Would you appreciate your online readers in the offline world also?
06. May, 2007 
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While the concept of appreciating your online readers is nice, it would be interesting to see how people appreciate their online readers should they meet them in person. If you give your online readers prizes on a random basis through your site, would you also give something to your readers if you run into them in the offline world? Would you spend some time chatting with them, asking how they are?
Will you really appreciate online people in the offline world? Ask yourself that question.
Now, answering “yes” to those two questions may sound logical, but think about it: how do you act around people you already know, like family, friends, co-workers, or even neighbors you do not talk to, if you run into them while shopping? Do you talk for a few minutes to fulfill the obligation of interacting before moving on? Or do you talk to them and pause your shopping for a while, diverting all your attention to the person you just ran into?
The answer to all these questions will give you an idea whether or not you appreciate an online reader as a human being, or if you appreciate them as long as your computer is turned on. What do you think?
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I think that if I spend some time talking to a person online, I would definitely be interested in talking with this person offline. In my opinion, meeting an online friend or fan is different from meeting a neighbor. In most cases I rarely have anything common with my neighbors except the fact that we live in the same building, so the usual Hello and a few more words and questions back and forth would be sufficient.
Since I’ve been teaching for many years, every time I run into one of my former students we struck into a long conversation right away. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering their name (well, if you count that I’ve taught over 5000 students in my teaching career, you would have a hard time with all those names too, wouldn’t you?), but I always remember their face and the fact that I was teaching them in past.
So my point is that it all depends on a person and the relationship with another person.
Good point; talking to someone online a lot can make us feel as if we would be interested in talking to someone offline. Also, it’s true that if someone does not remember their reader, then it can be hard to realize how to act around that person other than to act nice and try to know the other person.