Kinslayer, you method of arrival here sounds VERY familar. Back in January, I was looking for some hints as to how/where to complete a weapon in BGII. I put in the Baldurs Gate II into a search engine, found the site here, and actually was reading the walk-through (hangs head in shame). Once, I was on the Ironworks page and thought I was clicking in the Ironworks Network section and I clicked on the Forum section. After my confusion wore off, I clicked on a couple of threads, read some stuff, laughed, got angry, and laugh some more at people's jokes, trials, and antedotes.
A couple of days later Moiraine got into an accident. People here wondered what happened to here because she normally posts at a certain time of day, and she hadn't for a couple of days. Then someone got an email from her telling what happened, that person mentioned it here that she was in a somewhat serious accident and was hurt, along with her son. The next day, I came back an was amazed at the thread that was all well-wishers for her. Very long in a short period of time. So I logged in and posted my little get well thing (my first post, mind you) and when Moiraine came back, you could almost hear how happy it made her having all those E-wishes that she get better and that her and her son get well. She personally thanked each one of us by name, and noticed that she hadn't spoken to me before, thanked me, and told me to chat more with her later when things got settled in. For some reason, it made a connection with me, and I've been here ever since.
I've met many, many people here, played a couple of games that I probably wouldn't of if it wasn't for this site, and I do consider many of you friends. Are they friends in the same way as my RL friends. No. It is same as the different between my friends at work and my friends away from work. Or the friends you have back home and the friends you have at college. It is just a different kind of friend, a different flavor, if you will. Does it make it any less person? In some ways yes, in some ways no. I could be this 50 yr old, 300 pound, balding, 4 foot talk black women, or I could be a 15 yr old chinese male will long, black hair that is barely 100 pounds. Does it matter? The concern I've shone for others is very real, the humor I've shared with you all is funny (I hope), and the fun I've had is very real.
The point is, like all friendships, you get out of it what you put into it. If you take people at their face value, let them tell you their story, and if they want to lie, that's up to them. They are only hurting themselves by it, and if that what they need to feel good about themselves, then that is fine. If this site was all about being 100% truthful, we wouldn't, for most of us, be using names other than our own.
Will these last? No, most will not. My real life friends come and go, too, so that is not too big of shock. But, in real life, I have a handful of friends that are constants in my life, that I catch up on things with every few months, and it's like I never left. Same thing here. I expect there to be a couple of you whom I speak with every so often that really mean something. And I expect there is a couple of you to whom me jumping of the Virtual Cliff would not make you miss a beat. Such is life. But I do value my time here, and I value the connections I made here as much as some of the ones I've made in RL. Just in a different kind of way.
BK