# Anyone made a friend using an online service? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 7, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-made-a-friend-using-an-online-service/675770 "2013-12-07T20:34:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![F.Pu-du-he-pa-as](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@F.Pu-du-he-pa-as](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.Pu-du-he-pa-as)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-made-a-friend-using-an-online-service/675770/21 "2013-12-09T19:33:42Z")
Yeah, I’ve made a few friends through Funtrivia, the SDMB, Steam, and a couple of Classics sites. I’ve only met two of them IRL, I think, and only after we’d been friends online for five years, or something crazy like that. Sometimes it feels kind of surreal to have known someone for years and years and have supported them through some of the worst things a person can go through, and still not have any idea what they look like or what their voice sounds like. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-made-a-friend-using-an-online-service/675770/22 "2013-12-09T20:18:38Z")
[This guy](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=709955) did, sorta… ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-made-a-friend-using-an-online-service/675770/23 "2013-12-10T02:18:50Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > I joined a book club that I found on Craigslist. I really liked it, but it disbanded when half the members moved to Portland. Stupid Oregon! I liked that it was small (all of 5 members); we half-heartedly auditioned a few new members now and then, including after the great Portland exodus, but it fizzled out. The book clubs I see on [meetup.com](http://meetup.com) seem much larger, which doesn’t appeal as much. Oregon is where all the cool people live now. You should consider moving to Oregon. 😉 > [@](#): > > Generally speaking, people on Meetup suck I am on meetup so this can’t possibly be true. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-made-a-friend-using-an-online-service/675770/24 "2013-12-10T22:54:44Z")
I’ve made friends through No Kidding!, which is a group I found out about online (it’s a social group for people without kids), [Chowhound.com](http://Chowhound.com), and through the retired racing greyhound adoption network, which formed in the days of email listservs before the 'Net was a thing. If you can find a group for something you are really interested in, that can help get things started. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-made-a-friend-using-an-online-service/675770/25 "2013-12-11T17:56:13Z")
I actually did once make a platonic female friend (I’m a straight woman) through [Match.com](http://Match.com). 🙂 I was looking through the local women’s ads, just kind of checking out the competition, and came across a profile of a woman my age who sounded really very cool. How cool? Cool enough that I sent her a message, stating that I wasn’t romantically interested in her but I loved her profile and didn’t know many people in the area (I’d only been living in Virginia for 2 years at that point) and wondered if she might be up for coffee or a beer or something…if it wouldn’t be too weird. She loved that I had the balls to send her a message like that! We met and got along pretty well, and hung out for a few months – we started meeting each other’s friends, etc. – until she suddenly disappeared on me. So I didn’t make a _good_/long-term friend, but I still count it as a friendship. > [@Rick](#): > > FWIW I have made serious IRL friends here on the dope. Me, too! Just the one so far, but one IRL friend in 9 years is a pretty good record, IMO. And through him I’ve made some other very good IRL friends, so it’s an important connection. ---
**Author:** ![jrsone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jrsone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrsone)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-made-a-friend-using-an-online-service/675770/26 "2013-12-11T18:12:56Z")
Probably 15 years ago I had a friend I talked to, I think we first talked in a music chat room or something like that. We talked for years before we lost touch. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-made-a-friend-using-an-online-service/675770.md?page=1)