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Old 06-04-2009, 02:32 PM   #858
Undertoad
Radical Centrist
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Cottage of Prussia
Posts: 31,423
[later, I wrote this to LJ on "real" friendships and the forums] [edits I would make since in bracket]

[are we friends?] Well I'm pretty fucked up, I'm a dedicated anti-social and have like three friends.

The Cellar folks are not [precisely] friends, but I don't [necessarily] expect the forums to produce genuine friendships [; it produced a marriage, so it surely can happen, but people don't necessarily convert "cellar friends" into "real" friends]. And yet the [forums] have a social function that is very friend-like. It produces genuine fulfillment, for many people, in many ways. There's great value to that. Sociologists haven't really defined it all yet, but what we are doing is creating new ways to be social and link to one another and care about one another. It may not be as deep as friendship. But not as deeply disappointing as friendship either...

I care about you man. I guess we're not friends in the traditional sense of the word. But you're a part of me that I value. A funny guy with an interesting life and beautiful family. I would do an awful lot for you. We're E-friends is what.
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