There's different points of view. Me personally I find it less weird to meet people. I mean, given I spend my whole life with them. I've met and the enjoyed the company of people I've clashed with consistently and explosively online loads of times, tea, droid, padraigs. I think it's pretty fun meeting people you've interacted with for years on a more or less daily basis.
Some people, like corpse, have a very strict dividing line between real life and online. No mixing. Online people stay on the screen. I'm pretty much the opposite since the blog days when I organised walks, little day trips for the freaks. Get them out the house. Sufi, woebot, Craner, k-punk, tell them all to make packed lunches and follow me.