700 Acquaintances, One Sentence Each.

May 5, 2009 8:04 PM

I'd like to make more friends online. Suggestions? (MeFi demographic a plus.)

A bunch of the people I usually talk to have scattered for various reasons, and it's not easy for me to get out as much as I'd like, so I'd like to find more people to talk to online who are interested in conversation, as opposed to random five sentence chats. Rather than merely shooting MeFi Mail to random interesting members, I thought I'd ask in the form of a question, so that people could point out other resources.
(I haven't had much luck with Craigslist, OKC, or a couple other random sites for that purpose per se.)

posted by StrikeTheViol to Human Relations (8 answers total)

I'm in the process of trying to find some Yahoo and Google groups on certain topics. The way I see it if the people end up being boring I'm a small portion of the conversation so when I disappear it's not a big deal.
posted by theichibun at 8:17 PM on May 5, 2009

I've actually had good luck with Omegle. YMMV - but it is a good place to meet slightly geeky folks who are looking to chat endlessly online.
posted by Acer_saccharum at 9:05 PM on May 5, 2009

If you list some of your basic interests we could possibly link you to some forums where you could engage in discussion.

Generally, Omegle kind of sucks for making internet friends, but i have had a few really great, hour long conversations there. YMMV
posted by saxamo at 9:10 PM on May 5, 2009 [2 favorites]

I hate to admit it, but plenty of fish! Yeah, it's a little weird, trying to microcategorize your interests, but meh - what's the worst that could happen - you find a random new who inspires not just a single-sentence answer, but passionate IM chats with exclamation marks and emoticons, or meeting in person to do the same but with beer and coffee and hand gestures instead of ascii art!!

Hearty Disclaimer: I met a crackhead on my first attempt at POF. He described a typical evening in his life thusly: "I sit at home and do a lot of drugs!"

The second person I met is a genuine fun :)

YMMV
posted by grippycat at 9:21 PM on May 5, 2009

Response by poster: I like Omegle, but it seems veeery disproportionately populated by young girls, not that I didn't enjoy helping Brazilian teens with self-confidence and relationship issues for a while. (Big Brother, Big Sister, International Edition.) My interests are reflected in my FPP's, but include music (classical, baroque especially), tech (stem cells, robots, etc) and history (broadly).
posted by StrikeTheViol at 9:37 PM on May 5, 2009

try meetup.com . I've met a bunch of really awesome people through one of the local groups.
posted by xbonesgt at 7:16 AM on May 6, 2009

-Something Awful regularly has threads where people list their interests and IM screennames. Requires paid registration and the patience to talk to a goon. I did one once, and was getting random IMs for months even though I never bothered initiating any conversations. I'm a girl, though, and SA is a sausage fest, which might have had something to do with the high level of interest. You could always poke around and initiate conversations, though.

-Smaller forums than Mefi specialized in an interest.

-Flickr, if you take photographs. I can't speak for other cities but mine had a group specializing in photos of the city and members who meet up once a month to walk around and take photos.
posted by Juliet Banana at 8:14 AM on May 6, 2009

I've made friends on Facebook. Some people have messaged me because we're in the same group or something and I add them as a friend and we'll start commenting on each other's stuff which has kind of naturally lead to some nice online friendships with people I've never met. Some of these friends fill my need to chat and argue about current events and politics, which is just an added bonus.
posted by triggerfinger at 12:42 PM on May 6, 2009