Is “nice to meet you” an appropriate online salutation? | nice to meet you on whatsapp
Ifyoutalkwithsomeoneonthephonebefore(orinsteadof)meetingtheminperson,itwouldsoundoddtosay"nicetomeetyou."Instead,youwouldsay"Itwasnicetalkingwithyou,"andpossiblyaddthatyoulookforwardtomeetingthem(orhopetomeetthem,atleast)inperson.Similarly,anexchangeofwrittencorrespondencedoesntconstituteameetingeither.Itwouldbelaughabletouse"Nicetomeetyou"asthecloseofaletter.Ipersonallyavoidusing"meet"todescribeaninternetencounter,whetherinemailorchat,eventhoughmyfingersoftenwanttotypejustthat.Suchanencount...
If you talk with someone on the phone before (or instead of) meeting them in person, it would sound odd to say "nice to meet you." Instead, you would say "It was nice talking with you," and possibly add that you look forward to meeting them (or hope to meet them, at least) in person.
Similarly, an exchange of written correspondence doesnt constitute a meeting either. It would be laughable to use "Nice to meet you" as the close of a letter.
I personally avoid using "meet" to describe an internet encounter, whether in email or chat, even though my fingers often want to type just that. Such an encounter is a kind of meeting, as @kiamlaluno notes in his comment, but it seems so much less than a real meeting that it feels awkward to call it that. Nevertheless, this is the Internet, and what may hold for one medium may not hold for another. I would say that if you have a lengthy, soul-baring chat session with someone via the Web you might well say it was nice to meet tha...