I met up in person with tickle dude au today. Very nice bloke and easy to talk to. We actually got pretty comfortable chatting about casual stuff, at least I thought so, like study, work, music, cullinary properties of dangerous reptiles etc. He did drop the T word once near the end, which was a bit awkward since I immediately started to worry if there were people around us listening, but other than that it was great being able to just get to know someone from the forum over lunch.
Maybe we need to come up with our own vocabulary for when we're worried people might be around listening. Or, as tickle dude and I both thought, we could set the meet up so we're in a generally public area but a little distance from where there might be other people. Maybe we could have fish and chips in a park somewhere so no one has to worry about bringing subjects like that up.
He also made the point that some people might want to go to the venue just to walk past and see the turnout, but maybe keep the option of not joining in if they're too nervous. Knowing how nerve-wracking it can be to meet up with one or more people like that for the first time I think he's right. If people want to show up just for a look without commiting then that's fine.