Here's how it goes.  You meet tons of people, get to know them, tell a select few ofthem your secrets, hopes and dreams.  They are the ones you run to when you have a bad hair day.  You tell them when things are going great and life just can't seem to get anymore wonderful.  You feel like you've known this person your whole life!  Yet there's one catch, you have NEVER met this person face to face!  This is your online friend.

Some people you meet initially through IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, or an online game or gaming network.  Usually you meet them through common intrests, the game or a chat channel.  You start typing at eachother for one reason or another.  The first good thing about this is the other person can't see you. Looks don't matter so much. You might exchange "pics" later, but by that time you've gotten to know eachother and looks don't matter anymore. Alot of barriers aren't there, you can be whoever you want to be. There's a feeling of annoniminity.  But this can also be a bad thing.  Some people take this as an opportunity to be someone they aren't.  No biggie really, that's half the fun, but throw in the added ingredient of someone elses feelings and you've got trouble.

The one thing I've learned about online friendships is honesty.  I never lie cause a lie will always catch you in it's web.  Why do you think they call it the InterNET?  Cause you get caught in it!  I don't lie and I don't play the head games.  With me, what you see is what you get.  Some people see it as a conquest, how many people they can get to fall in love with them onlne.  I've always been up front and told people I'm just looking for friends.  Up till recently all my online friendships have been causual.  I couldn't understand how someone could fall in love over the net or actually want to fly somewhere to meet a person they'd been typing at for months.  I always thought how could someone be your friend when you'd never met them, never had coffee with them?!  But I have a few good friendships I've developed in the last year.  Yeah, they're my friends.  I care deeply about them and want thier lives to be wonderful.  I get sad when they tell me bad news or have a bad day.  This is a double edged sword, because I do honestly love these people. I sometimes wish it wasn't over the net.  I want to be able to just hug them when they have a bad day or lick em till they're happy again.I can't go party with them and I can't celebrate their triumphs with them. That part sucks!  But the nice part is knowing that somewhere out there are people who care about me, think about me sometimes even when we're not spending 8 hours typing at eachother.  People who I actually want to FLY to to meet.

Another thing I've learned is how easy it is to misunderstand someone when you type at them.  You may be trying to be sarcastic when you type "is that so?"  but they can't see the raised eyebrow.  They can say "I love you" and you think uh oh, you've gone over the bounds, but what they really mean is they care so much for you and you're special to them.  Or they say "I love you."  and you take it the aforementioned way and they really do mean I LOVE you.  It's hard to understand sometimes and you can read alot into typed conversations that really isn't there.
Feelings can get hurt this way.  It's hard to tell how strong a friendship is when it's long distance and over the net.  You can feel close to a person and not really know a damn thing about them.  They may not value the friendship as much as you do and you don't have a clue.  It's almost an intangible friendship, one you can't see or touch, can't validate.  So you go flying by the seat of your pants and your emotions.  One wrong word typed in just the right way and you're in tears.  You realize that this friendship isn't really all that and a bag of cookies.  You type in things that could hurt them and when the arguement/misunderstanding clears up the friendship has changed. Sometimes it makes it better, sometimes it hurries the friendship along to an early death.  With some friendships the misunderstanding never happens.

I have had a few friendships where we've never misunderstood eachother. Oh, maybe the joke they just told me I didn't really get or I wrinkled my forehead wondering if they were joking, but it's uncanny how they realized quickly that it could be taken two ways.  These are the friends I joke around with alot.  We lick eachother very much thank you and if my husband doesn't get it, too bad!  These friends are the ones I cherish and miss when I can't type at them.  They're the ones I want to have icq up for 24hrs a day.  They're the ones I want to buy a computer for so they can type at me from home.  These are the ones I want to move away from my home for so I can play with them in real life!  For these people I turn on my computer as soon as I wake up and leave connected even when I'm cleaning house.  I really love these people in a weird online way!  I could go on and on about how special they are to me, but if you've ever had a friend, these online friends are just as good as the real thing.  Sometimes better!