When someone says he is looking for a friend, a date, a relationship, etc. on an internet site, is that "friend" part true?

Honestly, who isn’t looking for more friends?

They may be looking for both or either one.

It can be true.

They may be hoping for a serious relationship, but seem to be open to whatever may come their way.

I think pretty much everyone on internet dating sites is looking for more then friendship.

I think some people really are just looking for friends but I think it’s also used as a backup in case they’re not into whoever responds.

They could also just be looking for sex.

Depending on which part of the internet you meet them, you can get a better sense of who they really are and what they really want. I would think that you could get to know someone here fairly comprehensively before seeing if they are interested in taking it further. On a dating site, it seems to me like there is this implicit pressure to move things along quickly, so you might find yourself somewhere very quickly before you’ve really had a chance to know the person.

Depends a lot on the site’s overall vibe too..

Generally speaking, I’d say it can mean one of three things: (A) Really interested in making friends if that should occur, and/or (B) Open to “friends-with-benefits” (an ongoing relationship involving sex and friendship, but not romance/partnership, and maybe not “dating” in the sense of going out a lot together, etc.), and/or (C ) Looking for hookups/one-nighters, but the site either doesn’t have an option for “Intimate Encounter” or some such, or the person is reluctant to admit they’re willing to consider that, so they say “Friends” instead. ‘Course, if they’re thinking A, and you assume maybe they mean C, you’re likely to irritate them… ;-)

On sites that are almost entirely social networking (like Facebook), most people who say they want Friends probably mean A; relatively few mean B or C. On a site that’s not specifically about dating/matchmaking, but which a lot of people use that way anyway (like Tagged), then there’s probably a big mix of meanings. Same with sites dedicated to dating/matchmaking.

On sites dedicated to finding hookups (like Fling), it’s probably most likely to mean (D) People I’d be willing to chat with online, but not meet in real life. Because most folks are unlikely to use such sites specifically to find plain old buddies like in A, and they don’t need the double-meanings of B and C, because the site has clearer options for describing what they want…

On more or less all types of sites, I’d say that saying they want Dating means they want to go out on dates, but don’t want to specifically seek out a serious relationship yet. (Not necessarily that they’d turn it away if they happened to date the right person, but they’re not actively looking for it…)

I think adding ‘friend’ to what you are looking for makes the profile seem less intimidating, and also means that they might want more than just to get laid.

I don’t see why they wouldn’t be honest. I’m also looking for friends. All the time. That does not necessarily mean that they (or I for that matter) would pick you for that role, it just means they’re generally looking for that type of person, and hoping to meet them on that site.

I honestly think that people will try to get whatever they can get. I mean, you can meet up with one person and just have that friend vibe but, meet up with someone else the week after and have those butterflies. You can never really tell what you’re looking for until it smacks you right in the face! :)