Would you consider Fluther to be a good place to make friends?

I’ve made many good friends on here. Some I’ve talked to on the phone, I email & talk to them on Facebook.

I suppose. I like talking to the people on here, and there are more that I talk to than others.
I like having new friends, but I haven’t found any that I could keep in touch with on a regular basis. (tear, tear)

xD

I’ve made many associations, but I don’t know about actual friends. No one has offered to give me a ride, help me move or lend me any cash. Would you like to be my friend?

I would consider many flutherites friends. I could imagine going out for coffee, or beer with several of them. I can count on quite a few to give me moral support or a good laugh when I need it. I’d help them move if I lived close enough to any of them. One flutherite supported my husband’s radio show by purchasing some much needed equipment. I love my fluther friends!

My husband and I were supposed to meet one flutherite that lives about 90 miles from us but for a couple of reasons we were unable to make it to his neck of the woods. We will meet up with this person eventually.

Yes, of course.

Yea but it is no substitute for in-person friends.

I’ve met a good number of fine, upstanding, and interesting individuals in the time that I’ve been a member of Fluther and I would consider this a decent location to meet new friends. When I first arrived (landed?) here at Fluther, it wasn’t with the sole intention of making new friends but that aspect of it has been entirely welcome and enjoyable.

There are a few people from here that I communicate with away from Fluther and as far as who springs to mind right away when I think of Fluther, the list is long and distinguished because there are alot of great people I interact with daily on this site and probably too many to list in this answer. Suffice it to say, they’re all good folks in my book and they’re all great company.

I’m feeling very loquacious today. Bear with me.

It’s a different flavor of friendship, but friendship nonetheless.

Fluther friendships are constrained by lots of limitations; they lack many of the dimensions of friendships with people whom we actually see and touch. Some important channels of communication are lacking: all of the information we gather about people by studying their expressions and body language and tone of voice, the effortless and unfiltered back and forth exchange of conversation, the communion of shared concrete experience.

What we have here instead is a very narrow glimpse into the minds and lives of others. This computer screen is like a wall with a tiny hole in it through which we can peer at each other and exchange a few garbled words. But in many cases, that’s enough to form bonds.

I think we all accept that many of these friendships are conditional and contextual. Just because I really like someone on Fluther doesn’t necessarily mean I’d want them to move into my house. I know that if I were to see some flutherers in the full light of day, the spell might be broken, and vice versa of course. But many “real life” friendships are conditional as well.

One thing that is difficult on Fluther is the paucity of feedback on one’s sense of friendship with others. As warmly as I feel about so many people here, I suspect that most of them aren’t at all aware that I feel that connection. They don’t know when I give them GAs and GQs, and I’m not great about sending out random PMs of admiration. I dare think there may be people here who feel that way toward me too, but that’s awfully hard to tell. Friendships rely a lot on that mutual reinforcement of knowing that each cares about the other, If you sense that the other is pretty indifferent to you, even if that isn’t really the case, then it’s hard to sustain your feelings of friendship toward them. I see that as the main obstacle to friendships here.

It’s very tempting to list all of the folks here who are very important to me, because that would be a way of letting them know that the guy behind the harp picture loves their company, but it would be a very long list and necessarily incomplete.

I stumbled upon Fluther through a series of links one day. When I joined I just thought I would be asking questions and receiving faceless answers. I was not aware how much of a community this site is. I’ve said it before, for me Fluther is like a family, there are the members you talk to everyday, the cousins you don’t see all the time but you love, and then the random distant ones that sometimes piss you off. It wasn’t until this summer that I really began speaking to Jellies outside of Fluther. First they followed me on Tumblr, then I followed them on Twitter, then I was talking to them on AIM and Skype and Facebook. And now a few even have my phone number. Hell, I have an internet marriage with a fellow jellie. My Fluther experience has been/is awesome. So, I might suggest the site to make friends or at least a great way to experience and hear from intelligent, clever people who come from many walks of life.

No, I believe you are all scoundrels a thieves, good day!

I came upon fluther through a link on the Apple website and had no idea what i was getting into. A few months later i can’t get through a day without fluthering (either on my laptop or on my iphone) and without communicating via twitter and AIM with my Jelly friends. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to befriend people like @Allie, @IBERnineD, @Grisaile, @asmonet, @johnpowell, @eponymoushipster, @PNL, @Shilolo, @Dog, @Hungryhungryhortence, @Augustlan, @PeteThePothead, @Uberbatman, @Robmandu, @shrubbery and many others. They are amazing people who make every day just a little bit brighter and i can honestly say that for the last few months of my self imposed exile (ended in August thankyuerymuch) they not only kept my spirits up… they kept me sane. These people aren’t just internet acquaintances… these people really are my friends.

I tend to have a great deal of difficulty believing that people like me for me. I always suspect they have some other agenda. I think I act like this because I really have a hard time imagining that people could like me.

When growing up, I was told I had to be perfect. The hidden message was that I had to be perfect to be loved. Since I was never perfect, my parents never told me they loved me. It was always criticism of what I did wrong.

As I grew older, and more needy of love, I felt like no one could really love me unless the proved it by making love with me. Thus, virtually all of my friends ended up being women.

For me, it’s hard to make friends on fluther. We aren’t together physically. I have no real life clues as to what is going on. No one can love me from afar, and even if they could, it would be really stupid for me to do so.

I think if I were different, more like most people, this wouldn’t be a problem. I could believe people liked me. I’d be more trusting both of my love-worthiness and of the reality of love other people sent my way.

Fluther would be a fantabulous place to make friends, if I weren’t like this. There are so many people here that I admire and respect, and could easily sit down and have a beer with, or climb a mountain, or play frisbee with. We could go to plays and concerts, or go dancing, or maybe even make music together.

But I am the way I am, and anyway, fluther is not a real space, and there’s no local fluther gathering, although if there were, I don’t think I’d be able to go. So it goes.

@Dr_C * dabs hanky * I LOVE YOU BRO

Yep. I consider many people on here legitimate friends; I’ve laughed, been moved, hated, reconciled and chilled out with many of them. Some of these guys know shit about me that no one else does – and I’m sure I, them.

I even have an awesome, beautiful e-wife who pretends to not be bored with me every now and again. How kick ass is that?

I do have some facebook friends who I met on Fluther. Sometimes personalities are slightly different on the two sites, you see other sides of people, which is sometimes unusual. For the most part it has been great to see them in both places.

heh

one of the reason’s I joined fluther was to make friends I haven’t made any real connections alas, but that just made me appreciate the actual purpose of the site I guess. As for people that come to mind when I think of fluther: YARNLADY and augustlan are the first two fluther . . .ivians that comes to mind

@live_rose
Have you tried the fluther chat channel?

The friendship level of Fluther is just about whatever you make of it. You can stick with answering questions and nothing more, you can respond to other answers (quips), you can use the private message feature, you can join in the group discussions at the chat rooms, and you can invite the members to join you on the fully social networks such as facebook, or the semi social networks such as Tumblr. It’s a very complex society.

No.

I consider it a great place to make friends.

@Blondesjon And frenemies? ;)

@MacBean . . . I have no enemies (whole or partial).

I only have a group of individuals who haven’t come to terms with my “rightness” yet.

@Grisaille “awesome and beautiful”? blush!

@Dr_C lurve, lurve, lurve!!!

I’ve made some great friends on fluther, especially if you frequent the chat room. I was just thinking the other day, there are two jellies on here that know me better than pretty much everyone i know IRL

I have never thought to use the chat room before. Thanks for the advice :)

I’ve made some wonderful friends here, some of whom I have contact with on facebook, tumblr, and through email. Two of them even have my phone number. Oh, and I got a penpal out of the deal, too! It was definitely not on my mind at the time I joined. Before Fluther, I really didn’t even understand how you could be friends with someone you don’t know in real life. The people here quickly showed me that it’s entirely possible. :)

@augustlan Oh, yes, it’s very possible to make good friends here. Some of my closest confidants are from Askville & here. Many emails, IMs Facebook friends, & phone calls go back & forth. I love it.

@augustlan that’s only because we all lurve you Auggie… here, on FB… and especially your Tumblr posts :) (even when you “take a break”).

Aw, shucks. Thanks @Dr_C !

that @augustlan sure is a smooth talker ;)

@augustlan be the greatest, yo