Warning to Internet Partyers: Don’t Drink and Disk Drive

You don’t need an invitation, you don’t need a date, and you can drink as much virtual champagne as you want and still wake up without a headache.

Come New Year’s Eve, thousands of people around the world will be logging on the Internet for an evening of talking, flirting and generally being silly with counterparts in New York, San Francisco, Rome, London and a host of other cities--without ever leaving their living rooms.

The global New Year’s party comes in two main flavors--face to face and virtual.

Those with Internet accounts can connect to a chat line and a virtual party or two.

And in at least seven cities, Internet users will gather in person to dress up, get down and, in between choruses of “Auld Lang Syne,” pull up a keyboard and chat with the folks about how their New Year’s party went or is going, depending on the time zone they tap into.

At the Other Side Cafe in Boston, the cyber-party will feature dancing, drinking and much digital tomfoolery.

“What we’re trying to do is have some very high-tech things and some very low-tech ones. It seems to be that all that’s been reported lately in the media is about ‘the dark side of cyberspace,’ ” said Art Turner.

“We’re going to have live, friendly people right there to help them get started,” said Turner, a landscape architect in Ithaca, N.Y., who helped organize the global party.

In San Francisco, party-goers at the Noe Valley Ministry plan to tap into celebrations around the world.

“It’s going to be awesome,” said organizer Cynsa Bonorris. “We’ll just start in the east and work our way across the planet, time zone by time zone, just a huge wave across the globe.”

So far, she knows of private gatherings in Copenhagen, Rome, Hawaii and Los Angeles.