Back in the day, I used to converse with a lot of people in Diana the Valkyrie's chat room, who I considered friends. I was fortunate enough to meet some of them in real life, and I found the dynamic to be the same. But that was a different time, on a different site, in a different medium. Chat lends itself to a free flow of ideas and you'll find yourself just as often as not discussing topics other than women as friends will. I don't recall too many instances where it was necessary, but the site administrator had rules regarding civility and wasn't afraid to enforce them. I spent most of my time there in the mid to late nineties. That predated the modern digital age, and for the most part people conducted themselves the same as they did in real life. Social media, instant messaging, and smart phones hadn't impacted the way people interact yet. While I think it's still possible to make friends today, for the reasons mentioned and a couple of others, it's more difficult.