I was talking to a couple of hunting buddies this past week and I referred to someone I PM with on a hunting forum as a friend. Although I have never met this person, we have conversed for several years. Do any of you have someone you have never met, but only communicated over the internet and consider that person a friend, or did I just use the wrong phrase? I guess a pen pal may work better, but seems like an antiquated phrase, acquaintance to me implies that you have actually met.

I don't know, the word friend, just felt like the right word?

That’s an acquaintance not a friend.

If you like the person and you get along, then that person is your friend. Hopefully one day your paths will cross, but what difference does it make if you never meet face to face?

There are several on here and other forums after talking on line or years I have met and we still consider ourselves friends. Nothing changed with the meeting other than we have a face to attach with the person and have had conversations in person rather than online.

I know one person on this forum and I met him 10 years ago on the old Whitetail Domains website. We occasionally text one another and send pics back and forth. He lives in the Dallas area and I live near Houston. We've never met face to face but I consider him a friend.

You're right, it does feel a bit awkward explaining a conversation you had with someone from the forums to someone in "real life" - but I think trying to explain the source of the conversation makes it messier than just cutting to the chase a saying "a guy I was talking to". It's funny you say this b/c I was telling my wife that I'd used a tip from Bobo The Clown earlier this week and trying to explain the circumstances of that conversation took over the actual point of the conversation, so this comment definitely resonates.
It's 2019, people are hired for jobs, find soulmates, shop for groceries on-line now - I guess it's time to pony up and admit folks we know or chat with on a forum are what they would be in the real world to us too. Friends, acquaintances, a dude... If "friend" felt right to you in that conversation, then it sounds like that guy / gal is to you, a friend.

A casual friend will help you move. A real friend will help you move a body.

I thought it went that a friend would bail you out of jail. A good friend would be in jail with you.

I have been in contact with some woodturners around the world that I have never met in person. A few I have talked to, others it has only been emails and maybe exchanges of packages of wood or woodturning. Some of this group I consider them friends. The others that I occasionally have contact with, I would call them acquaintances..