, so we weren't complete strangers, apart from the Downs, and on the plus side (as I saw it), Brinn had the credibility (and pictures) of having met a round dozen Downers already. The risk was much less on her end--
I was meeting
her and she had her family and such around. Quite non-threatening.
Meeting Fea and Nienna was quite a different situation again. I've known of Fea as long as I've been a Downer, and we've gotten to know each other reasonably well--perhaps even quite well--in the intervening years since.
Of course, if there actually were any Downers in "let's go for coffee" distance, I'd probably have met a lot more by now--or tried to. But when the distance you live at is in the "well, we'd best make a weekend of it at least to be economical" you tend to do it with less frequency...