I have a feeling that the friendship model between IRL and online will become increasingly blurred and eventually won't mean much. BTW, flag... I'd be sad if you disappeared. At least leave a forwarding address. Deal?In a way this makes the whole process even more bittersweet; I'm reasonably sure I'll still know a fair number of my childhood friends when I'm 40, but I can't really see myself still frequenting internet chat rooms. Who knows. Times are changing.
I hear ya pal. There are a number of hubski users that aren't around as much or at all anymore that I miss talking with. But then some pop up out of nowhere sometimes and are right back in your life. My guess is that in 20 years I will still be friends with some of the Hubskiers I've met, but the majority will either be absent from my life or only on it's fringe. But this is very similar to real life friendships. I have a core group of close friends that I've known all my life and then there are some that were once a very big part of my life that have now disappeared completely, or close to it.