I figure the purpose of chatting with people is to eventually schedule a meeting. I am guessing that I should be suggesting a meeting in person as soon as I determined this person might be someone I would be interested in getting to know better. I figure that the ideal strategy is to learn things that they like or dislike while chatting so I can create a plan of what to do on our first meeting. I personally will not message women I cannot realistically meet within 6 months. I also tend to message women who are local or who live somewhere where I might be traveling to or want to travel to.

Six months is WAY too long. Oh, and I'm not one for strategy when building a friendship/relationship. Sounds calculating.

she will let you know, you just have be listening.........

Absolutely agree .
The OP's 'strategy' sounds almost like a social misdemeanor to me.

Ohhh hell 6 months, heck noooooooo..

I know if I'm interested in meeting them within a couple of days of e-mails.. Due to I prefer local they better be ready to meet within a week or so.. I don't like those long drawn out meets for you never know till you meet them face to face..

It's either organic or it ain't happening. His strategy does come across as a bit creepy.

I don't even buy green bananas. I'm sure as hell not waiting six months to meet someone.

A couple of emails.

But IMO it's not really about the "how long" so much as "how."
Like what to put in emails, what to ask for, how to invite them out.

Just depends on who you are, what you're capable of, how you handle rejection and what it takes to move on to the next.

In my experience "how long" is arbitrary.

Talking for a long time is no guarantee they will show up.
Talking for a short time is no guarantee they will say "no."

If there's no guarantee for the outcome (showing up or ghosting) then it doesn't matter all that much how long you talk before asking them out.

Talk is cheap, why spend so much of your life on it with no sure outcome.

And that doesn't even begin to cover the problems with chatting online and how easy it is to lie, self edit, and over longer timelines misinterpret, or develop a false idea of a person.

Example: If I meet someone online on a Monday and begin chatting...I expect a few emails then turn to texting and by Thurs a phone call to possibly set up a public meeting for a Saturday. Barring scheduling conflicts..anything longer than 2 weeks is a deal killer. Dont join a dating and not be ready to date

it depend on both