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Meeting Locals over the Internet?

Posted by Cliff on from the meeting-people-while-avoiding-the-bar-scene dept.

tjjuggle asks: "Why is so hard to do local communication on the internet? Suppose I want to find a group of random people to play soccer with tomorrow. Given that I live in a town of 50,000+ people, many of whom are online, there should be a way. For major metropolitan regions, Craigslist.org fills this gap, but it is no use to those of us who live outside of the San Francisco Bay Area. Has anyone developed a service like Craigslist which can be used throughout the country? I imagine a site that, given a zipcode, it could then tell you which users are signed up who live within 10-20miles of you. Does anyone know of other local communication mechanisms?" Even now, one of the best ways for local communications remains Instant Messaging, but you usually have to meet the person, first. Are there other community-oriented websites out there that can assist users in meeting other users who live nearby?

3 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. BBS by NickDngr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is one thing that the BBS excelled at but the Internet sucks at. A couple of the BBS I used to frequent had monthly get togethers at safe, public places. But then, that was the old days, when 9600bps was smoking fast and only people with deep pockets could afford anything faster than 2400bps.

    --
    Yoda of Borg am I! Assimilated shall you be! Futile resistance is, hmm?
  2. It has to be pointed out by jnplmmr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That craigslist.org reports that it exists for a number of locales beyond simply the SF Bay Area. (atlanta, austin, boston, chicago, dallas, denver, detroit, houston, los angeles, miami, minneapolis, new york, philadelphia, phoenix, portland, sacramento, san diego, seattle, washDC, london, toronto, vancouverBC) Granted, some of these are rather less well-developed than craigslist.org nee SF.

  3. IRC communities by QX-Mat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A lot of people will give me stick for this, but nonetheless, I'm standing by, IRC.

    IRC *is* a great place to meet people with similar interests. If you're an extrovert, you'll simply love to meet people, and if you're an introvert, you'll need a helping hand but you'll find the variety of different people you'll [probably] never meet irl, on IRC.

    I met the last person i dated through a community site (I then met her best friend, but thats another story :), and we knew before we met that we had a lot in common. We phoned and txt each other regularly. We had similar tastes in music and both of us were highly academic.

    I guess it's because IRC is a conscice medium that does away with all the 'wasteful' talk.

    imho, it's no replacement to meeting people on the train, at parties or in bars, but people should really giver consideration to IRC communities rather than plague them with "nerd"ish slander.

    In August i'll be off to Reading [Music] Festival (red-ding, is a Town nr London), with my IRC mate from Scotland and one of his IRC mates from the midlands. We've met before, and we're doing it again - it's funny and whitty and we had a great laugh last year.

    Matt