Yes, also through a parenting board, beginning almost fourteen years ago and now in contact via FB. I've talked with all of them on the phone, met most of them and intend to meet the rest within the next few years. All of them have at least met one of the women I've met (ie, they're all exactly who they say they are). Some have stayed with my family, my family with theirs - I've traveled to meet a few, and vice versa. We have routinely chipped in financially to help each other through difficult times, handed down clothes via the mail, sent each other handmade gifts and local specialties. These are very intimate and supportive friendships that mean a lot to me. Many are every bit as important as my "real life" friends and I treasure the truth that I was interested in them first (out of hundreds of people on the same board) because of the way they expressed their intelligence and character in writing, not because we were thrown together by circumstance.

Anonymous wrote:A man who has chatted with women on line a few times when I have had problems at home. But the problem is I can get emotionally attached easily so I cut it off pretty quickly. Never met them URL.

I chat with a bunch of guys who follow lacrosse and have met up at games but that is the same category as moms who later meet up. Way different than chatting and sharing things with a member of the opposite sex.

When I was getting divorced I starting chatting with a man I met on Urban Baby. He was very helpful in terms of advice. Never met or even knew each other's last names. One day I sent him a message in reply to his and never heard from him again.

I follow a musician online and have become friends with many of his other fans through his website and Twitter. I've met many of them at concerts, but not all. They're all over the world, so that's pretty cool.

Yes, I have a dozen or so friends who are online only, although I have met most of them in real life, and we are also Facebook friends now. We met on an Internet parenting board in 1997, and I've known them since we were pregnant with our first children (who are 15yo now). We have sent each other baby gifts, laughed and cried together, met up for girls' weekends. We are bona fide friends and I treasure these friendships.

A man who has chatted with women on line a few times when I have had problems at home. But the problem is I can get emotionally attached easily so I cut it off pretty quickly. Never met them URL.

Anonymous wrote:I've been on a bulletin board since the 90s. I feel like they are friends, they've learned a lot about me over the years, and vice versa.

Met a few men online chatting that I was friends with. None for a very long time, but a few.

Did you meet these men in real life?

Yup. A whole bunch. Met on an online forum for new moms, and have migrated to a Facebook group. Have met some in real life, may meet others at some point.

I have a handful of very close friends who started out as online only but we have all now met in person.

I've been on a bulletin board since the 90s. I feel like they are friends, they've learned a lot about me over the years, and vice versa.

Met a few men online chatting that I was friends with. None for a very long time, but a few.

There's a guy I met on Napster back in college (boy, am I dating myself). We became AIM buddies and chatted all the time. We lost touch after graduation, but reunited through Facebook a few years ago. We've never met after 12 years of "knowing" each other.

No, but my IRL BF has two. I feel like I know these women from what BF says about them but I've never contacted them. They all adopted kids domestically who are now about 11-13, and all three have a degree of openess to their adoptions. They have never met, but go through phases where they have frequent (daily?) contact with each other.

No, it's not a great idea because you never really know who you are communicating with. If it's a friend of a friend with common interests that is different, but not a complete stranger.

Three or four I think.

That is, you know them from some forum but have never met in real life?