Hi,
firstly (feedback) - ALL GOOD!
I found this site about a month ago and it is fantastic! Very helpful.

I was just curious about a couple of things: the demographic of users - is it a fairly widespread age span of people on the site (on the forums in particular)?

Also (just b/c i’m intrigued), I was wondering if many people know each other outside the forums (like, in real life). It’s funny that we don’t know what each other looks like (but maybe that’s just me!) Hardly anyone seems to have a photo on thier profile (or any other info for that matter!) There’s nothing wrong with that of course, it’s just interesting.
Do people prefer to keep thier cyber relationships as just that ... exclusively internet only? For “Introverts” that might well be the case and for “Extroverts” perhaps not.
Question for everyone..... You’re at a Katoomba Convention standing in the queue for lunch and you notice (after glancing at thier name tag) that the person standing next to you is someone who you have seen many times in these forums. They are nothing like you imagined! And they have really bad breath (this is not an important point). Do you say hello and introduce yourself or not?

My answer would be: I’m an introvert and it doesn’t come naturally to me to strike up convo’s when I don’t need to. I also love written communication (forums included) because I find it frees me of inhibitions that I would have face to face. I am more confident and assertive in the cyber world. It would in some ways be nice (for me) to retain anonimity. But, having said all that, I would answer YES. I would say hello b/c relationships are important and it would probably be mutually encouraging to say g’day.
extra thoughts: 
(a) maybe if the person was very obnoxious (not that i’ve met one yet) I might not.
(b) maybe it depends on whether you’ve just SEEN them in the forum or whether you’ve actually communicated with them? You have a relationship already once you’ve communicated regularly. This must have a bearing.

hmm. interesting.
Anyone going to MKC? ha ha, we’ll all be looking at name tags now! I will post an update on how many forum members I met at Mens Convention in a couple of weeks!
PS: I DO have a photo on my profile page. That’s perhaps an extrovert thing to do for an Introvert such as myself!

Blaise

Question for everyone..... You’re at a Katoomba Convention standing in the queue for lunch and you notice (after glancing at thier name tag) that the person standing next to you is someone who you have seen many times in these forums. They are nothing like you imagined! And they have really bad breath (this is not an important point). Do you say hello and introduce yourself or not?

Absolutely, positively. I might have bad breath too and that might be my best feature!!!  ;) After all, I’m not interested in people who are like me. More importantly they are a bro or sis in Christ with or without bad breath. If with, then I stand back a little further and if not then I have something else to thank God for.

I briefly met Sandy Grant and his family over the school holidays. It was a treat to finally see him in the flesh. I’ve met several people from these forums and even had one for a sleepover (I live in Wagga Wagga).

Glad you are enjoying these forums. Can get a wee bit addictive at times.

welcome
Angela

I have met a few people over the years from the forums,

Gordon over a coffee, he is really a very nice bloke :)

Owen over a coffee when he was down here, he is a great bloke as well.

Met a few at Synod and once at a dinner we held in Syndey for forum members, Mark Tough, Luke, Danni, Robert Denham, and a few more I can’t think of at the moment. Sandy Tough, Richard Blight, and one night at Synod our church reps were invited to have dinner with our Archbiship Peter Jensen and he was a most hospitable host and very pleasant dinner companion.

I have made some great friends, some I see regulary, others not so regulary but am in contact with a lot and have become involved with their various ministries in one way or another. Such as Mike Rayson, you guys have to invite him to sing at your church at least once, and Richard Fortune who has headed up a ministry to miners, and Warren Bird who helps run a weekly workplace bible study.  It would be great for us to pray for them to have a fruitful and effective ministry.

Theres a few more I have met, but can’t remember your names at the moment, sorry bout that. craig b

Hmm, let’s see… Craig Bennett, Warren Bird, Pete Denham, Ian Tyrrell(?) Mark Tough, Owen A ran away when he saw me coming… I’ve met others of you I know, but I can’t remember whether it was through SA or not.

Ahh more have come to me,

I have also met Craig Swarze, Ian Holder, Ray Lau, and spoken to Neil Atwood.

Well there you go!
All sorts of good things have come out of these forums. It seems that this is a ‘real life’ community as well as a cyber community. Technology is excellent when it is used for good isnt it!? And it is nice to see it being used for good - so often it is not.
I’ve visited a few online forums that exist to help people who struggle with depression. There were no specifically “Christian” sites that I could find and I could summarise the sites that I did visit by saying that they seemed “devoid of hope”. People tried to help each other but there was little they could really do. In stark contrast, people in these forums will offer to PRAY for you. Now that’s somthing you don’t get elsewhere!
I have found people helpful and encouraging.

I met Neil Foster at Hunter Bible Church on Christmas Day.
I saw Craig Schwarze and Dominic Steele at a Christians in the Media mission in Bathurst, but did not get to meet them.

I haven’t met anyone in person yet, but there’s still time!

I had already met Archie Poulos, Michael Jensen, Mark Rundle, Justin Moffatt, Andrew Beeston, Roger Gallagher, Byron Smith, Tom Barrett, Richard Fortune and Derek Cheng (though I’m not related to Derek) prior to the forums.

I think Mark was one of my Strand leaders on KYLC (back in the days when I was doing the strands). Archie was at KYLC for a while too. At uni. in the EU, I knew Andrew (who did a similar teaching degree to mine), Byron (a prominent EU leader) and Tom (who did a similar music degree to mine and also helped professionally record my music); heard Justin speak at EU events. Met Michael when doing teaching internship at the school where he was chaplain in ‘02. Met Roger while on NTE mission at his church. Met Richard at Y12 formal back in ‘95 - now that’s a colourful anecdote!! Derek goes to my evening church & used to help me out in congregational prayer. And like me, he’s been involved in the best ministry there is - kids’ ministry!

From the fora I have met for the first time Mandy Curley, Ray Lau and Brian Tung.

Gee, I’m a bit of a social butterfly with elephantine memory, aren’t I??!? (I can hear Derek choking as he reads this.)

TZ.