Originally Posted by
no-backpacker
Thanks again for sharing!
You might not believe it, but I started with "data-communication" way before internet was usual, at least in Norway. I think I started calling up BBS in 1992 with a very noisy and slow modem...:-) I was usually the only girl/woman and I went to lots of "real life" meetings, but my husband was usually with me, so it wasn't that scary. I met lots of great people and some of them are still among my best friends today! (But I also met some "weirdos" who called me up in the middle of night etc... etc...)
I admit that going to a "DO" is both tempting and scary, however, I think that's how life is...? :-D My parents and my husband sometimes think I am too simple-minded when it comes to meeting up with people from message-boards. They were just a little bit scared when I, last year, went to Chicago to visit some "internet-friends". :-D I guess that's why I had to ask somebody else how scary it *is* to attend a "DO" :-D
Xxx.
I know exactly what you mean.
My first Do was a meeting of KLM flyers in AMS, about 2 weeks before the London Do in 03 that SkAdcock references (I think - was that the mega do, or am I out by a year?).
Anyway, I was petrified - flying to AMS to meet people I didn't know from the internet, how stupid does that sound?!
I didn't tell my parents, as I knew my mother would freak out. I was so paranoid, the only things I left in my hotel room were things I wouldn't mind leaving - so if it was really bad, I could just bail, find another hotel (since we'd confirmed where we were staying) and generally bolt for it.
And the group couldn't have been more fun, had a good chat about all things KLM, the organiser, ralfkrippner was a star and it couldn't have been more reassuring or relaxed. Drinking what seemed like quarter pints of Baileys at the end of the night seemed perfect!
Two weeks later I went to the first megado and was amazed that some people even recognised my handle. Within 2 years, I was organsing my own dos (and always very mindful of how I'd felt on my first do!
), and I've been been a mega Do organiser myself. And I became a mod in the Do forum about 2-3 years back now....
All from a petrified attendance at AMS - which was also, incidentally, the first time I'd been landside at AMS, despite being a top tier elite for a few years. My fellow do attendees couldn't believe me when I told them that