Let's suppose you're doing this meetup thing for the possibility of making friends, possibly finding a hot steady.  The way I see it, for any of that to be possible, you'll have to have actual conversation with people--- not online greetings, not e-mail exchanges, and not assumptions based on their "online presence."   Having a real-world conversation doesn't guarantee you'll make a friend, but not having a conversation guarantees you won't make friends. (Okay, I realize there are people who …