I've met quite a few people from online, and have many more good friends that I may never have the opportunity to meet. I've flown to Nashville and Daytona for weekend get-togethers with groups of friends, flown to Alabama and to Houston to meet other individuals. I've met a few people locally via my MSN profile as well. Mostly they were very nice people, although some were fudging the facts a bit in cyber space
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But the best one is my partner. We met in a chat room 4 years ago and he flew to Florida to meet me on Valentine's Day 3+ years ago. A few months later, he moved here to be with me and we now have an 11 month old daughter together. We have a great relationship and I consider myself very lucky.
I think the secret is to get to know as much as possible about the person you're talking to, watch for things that don't add up, and meet in a safe (public) place the first few times. You should have talked to them on the phone, have their current address, employer, and birthdate as well as family member's names, etc. Check it all out first if it is a romantic interest.
One person, however was a predator. He picked women off a support board who were insecure and damaged from abusive relationships and offered them friendship and eventually 'love'. He preyed on them via their spirituality and low self esteem. Once he got bored or found another target, he dropped them like a hot potato. I have no idea if I was his first target, but I wasn't his last. Unfortunately for him, the one after me and I found each other accidentally and compared notes. Bastard had form love letters, lol. Anyway, we published a warning on the website and notified his church of his activities online. Maybe we helped prevent him from vicimizing anyone else. I hope so, anyway.
Stormie