edscissors's blog

A couple of times in my blog entries (which, amazingly, do seem to be read!) I griped. Once - when I was completely and dishonestly scammed by someone who deleted his profile then popped up again almost immediately under a different name and, it seems, may be continuing along the same road. Another time, about "ageism" - perennial complaint, I know.

I thought, therefore, that I would write about some of the things I love about this site.

1) Most members are so polite, friendly, tolerant, encouraging of each other. Maybe we won't ever meet but to exchange a few messages is often good fun and affirming: there seem to be plenty of people here who love a good chat and making contact with them is civilised and civilising.

2) In recent weeks I seem to have had the pleasure of several excellent meetings despite my perhaps rather unpromising starting points (my age ... and ... see my profile for the rest of the story). It's a tad disappointing when people one contacts don't even send a message to say "no interest" but, well, the positive responses and the people who DO take the trouble to decline politely restore one's faith in basic good manners. Mind you, one guy I met last week, whom EVERYONE wants to meet, told me that he had had up to 170+ messages in his inbox so maybe the non-replies begin to make sense.

3) I've made several really good friends here - whom I have yet to meet in person. We just seemed to hit it off and we have exchanged masses of e-mails ... books of them! Special thanks to my good friends in Canada and Margate. (Update at end of September: and Norway!)

4) And then there are the great guys who have had the generosity of spirit to give me the time of day and actually meet up. Nice guys, each and every one of them. Thank you: there hasn't been a single meeting I've not enjoyed.Or, to put it the other way round, I've enjoyed meeting all of you! It continues to be a lot of fun.

5) Now, at the end of this week, I'm off to the USA for a holiday and have already made several arrangements to meet people along the way. My past opponent count is about to go up considerably, I hope. Hooray for MeetFighters.