Has anyone actually made a friend online?

[BeNimbleDenimRobin]

Just wondering, I see how easy online dating is to meet someone (not interested lol) but I’ve seen there’s bumble & sites for friends
not interested in it but just wondering if anyone ever met proper friends on bumble bff or something similar? Just curious to see what that is like nowadays x

Edited. Sorry, didn't actually answer the question!

I've never made a friend through a site specifically dedicated to making friends. But I have gradually become very good friends with someone I started out by following on Flickr. We commented on each other's photos over many years, eventually met up when we were both in the same country at the same time, have met up a couple more times since then and message each other nearly every day, including supporting each other through some difficult life events. I once asked my adult DS who he thought was my best friend (I didn't really think I had one) and he unhesitatingly named this person. We just have a lot of interests in common, a similar sense of humour and values, and things developed much as they might do once or twice in a lifetime in a real life situation too.

Yes but through a hobby/ interest forum rather than a friendship site. It was sheer chance to find out we lived in the same area. She is probably my closest real life friend now.

Yes, but neither of those. Borrow my doggy- but it was too much for me. I literally just wanted to borrow their doggy, not make friends as such. Life is already busy, my DM stays in touch with one lady.

Yes but through my local FB community group.

I shared the same sense of humour with another woman and we started messaging.

Then eventually met for coffee (she only lived a few streets away) and we've been very close friends for almost 9 years now.

I have met a few new friends on FB groups.
My mum rescued a dog and made loads of new friends via breed specific groups.

I did in my teens and early 20s through a forum relating to a hobby. I ended up making some great friends, and we met up on several occasions and went to gigs and sporting events together.

However, we were scattered around various parts of the UK, Ireland and parts of Europe, and eventually lost touch as people's lives moved on. Still see the occasional FB update though and all seem to be doing well. Great memories!

I have made two very good friends through Peanut, it helped that we had our babies due at the same time and spent our maternity leaves together.

Yes, via my birth board on BabyCentre. Our children are 21 now and we live all over the UK but we have a WhatsApp group that’s quite active. I meet the woman who lives closest to me for lunch a few times annually and we’ve had a handful of meet ups as a big group too.

Yes several but through a shared interest forum. The forum itself closed down years ago but about a dozen of us are still in touch and meet up when we can (despite all living far and wide).

Years ago I used to play Farmville which was a game on Facebook. The more "friends" you had the more gifts you could send back and forth, etc.

One lady in New York, I became friends with on Facebook and it was really interesting seeing her posts because she lived in NY. I live about 40 miles west of London in a pretty boring town but travelled into London a lot and we ended up commenting on each others posts a lot because apparently her seeing my boring posts in Hampshire and London were as interesting to her as I was in her posts in NYC.

We had quite a few messages over about a decade. I posted that I was going to NYC when I went with my husband and we ended up having dinner with her and her husband. It was pretty crazy looking back and I wouldn't say we're mates but we still message each other now and then and its quite cool having someone the other side of the Atlantic to chat to sometimes. I think we added each other in about 2010 originally,

This is making me think I should try to get my old forum buddies back together! It has been such a long time though.

Yeah loads over the years.

I've got several close friends of more than 20 years where we initially met online, but not on a site which was for that purpose. The group communicates almost daily and members meet up quite often.

I started a petition in February regarding sexual assault and dv in the military and got chatting to a lady on fb , we have been getting on really well and see it as the beginning of a genuinely good friendship. We are not too far away from one another either so am planning a meet up soon. I have an extremely small circle so very unusual for me to make a friendship online anyway but I guess it can be done x

Yes! Just giving a shout out to the May 2009 ante-natal group mumsnetters. We’ve long left MN but we’ve been chatting online and meeting up since 2008.

@Sakura7 Do it! The last weekend meet up we had (kindly hosted by someone with a big enough house) had attendees from London, Manchester, Devon, Jersey and most notably Australia!

1 from a mutual interest group over 20 years ago, friendship still going strong. There were others, mostly they just exist on Facebook now but he is still friends with 2 others from back then so I see them sometimes.
2 from a pregnancy group on here. There were many others, but just those two are still close. We have a couple more from pregnancy days, I suppose we kind of invented our own NCT group without the actual group or classes.

Yes. Not dating online though. It's a weird story.

I wanted to get in touch with a guy I knew (and fancied) many years ago. He wasn't on any social media but I found a reference to him on a football forum so I asked the poster how he knew him. He was at university with him. I went to the same one but was three years behind them so we weren't there at the same time.

He wasn't in touch any longer and had moved to the other end of the country but we got on and continued chatting. That was in 2014 and we're still friends today and have been on holiday together. Nothing romantic ever happened but he's a special friend.

As for the guy I originally wanted to contact he was in a relationship anyway but he died last year.

Yes. I've made a good friend through Twitter and we speak most days. I've also made friends through forums, where we phone each other.

Yes, but not on sites that are intended for that purpose. I’ve met a couple of friends through interest groups on Facebook and a few through Twitter, which I was on in the early days, when it was easier to ‘meet’ people.

I wasn’t actually looking for friends; it just happened.

Yes, remember meet up?. I met my now best friend on there 14yrs ago. We were both new to the area and joined a mom's group. I went a few times to a small soft play type place. Didn't really 'click' with anyone but she came along one week and we really hit it off. Neither of us went again after that day. Luckily our husband's and other children got along and I would be lost without her and her family.

I have made friends online, though a fair few years ago now. Live very far apart but talk regularly. We met via social media though so not intended for making friends.

Through a forum almost 20 years ago. Mostly online but I've met a few f2f and we have a lovely WhatsApp group that we share mundane stuff and all the catastrophes that befall middle aged women.

Not through 'meet up' sites, but 2 good friend from Mumsnet! Both on (different) long-standing specialist threads

One where now-friend and I ended up being witnesses at another mn-er's elopement wedding (another mn-er from same specialist threads). It was absoloutely fabulous.

Another where we discovered we lived quite close by, and have a lot in common.