How Have You Made Friends on TBT/Other Websites?

[-Blue-]

TBT is honestly one of the few forums that I feel like the community is pretty close-knit and friendly towards each other and it creates a calm environment for the most part. It's what I like about this forum.

There are only two other forums that I can say that I cherish just as much even though the forum and members are long gone (and I do miss them) I have connected well with a lot of people on those forums and here. Still, I am pretty I could be vaporized by some strange forum glitch (that only affected my account) and few, if any, would probably notice lol. Maybe Jeremy, but he would be too afraid to admit it because he spilled his coffee on the server at 3am during a coding binge rush.

 

[ZeldaCrossing64]

I joined this forum 2 years ago, and I've managed to make a number of friends and acquaintances on TBT. Most of it had to do with having the same interests (for example, liking the same games or TV shows), but I still talk with certain users even if we don't have much in common. TBT is a warm and friendly forum community, so it's relatively easy to open up and chat with people here. Like others have already mentioned, I think it boils down to consistent positive interactions (quotes/replies, profile posts, like/love reacts, shared interests, etc.) and the overall friendliness of the userbase.

 

[-Blue-]

I joined this forum 2 years ago, and I've managed to make a number of friends and acquaintances on TBT. Most of it had to do with having the same interests (for example, liking the same games or TV shows), but I still talk with certain users even if we don't have much in common. TBT is a warm and friendly forum community, so it's relatively easy to open up and chat with people here. Like others have already mentioned, I think it boils down to consistent positive interactions (quotes/replies, profile posts, like/love reacts, shared interests, etc.) and the overall friendliness of the userbase.

The events definitely help to. It wasn't until during my first event, Bell Tree Championship (or whatever) that I really got to start to know a lot of the members on the forum.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I don't know if I did. Its hard to say. Guess maybe @oak when I was done in the dumps and @Airysuit when she made a fanart of Molly for me. Credit goes to her by the way. I (sigh)..... I suck at making friends since I've been broken too many times.

 

[Suguri]

I like to find dead threads and post on there. This one's an interesting discussion... bringing this thread up.

When I was in the second grade I was really active on this website called Scratch. My explanation is not the best but it's where you can drag blocks to make things. (speaking of which, today's the 8th anniversary of me creating my first account on there!) I actually formed two online friendships there and they are still maintained to this day. This one guy in particular went on to become a digital artist on DeviantArt and an animator. I remember when years ago he made this elimation series thing and one of my OCs was in it. He's not on Scratch anymore but I discovered his Discord while browsing YouTube and I managed to reunite with him this way. The other friend I met while we were both editors on this drama-filled wiki which I won't speak more about. We have Scratch accounts too and somehow we hit it off. We even became Discord friends right away.

The one thing we have in common is that we are autistic, so that kind of played a role in those connections being formed. Scratch's emphasis on creativity may have also contributed to this too; the first one is an artist and animator like I mentioned, the second one does animations inspired by video games, and I guess I like to draw, or do whatever piques my interest in terms of artistry.

I'm still trying to get to know everyone on here so I don't have any mutuals or whatever on TBT...yet. It does feel nice to go around and help people, which is what I've been doing quite a bit of lately. Surely it will come back to me. It just takes me a while to open up because of the possibility of befriending an online predator... Highly unlikely, but still possible. Now, I'd like to talk about my struggles with IRL relationships, but that's another story. And I'm not sure I'm ready to bring that up anyway.

 

[Chris]

I've made many over the years, and it just came through spending time talking to them. In my teens and 20s I made an active effort to make and maintain friendships online. Some of those people I even met in person despite us living in different countries. I also met a former staff member on here some years back.

In recent years, especially since lockdown ended, my priorities have changed. I've some long-standing online friends I adore (one is a fellow staff member and I'm sure he knows who he is!) but I just don't spend all that much dedicated time online anymore. I prefer spending time with people face-to-face.

 

[Roxxy]

Actually can’t believe I’ve not replied to this. Yes, on tbt I have made a few friends who i speak to daily and honestly couldn’t imagine life without them. They will never get rid of me

In a past life I met a person who is not in my life now but changed it forever.

 

[SkyKnight03]

I've made a few long term friends elsewhere online. (6+ years and counting). Those are nice. Can be rather on and off, but we always seem to float back to each other.

I haven't really spoken to anybody here. (aside from one person on discord). I don't know if I'll end up making the effort. In all honesty I simply enjoy being around the forums. Even as a sitting odd duck of sorts.

Life moves fast. But I hope to remain part of here instead of completely drifting out. I'll consider that worthwhile on its own merit.

 

[Dunquixote]

I made friends on twitter by one day replying to a cat account I saw randomly in my feed by posting my kitties’ pictures. Soon after, a lot of cat accounts followed me and eventually I got drawn in to the fun of cat twitter . I have a couple chat groups my cats (me) are in and some of us exchange christmas cards; this year i couldn’t because of depression. They’ve all been really understanding about my mental health problems and about me randomly needing time away from there.

 

[Neb]

I used to DM and initiate conversations and hope the other person was up for potentially being friends. It didn’t always work out, but I met some nice people that way. I have a hard time doing that anymore though since I don’t want to come off like one of those people that slide into people’s DMs to try to get into a relationship with them.

 

[Suguri]

I like to find dead threads and post on there. This one's an interesting discussion... bringing this thread up.

When I was in the second grade I was really active on this website called Scratch. My explanation is not the best but it's where you can drag blocks to make things. (speaking of which, today's the 8th anniversary of me creating my first account on there!) I actually formed two online friendships there and they are still maintained to this day. This one guy in particular went on to become a digital artist on DeviantArt and an animator. I remember when years ago he made this elimation series thing and one of my OCs was in it. He's not on Scratch anymore but I discovered his Discord while browsing YouTube and I managed to reunite with him this way. The other friend I met while we were both editors on this drama-filled wiki which I won't speak more about. We have Scratch accounts too and somehow we hit it off. We even became Discord friends right away.

The one thing we have in common is that we are autistic, so that kind of played a role in those connections being formed. Scratch's emphasis on creativity may have also contributed to this too; the first one is an artist and animator like I mentioned, the second one does animations inspired by video games, and I guess I like to draw, or do whatever piques my interest in terms of artistry.

I'm still trying to get to know everyone on here so I don't have any mutuals or whatever on TBT...yet. It does feel nice to go around and help people, which is what I've been doing quite a bit of lately. Surely it will come back to me. It just takes me a while to open up because of the possibility of befriending an online predator... Highly unlikely, but still possible. Now, I'd like to talk about my struggles with IRL relationships, but that's another story. And I'm not sure I'm ready to bring that up anyway.

Update - I have good news: I managed to befriend someone on the forums about a week ago! How? Um...it just happened. I know there are some people out there who like my drawings, and I appreciate it because I think I'm a lousy artist. But not once have I come across someone who likes them so much they decided to gift me fanart out of the blue...until recently. ^_^ I'm currently following them alongside Circley, who is one of the online friends I spoke about in my original post that I quoted.

 

[Dunquixote]

Since coming back from my hiatus, I made some more friends, got back in touch with others and I even got invited to some discord groups . I’m not much of a day to day chatter, so I’m very grateful to both for having me still and understanding that . I feel like a lot of the credit goes to friends for reaching out to me; i’ve been interested in chatting with a lot of people on the forums, but I’ve been too shy about approaching and also since I feel like I’m awkward at initiating conversations or even just conversing .

 

[Zinnia.]

I've made a lot of online friends through Club Tortimer or other online Nintendo games during the 3ds era. I've also made some friends through online chat rooms like pict.chat or omegle. I'm just acquaintances with users here on tbt since i'm really quiet, but I'd like to change that sometime!