Are you ashamed of your e-friends?

[dopey]

Are you ashamed that you have e-friends? Do you worry about what happens if your e-friends walk out of the computer monitor and enter your real world? Do your real friends know about your e-friends? Do you have real friends?

Here is an e-scussion that might start you off:

Originally Posted by scnupe7

Saturday night at Teh RJman's wedding. Excuse the crappy BlackBerry pics.

Starting at one o'clock and moving clockwise--Duveen, Ambulance Chaser, CarsonInDC, Your's Truly, medwards, The Groom, and cuffthis. Etienne was also in attendance, but for some reason, didn't make the picture.

Originally Posted by greekonomist

Holy crap! You guys all know each other?

Congrats, RJman!

Originally Posted by Big A

I look at these pics with great interest, then suddenly wonder how any of us get laid. Seriously, this might be the silliest thing ever (and I say that with the full realization that I would take the same pic in a heartbeat). I am going to go kill a bear and bathe in its blood to restore my masculinity

...

Originally Posted by zjpj83

Wait, RJman had Styleforum members at his wedding???? Seriously? No offense but - hahahahah

Originally Posted by kaxixi

I think a lot of folks here have known each other for many years now. Doesn't seem absurd.
...

Originally Posted by scnupe7

If the members are friends and have been friends for several years, what is wrong with it?

Originally Posted by zjpj83

Styleforum has a distinct creepiness factor to it at the best of times. The idea of befriending people I've met here would take it to another level of "To Catch a Predator" weirdness.

I have a robust life outside of Styleforum. I enjoy the forum very much, but the idea of its being integrated in any way to part of my social life strikes me as particularly odd and unappealing. But hey, whatever floats your boat.

Originally Posted by RJman

. . . Oh, I'm sorry. Some of us are creepy by meeting our e-friends, while others like to post about their Ferraris to impress a bunch of anonymous teenagers or pose in a primary school. Not all of us can buy two Ferraris to assuage our feelings of inferiority. And in point of fact my e-friends were drowned in a sea of brown.
...
I think women love men who can laugh at themselves a little more than they do well-dressed men. Big A and Little Z should remember that there's an inherent silliness to anonymous men posting pictures of their outfits or shoes on the internet; the five or six of us simply recognized that. . .

 

[RJman]

I think this is a more advanced threak.

EDIT: Manton walked out of the monitor and into my heart.

 

[constant struggle]

i've made many e-friends throughout my life, no regrets, some are good friends to this day

 

[Ataturk]

"Creepy internet friends" is the expression I've always used to describe friends I've made online.

 

[cuffthis]

I'm only ashamed I did not get my shoes polished for the pic.

 

[MadisonElite]

It's probably a problem if you begin to neglect the real people you've met through actual interaction to be with your e-friends.

 

[globetrotter]

I've met a bunch of people on SF. if I lived closer to some of them, they would probrably be my real world friends. the one friend in Chicago I see on a regular basis I met through SF.

that said - I've been in a position to introduce Tiger02 to a couple of real life friends and co-workers, and I didn't rush to say "yeah, this is a guy that I know from an on line mens style website".

 

[bjm]

My wife thinks its weird that I talk to strangers on a forum like this. I kind of like it, you can mix with people that have the same interests but never have to actually meet them and expend real time and effort maintaining a real friendship.

 

[visionology]

I don't have any e-friends as I don't spend enough time in any online place to get to know anyone in particular very well however I can see how people choose to use it as any other medium for making friends and meeting people.

Some people think online dating is creepy but I'm sure there are many people who are married from meeting online.

I don't think any one person can pass off their choices as the universally accepted choices of the world.

 

[ghulkhan]

Teger seems as if he does not have any friends other than "e-friends"

 

[Cravate_Noire]

Do your real friends know about your e-friends? Do you have real friends?

Yes of course they do!

No.


Damn, I failed.

 

[gdl203]

Congrats RJman - didn't realize the big day happened yet. Whay are you not on your honeymoon somewhere warm?

 

[Ambulance Chaser]

My friends are generally people (1) with whom I share common interests, and (2) whose company I enjoy. I don't see any reason to distinguish between friends I've met through SF, friends I've met rock climbing, and friends I've met dining at sushi restaurants.

On an unrelated note, Etienne looks like a French Manton. Seriously. That amused me greatly.

 

[Bhowie]

Originally Posted by ghulkhan

Teger seems as if he does not have any friends other than "e-friends"

Hmmm, ironic.

 

[RJman]

Originally Posted by Ambulance Chaser

On an unrelated note, Etienne looks like a French Manton. Seriously. That amused me greatly.

Gah.