[dccoolgai]

There was a time you could (and would) go to a _picnic_ in real life with the other people on the internet. Can you imagine that? Tradewars, chat, warez, Club Caribe, music mods... it was pure magic. I would trade a year on this internet to have that one back for a couple hours.

[romwell]

Hah, those times didn't quite pass.

I went to a subreddit meetup around.. 2009, I think; it was the same spirit. (And we accidentally ran into David Blaine, but that's another story).

But, more commonly, meeting up with strangers you met online is pretty much the default way of meeting people (ever heard of Tinder?).

So it seems like you are complaining about the Eternal September more than anything else :)