Neither do I
I have aquantainces.
I have seen many webmasters make "good" friends in this business who are also in it. However they always seem to fall apart after a while.

I made friends with another webmaster in 1996. We had a huge fallout over the fact that I was wanting to use recurring on my site and he (to this day does not have it) thought it was a rip-off.

We no longer talk. How sad is that?

fuck you, so funny....

I like my webmaster friends better than my real-life friends.

I consider Equinox a friend, we've been chatting online for a couple of years now.

Meeting Lane in Vegas reeeeeallllly helped me understand why he never responds to anything, (he's got to be the shyest guy I've ever met. But he's got the looks to get any girl he wants, but he doesn't. If I looked like him, I'd be fuckin' a different chick every night.)

TDF.. well who the hell isn't TDF friends with.

FletchXXX, I offered him a bong and he refused, so that's pretty cool. I would say that's a friend. A greedy ass would have accepted. (It was a fucking nice bong too.)

Keev is a bastard, but still a goof friend.

Tanker turned me out, he's cool.

SixNine, pointed me in the right direction and helped me get my start. I'm stilll not sure if I should thank him or hate him for that. LOL

Boneprone takes my membership fee every year then tells me not to bother him for another year, so he's cool.

Pete The Fly, Exxxotica, Alan, Henry, Mike D, BVF, KatDaddy, FattDaddy, SetTheWorldOnFire, Rodent, Titmowse.... this list can go on for days....

I have a lot of online friends, more than I do offline. But only because I spend most of my waking hours online. If I were a social worker, I'd know more offline people.

I am RedShoe, and I am an anti-social BY CHOICE. I hate people physically. But online they can be whoever I want them to be.


In my mind's eye, Equinox is not as big of a nerd as he is in real life.

Oh Redshoe I love you tooooo....

www.BlackBrosWhiteHoes.com is looking good

now I have to go play Placebo....as if I need an excuse

Okay.

I love Kat and Sherie.

There. :glugglug

w00t! :winkwink:

some of my best associates are people I only see once or twice a year at trade shows...I can honestly say that ICQ makes the world seem a lot smaller than it is

i know in person MOST of the people I do business with

:Graucho

Yes, it is possible to both make firends and to hate others without even meeting them face to face. You get a good sense of another person just by the way they respond.

Granted, some things to not translate well through type and can be taken the wrong way, but you can get a real good idea of that persons personality none the less.

Damn you are actually nice now....

I make a difference in buisness relashionship
freidnship
and accountences

real friends are rare on the net !
But hey... it can be possible i jsut have hard time trusting people...
Alot of head games going on... Alot people almsot wants something from you... are they real,, honnest,, real friends welll
hard to say is it?

Me, too, Sarah...met Tev online back in '95...married him..and we're in the same biz....

I don't relate well to offline folks anymore, except my family....

Offline people don't understand what I do...I'm tired of explaining that, yes, it's really work....and, no....I don't whack off every five minutes....yes, it's really a biz..and..no, I don't wanna build them a website...and, no..they're not going to make millions in five minutes......

My online friends..I might only see them once a year...some I haven't met at all....but, it's cool..when I've been talking to someone for a while and then we get to meet at a conference...put a face to the name....

I think it's a lot easier to make online enemies than online friends. People get the wrong idea and get offended really fast when they're insulated by the internet.. and they are (if outgoing people to begin with) rather prone to at least bullshitting and keeping up the appearance of friendship in person if both people have common goals, especially goals that involve making money.

*whew* that was a mouthful

Ain't that the truth?

I've been lurking here for a while... that's normally what I do on the boards because it's very easy to get in a hell of a fight, however I understand that it's going to happen too - everyone needs to vent and online is a pretty safe place for it.

I think a lot of us in the industry have a fairly lacking real-life social life due to the demands placed on us. I'm lucky in that my wife works along side of me in everything I do (well, for the most part). We are together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week... spent a total of 3 days apart (one consecutive period) in the last 7 years and never more than 24 hours any other time in those same 7 years. Believe it or not, we almost never fight either lol.

Real life? I hate people.... well, for the most part. It takes every ounce of willpower to not start choking the fucking idiots I run into when I go out (and my god are there a lot of them out there), but online I know that people are just personas... you might be a great person in real life, but a dick online -- or vice versa -- and that makes it pretty easy to like even those people who are dicks online :)

Can you have better online relationships than offline? I don't think it really matters, however online removes the physicial appearance "first impression" that gets in the way of so many offline relationships (as much as I'd like to say there are people who are not at all superficial, that's bull - everyone forms opinions based on first impressions). I think it's EASIER to build online relationships, however you may very well be just building a relationship with someone's persona.

And yeah, I'm a geek... we've lived in Portland for about a year and a half now and I know less people locally than I can count in a single hand. Online? I have over 300 people on my contact list (business and personal) and also keep in touch with some of the people I grew up.

Anyway, I'm getting long winded (as I tend to do when I actually post)... what's other people's takes?

I want to buy these 'friends' too. Where can I get 'em from?

No. Some of the biggest assholes I've ever seen on boards or talked to on ICQ actually turned out to be really cool in person and good to do business with. Some of the nicest people on boards and ICQ turned out to be slap nuts when I met them in person.

Never mix friendship with business anyway.

If I want a friend, I'll buy a fucking dog....

i tried with a few dudes, but it didnt work out right
they showed their true assholes

or maybe i just drink too much?

real live eh?

Hmm...I've been meeting people online since 1983 (good ol' CompuServe CB...yes, I am a geek) and about 9 times out of ten, when I meet them in "real" life, there's no notable transition, no surprise...I already know them and the face-to-face meeting is just a formality. The notable exception, similar to what Crow mentioned, is that the more agressive board personalities are often MUCH more laid back in person.

:2 cents:

Hey, Mishi....you're one of the ones I've met online...and, I'm going to disagree with you...

Usually, the pricks online are pricks offline, too...:)

I remember I had one friend once...
yeees.. he was an webmaster . One day , he never camed online , I am still wondering why ? :(

The simplyfied question is:
could you fall in love with the "im just a sexy girl" chat bot ?

Are you talking about me behind my back again?

lol, I was wondering if I should be concerned...

Hummmm.. I believe I first met Serge on a board in late 95 or early 96....

I still love him today! :Graucho

I have more webmaster friends that Iv'e known online for a few years than I do where I live. Probably because I spend more hours online than I do going out. How sad lol but I love it.

2.5 years ago I met a photographer online and we became great friends and setup a biz together. We have a great working relationship and we both make $'s. People tell me It's impossible to have a biz like this but it works and has been for the past 2 years. 100% trust is what makes it work :)