internet profiles and the games they play... I need advice

[Devken]

So here's the deal.

I stumbled across a guy's profile a week or so ago. Nothing too radical or strange about that, but after a bit of talking I discovered that I know the guy in real life. I never thought he was into men, and the revelation that he is sort of excites me.

Here's the problem, we're not friends in real life, we know each other from a distance, and that's pretty much it. We move in the same social circles, he knows people I know, and I know people he knows. I have a profile as well, but he hasn't actually recognised me. He doesn't know I'm me, but I know he's him.

So things were starting to get a bit more sexual, with x-rated pictures being swapped back and forth... and I'm seriously wondering what I should do.

Should I continue this and not explain to him that he sort of knows me from this and that place, or should I continue as I am right now, pretending we're strangers who feel sexually attracted to each other?

 

[D_T_Frothingill_Bellows]

just bring up that you may or may not know him but don't make is seem like you're trying to pin him down to a place or anything.

Because if you know him and he doesn't know that, I'd feel like any and everything I did with him from then on was a bit.... "opportunistic"
a lie...
just me

 

[italian4all]

Something like that happened to me too. I had the feeling I knew the other but I wasn't sure, nor I had identified who he was... just had a feeling that I knew him.

Still, since I am not out with my 50% gay I was a bit afraid of meeting him in person, but finally decided to do it. We arranged an after work meeting at a gas station not far from his office and on my way back home, and as soon as he got out of his car we looked into each other and suddenly recognized each other. We had not been in touch for few years, but we did know each other, and none of us knew about the other's feelings for men.

Well, after the first few awkward seconds we spoke and actually enjoyed some good sex too. And we became better friends, sharing the sex besides what you normally share with friends, and keeping it as our secret.

It lasted for several months... then he came out and is now in a LTR with a man, but we're still friends even if we have not had any sex in the past 2 years.

 

[Triasco]

I'd say that telling him you might know who he is would be even creepier than just telling him ou know him. I don't have much (or any) experience in this matter, but it seems to me like it would be best to proceed as if you don't recognize him. Who knows? Maybe he HAS recognized you and is simply doing as you are doing now.

 

[helgaleena]

Pretend. It's the Internet and that is what it is for-- distancing yourself from things you don't want to do in your day-to-day life. As long as it's not breaking any laws, play along.