well with a private profile I do not know where you live if your male or female and what your age is so I will wait to have you open up that profile before I try friending you....hugs welcome to our corner of the Internet....it is hard to meet locals because we are spread cross the globe here....so good frikkin luck on that one....I have met one person from here...and she unfriended me not too long after that due to meeting someone else and saying something here about that person....so I do not know how that works for you but good luck....

Would love to meet some local peoples to hang out with in the future, maybe. But I not near your area, so can't help ya with that. Good luck though!

billwfriend, base on your user name, I am assuming you are aware of the word: "Anonymous" As this is a sight intended for "self help" and find "kinship of common suffering" i find liken to a subsequent fellowship. Hence, as I begin to getting to know people in the forums, I add them or they add me. Let me ask you, as a friend of Mr.W, could you see a newbie coming into a meeting for the first time and had giving out their home address and phone number to EVERYONE the minute they stagger in the door??? I first came to this site because I was escaping a very bad relationship with sadistic woman and was in need of a "safe" place to vent and get feed back......hummm, sounds a little like PEER support doesn't it? This is the 3rd time, in two different topics you have pointed out my privacy setting, why? Are you the Forum police, trolling to find those whom don't fit with some unknown DS rule? What does it matter in a forum if I am male or female? As you begin to become friendly with someone on here, you learn more about them, see how that works? I am not looking for a date or a "hook up", just like minded friends. So, that having been said, friend me or don't, the choice is yours. Thank you for your reply to this post.

Hi panda. I don't think Bill meant any harm. It's just going to be difficult finding people in your area to spend time with when there is little to go on. Just give yourself a chance to get to know people and see where it goes. Good luck!

Hell, we don't even know what country you are in to say yeah lets be friends. I limit my friends to those in America due to time zone differences.

I had someone in Britain get pissed off that I wasn't on the same time as them....thus my requirement.

All we are asking for is a little more info to know if becoming friends would work

Okay,.....I am a 3 foot tall green black woman guy with blue balls and I live in Vietnam and wear black pajamas. jk

WOW!! The nerve of some ppl!!

The real world is cruel; which is why so many ppl come to the cyber world for refuge. And yet the cyber world can be EVEN MORE CRUEL...which is why I think is an even good enough reason for ppl to remain anonymous & expose WHAT THEY WANT TO expose about themselves.

NOBODY has to open up their profile to ANYBODY if they don't want to. And, I agree with Panda. Does it make a difference if someone is male or female or what their age is or where they live?

The purpose of this site is for ppl to get encouragement, support and to get & give advice.

I'm sure billwfriend is an alias & I'm certain it's not a dog who has replied to Panda's post. Many ppl on this site have revealed their deepest thoughts and private things in their lives. In my opinion , it would be really dumb to expose who u really are.

its understandable that people would like to know the basic info i.e. age, sex and locations, for the meantime why would that matter. i would think some people would like to meet people to carry out a good convo to get to "know" that person enough to share information that may be sacred to them. some of the people who want to know such info are the same ones who don't even have a real picture of themselves displayed, its no different. i don't have any pictures of myself on here however if i get to know someone on here and developed a good online friendship i would share my likeness to them and little by little a bit more about myself. its being cautious. if you meet someone in person you won't give them your social and blood type, address or bank account # the moment you meet them you would get to know them first and even so you wouldn't give them all that informations, i hope....i am O+ btw ;) anyway, instead of worrying about the wrong thing focus on the main topic which is Making friends....all the other stuff is to be discovered later...when the time is right for whom it may concern.

@BundlesofJoy well said.

OMG! Panda, I'm a 4 foot tall green black woman guy. What a coincidence!

Anyways, I'm sure Bill didn't mean any harm either. Some people here are just paranoid because of their own experiences offline and with people on DS. But, honestly, anyone can type anything in their profiles and say they live anywhere. Panda might actually live around the corner from me. In fact, I think I see him peeping in my window! O.O

There are lots of people with closed profiles on this site but I see them post regularly and I can tell they are nice people, people with similar views as me, or even people I don't want to associate with; Even if I can't read their interests, locations, or gender.

POST MORE -- That's my only advice to people that are new and/or looking for friends. That's how you get to know people and what they feel and think. And if anyone is super curious to see what's in someone else's profile, add them as a friend. Or you could always send them a message and ask.

As for befriending, I am slow. I want to see that the person and I have a thing or two in common (photography interest or cycling..reading history, hmm a pet) or maybe even have temperment agreement.

So I'm appologizing to some ppl who've invited me but whom I don't know enough about.

I CAN say my age or gender are not the the first things I want to reveal online.

you goys are all great, even Bill. thanks for the replies! for those of you whom are now friends, I look forward to getting to know you and letting you get to know me! HUG!!!!

yes Panda your right I belong in the fellowship of the spirit AA....and second A means anonymous....I know lots of acquaintances there but not more than a handful know where I live...many have my telephone number...most know my last name because I use it when I speak....

I think the real reason I jumped on private profile was that I looked to see what area you lived in....but private profile kept me from knowing if I would be able to have coffee with you or not because no idea what area you lived in...so then I just went off like rocket because I am an open book of sorts...most of my lies are in my past and most have been exposed to letting others know that I lied.... using the AA twelve steps so to speak...

anyway after that post I did comment on one post you put up about florida...georgia area but you say I commented about the private profile dealie in three different threads....that is so untrue to the best of my knowledge,,,,,I even used someone's suggestion of view more posts on you to see what other threads we might have both posted on....just two that I know of and the georgia I just mentioned I was not in that area.....nothing about your private profile....

now I know your either man or lesbian...:

I too would like to meet some people in my area and do things with them. Your profile was marked private, where do u live> Hugs.

Um....well, I just wanted to say, that I misunderstood the original post, just like maybe billwfriend did? I don't think he meant any harm, just thought that you were talking about "Physically" meeting someone...