Real life friends

[SDL]

Do you have any real life friends as part of your forums? If so, what’s it like and does it work well for you?

I invited one of my best friends as she loves books and is the main reason I got back into reading, so she’s just signed up. She also sent the link to her sister and one of our other friends who said they’ll sign up, who also loves books. I reckon it’ll be fun, I know they’ll be more active as they’ll want to support me but I’ve never had real life friends on my forums before so will be interesting.

 

[Cory]

I have one friend, who happens to basically be my only IRL friend, registered on my board. He used to post actively for a short period, but he no longer visits the board. I know he's too attached to Reddit and other sites and he can't relate to my community as well. It was nice having him a part of the community while he was active, knowing it's someone you know IRL helps create an online bond between you. I also had one old friend that registered on my board, but she never posted or was active.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I don't currently have any of my real life friends on my community. I had a few on my very first forum though, this was back in 2009. I feel like most of my friends and family are comfortable using social media over a forum and that's probably why they haven't bothered to join unfortunately. I've shared the link to my community a few times on Facebook. I did get one of my Facebook friends to join, though I have never actually met him in real life.

 

[Reverie]

I have invited one or two real life friends to boards when I was in middle school/beginning high school. They didn't fully understand it, and sometimes talked on them - but wasn't really an active part of the community. I think if they can relate to the topic it would have worked of course better.

 

[Cedric]

I think I only ever succeeded to bring a real life friend onto a forum. @cynosure.x

Which turned out she loved forums at that introduction, back in 2007 or so I think?

Now, some real life friends know about AJ, but half of them can't even properly use the internet, so they won't be here, lol.

 

[SDL]

I think I only ever succeeded to bring a real life friend onto a forum. @cynosure.x

Which turned out she loved forums at that introduction, back in 2007 or so I think?

Now, some real life friends know about AJ, but half of them can't even properly use the internet, so they won't be here, lol.

Lol I did have to explain how to use the forum to my friend, luckily she’s a similar age to me so she’s savvy with the internet and quickly caught on.

 

[Cedric]

Lol I did have to explain how to use the forum to my friend, luckily she’s a similar age to me so she’s savvy with the internet and quickly caught on.

It can be somewhat intimidating to use a forum for a first time. It's always a learning process.

 

[SDL]

It can be somewhat intimidating to use a forum for a first time. It's always a learning process.

Yeah for sure! It’s only because I’ve been using forums for over a decade that it’s a piece of cake, however she’s grown up with social media so hasn’t really used them.

 

[cynosure.x]

I think I only ever succeeded to bring a real life friend onto a forum. @cynosure.x

Which turned out she loved forums at that introduction, back in 2007 or so I think?

I absolutely loved it, but you also had to show me how it was done. I'm thankful you introduced me to the online world of forums. Made so many online connections with great people, it was fun.

I never really introduced someone to forums but a lot of my friends knew I was active in that area but none of them seemed interested. At one point I got the opportunity to go to someone's wedding in Ohio but my then boyfriend didn't understand how you can be such good friends with people you haven't met. Ugh.

 

[SDL]

I absolutely loved it, but you also had to show me how it was done. I'm thankful you introduced me to the online world of forums. Made so many online connections with great people, it was fun.

I never really introduced someone to forums but a lot of my friends knew I was active in that area but none of them seemed interested. At one point I got the opportunity to go to someone's wedding in Ohio but my then boyfriend didn't understand how you can be such good friends with people you haven't met. Ugh.

I’ve made some amazing friends online. I have a really close friend who I met on a forum just as COVID hit and we connected on Discord from it. After that, we made a group with other online friends and had daily video calls etc. Last year in June, we all went to London (my closest online friend flying over from Michigan, USA) and stayed the week, sharing hotel rooms with each other. It was an incredible experience.

I also found out that one of my online friends lives 20 minutes away from me so we’ve hung out a few times, going to the cinema and bowling etc. Another is a truck driver who happened to stop the night 10 minutes down the road from me, so we also hung out in his truck! I was then invited to a Butlins adult weekend event with him and his mates, which was a brilliant night out!

 

[cynosure.x]

I’ve made some amazing friends online. I have a really close friend who I met on a forum just as COVID hit and we connected on Discord from it. After that, we made a group with other online friends and had daily video calls etc. Last year in June, we all went to London (my closest online friend flying over from Michigan, USA) and stayed the week, sharing hotel rooms with each other. It was an incredible experience.

I also found out that one of my online friends lives 20 minutes away from me so we’ve hung out a few times, going to the cinema and bowling etc. Another is a truck driver who happened to stop the night 10 minutes down the road from me, so we also hung out in his truck! I was then invited to a Butlins adult weekend event with him and his mates, which was a brilliant night out!

That's awesome!

I never met anyone from forums because plans always fell through. Mostly on my side lol. But the wedding I was as good as set to go there but the bf was a dick and basically told me not to go and I listened. I was an idiot.

 

[SDL]

That's awesome!

I never met anyone from forums because plans always fell through. Mostly on my side lol. But the wedding I was as good as set to go there but the bf was a dick and basically told me not to go and I listened. I was an idiot.

To be fair the first time I was a little scared because you hear about all of the horror stories but since then, I’ve embraced every opportunity. You can make some of the best memories so would definitely recommend it. I plan on visiting my friend in Michigan soon, that’s something I would never have imagined doing before.

If you get another opportunity, you gotta take it!

 

[cynosure.x]

To be fair the first time I was a little scared because you hear about all of the horror stories but since then, I’ve embraced every opportunity. You can make some of the best memories so would definitely recommend it. I plan on visiting my friend in Michigan soon, that’s something I would never have imagined doing before.

If you get another opportunity, you gotta take it!

That's exactly what kept me from not going to meet them... Got too scared.

I do have an opportunity to go meet someone from Spain. It's not a forum friend but we met through a mobile game and added each other on WhatsApp and such and have called and share lots. Maybe one day. 😅

 

[Cory]

she’s grown up with social media so hasn’t really used them.

That's the way things go it seems, it's almost like every decade a new thing is introduced that everyone flocks to and the last decade's "thing" is now basically old-fashion. No telling what the future holds for the internet at this rate.

 

[Empire]

I do not have many real-life friends that are outside of online, and even though I had two from college days that join I had a hard time keeping them active. I had to talk and force them to even upload an image. Regards online people, just as bad. they expect you to help and support them but in terms of forums, they are not into it. I gave up after a while and out of all the people that I had known in the last seven years only two joined but made no content. I even had one person PM me stating that they want me to remove the domain title from the discord status on my profile as he thinks it was an advertisement in his discord, in fact, it was sending out all messages to read in over 100 discords that I was in.

End of the day you can not bing in family, friends and online mates as it doesn't work out.

 

[Paul]

Not myself, no. Not sure they'd understand how it works. More into Facebook groups to be honest. One of my moderators has about 50-60 friends on the forum. Think it was pretty much her high school year on the forum now.