How many of those friends are still friends now? That’s cool. I began going on irc and forums in the early 00s when I was a teenager. My anxiety was too bad to

How many of those friends are still friends now? That’s cool. I began going on irc and forums in the early 00s when I was a teenager. My anxiety was too bad to connect with people directly. 15+ years later, I’ve formed a lot of friends who originated online (which coincides with the coworking community I manage, linked in my bio). I wish I would have been able to shed my issues earlier considering how much time I’ve spent on the internet since Napster was around. Edit: Regarding HN. The (vast?) majority of HNers are anonymous enough. There’s no DMing. Unlike IRC or the forums of yore like phpbb and vbulletin, it isn’t possible for me to connect with people on HN.