jr conlin's ink stained banana

i've been thinking about what Carlo has to say regarding friends (basically, he's not really comfortable with the idea of sites requiring folks to list casual contacts and business associates "friends". That's understandable since people are complex creatures with varying social networks and qualifications. Chances are the people you work with won't help you move a sofa next weekend.)

So, what do we call these folks. People we've met and established relationships with that may not be the sorts of folks that would spot us a 20 for lunch.

Webbies? – no, that's already taken.

As i also pointed out in the comment, there's a growing population of folks that only have friends that are online. So to them, these are just as high quality as someone you went to school with or hang out and drink beer on Sundays.

dotComrades? – potential, but then i'd be making "DOS vidanya" jokes.

Heck, i'd even put myself in that category since i've fallen out of contact with alot of my old meatspace friends. Often the only meaningful conversations i have are with folks i know online or work with.

tubeBuddy? – no… just… no.

So, maybe some sort of graded scale. You know, "i know that name" to "Yeah, he's a contact i know from X number of sites and he's a good guy." vs. "Thou hast not tithed to Her? Are you not a believer? HERETIC! YOU SHALL BE BURNED, INFIDEL!" sort of thing.

webTangent+2? – Great, so math AND language geeks can hate me.

i suck at creating memes.

wewe? – That's worse than tubeBuddy.