h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

About the 'Rules for meeting' OK, so the world is a dark & nasty place sometimes, but I do get a bit upset that these rules seem to apply only in the 'virtual' world. How many of us have gone on dates with 'friends of friends' or 'someone from the office' and not taken half the precautions advised for meeting up with internet contacts? And lets face it, you may know less about them than someone you've been honestly e-mailing for ages. I'm not saying we should throw caution to the wind, just that sometimes it's OK to go with your instinktive feelings about someone, and allow for trust and a little spontenaity.

standard rules I've always used are:

get a landline phone number. use it.
get a snailmail address. use it.
get an email address. use it.
get a photo.
get a sound recording of voice.
meet somewhere public.

Make it clear before meeting that you've told someone else what you're doing, and they know all this information. Most axe-weilding maniacs don't want to get caught. Those who don't mind about being caught have mostly been caught...

I know it's dumb, but the big difference is simply that there's much better chances of retributution in the real world - the gossip mill alone is protection enough, most days. If you do die/get raped/get mugged, at least the person who did it will get thrown in jail so fast it'll make their head spin.

I sort of agree with what Pinky says, however the friend of a friend scenario usually means you get set up with someone who is roughly your age and of the approriate sex for your sexuality (OK Pinky you have the advantage on me here). Also as Lucinda says if anything were to happen that person would have a higher risk as their friends would inevitably hear about it.

One thing I may add to the article is the odd thing about how you can have wonderful, long and personal emails with someone, and then when you meet there is no spark or something (like a hat or phyisical feature or mannerism) can throw you so much that you fail to bond as you did in the emails. This has happened to me. I am about to arrange a meeting with someone else, with whom our emails have been short and ot detailed. I wonder what the outcome will be.

Kadu Flyer