When meets do take place though, It gives other users the impression that no-ones really lying about their identity (of those who have been to the meets) as someone would have said something if somebody turned up to a meet when they where not who they had made themselves out to be on the website.
The users are weary of the dangerous aspects of meeting up, and tend to keep the ‘place/time etc’ under wraps through personal messages so that ‘lurkers’ whom consist of an identity which may not be approved of cannot get hold of this information, but they do welcome ‘new’ members to join their meets (just not arrange them!) – As they are considered part of the community if they post regularly/offer advice etc.
Although I referred to ‘lurkers’ above, there seems to be two kinds of these on handbag. One is acceptable, and one is possibly not. The one that is acceptable is somebody who does post every now and then, but sometimes comes on and doesn’t contribute – but when they do eventually contribute, they are still apart of the community.
Then there is the lurkers who do not ever contribute, these are not as accepted within the community, however – the actual lurker themselves may feel like apart of the community because they are still interacting with all the on-goings of the forum, they are just not helping to produce it. The whole concept of Lurkers still being involved in the community, is backed up by here -(http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogs_as_virtual.html)
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