Quote:
Originally posted by Attalus:
The difference between meeting someone in RL and on the Net are that, here, you meet their mind, or as bset as they can express it by typing, and in RL you would be influenced by their looks, clothes, etc. Both can be deceiving, as the stranger that a girl meets in a bar who claims to be a surgeon. The longer you know someone, the better you know him/her. Besides, when you meeet someone in a bar, you are 'looking', consciously or unconsciously. In a chat room, you are saying 'I am lonely.' Here, you are saying, ' I am interested in RPG's, and that is about it.' How endangering is that?
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You are so correct, Attalus, and this is an important point. A person who is a faker can only keep the sham up for only so long. That's why "pervs" who visit chatrooms must act quickly; they can only fool people, even kids, for the short run. Sooner or later they inadvertently tip their hand and are found out. So they put on the pressure on their "victims" to meet them in RL pretty soon on; or rush romances if they are conning an adult.
If someone has consistently acted in a manner for a long term period, say over several months, and has not deviated from that, you can be pretty well sure that's their basic personality. That's not to say they don't have some deep dark secrets that they haven't divulged (who doesn't have secrets?) but they're probably not a creep or a jerk, at the least. Even a maniac with a lot of charm is going to drop the mask at an inopportune moment, and then you see the strings holding up the marionette. Trouble is, of course, you don't know how long it takes, but you'll probably know immediately when it does happen.
-Sazerac