The Jeff Pulver Blog: In search of a social media term for: “Becoming real-world friends after first connecting with someone online.”

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February 12, 2008

In search of a social media term for: “Becoming real-world friends after first connecting with someone online.”

Looking for input: With your help, I am hoping you can help us come up with a term that represents what it means to meet someone for the first time in the “Real World” after having a pre-existing Virtual (Online) connection with them.

Ever since I start hosting breakfast with my friends from Facebook and twitter, at every breakfast I have been to, I have had the opportunity to meet people for the first time whom I’ve gotten to know online. And after hosting my 7th breakfast in the past couple of months, I thought it would be fun to have a word we can all use to describe the experience of meeting someone for the first time in real life after having an existing virtual (or online) relationship with them prior.

During breakfast today in Providence, RI, a number of people suggested terms to consider, including:
- FRNDFriend
- Vir2Real
- Net-Real-ize
- Virrealize
- Convirtualize

I would appreciate your reaction to these words. Which (if any) resonate with you? Please feel free to suggest another word into the mix.

-----

Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: facebook, twitter, Social Media,Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff on February 12, 2008 05:19 PM | Permalink

Additional resources: #140conf events | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos

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Posted by: Windy at August 16, 2009 11:14 PM

meeting people outside these networks? eh.
most or us are never going to meet, realistically. and that should be okay. we serve different purposes for each other from real-life friends, and i for one, am cool with that. i propose some terms for us virtual "friends":

- chucks -
- compos -
- peefs -
- avies -...

i don't think i like incorporating all the technical terms into the names...totally unnecessary. they shouldn't have any meaning beyond exactly what they mean.

Posted by: alexschmidt at February 20, 2008 02:29 PM

I like reFriend from @drew

Posted by: Geoff Manning at February 14, 2008 09:02 AM

I think you guys should stick to just eating during breakfast! :) Seriously tho, I would never want to classify a relationship using any of those words in fear of grave embarrassment. I am actually kinda of embarrassed to even comment on this topic.

However!!! I do like Post-Virtual Friend (PVFriend) by Zvi Band. Sounds like an STD which I think is funny and catchy.

Posted by: Hdunce at February 14, 2008 01:29 AM

@dave I was thinking along the same lines. Perhaps something about the act of going from the lower case f to the capital F. 'capitalize' doesn't convey the right message (though the verb form is a synonym of 'convert' @todd)

@danny I like the friend2.0 as well but tough to use as a verb.

Posted by: Geoff Manning at February 13, 2008 08:07 PM

oooo words! you know I love this!
here's my suggestion:

"real-timed" or "'realitied" TO real-time or TO reality.
Taking reality and making it a verb. (like 'friend')

real-time/reality: /verb/ to spend time in the physical world with people you orginally met on-line.

e.g.

"I know you chat on-line, but did you ever reality with him?"
"He isn't a true boyfriend unless you've real-timed a LOT with him."
" Jeff and I real-timed at the Social Media Breakfasts after we met online."

Posted by: PurpleCar at February 13, 2008 05:06 PM

I like Vir2real. Another vote for that one! "Materialize" was another word that came to mind, as was "de-virtualize"

Posted by: Dr. Question at February 13, 2008 04:23 PM

Thanks for the continued comments and the feedback. There is a parallel discussion taking place in Facebook as well. - http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10208996668

The input is appreciated.

Posted by: Jeff Pulver at February 13, 2008 11:48 AM

Jeff, after more thinking about this because whatever comes out of it will greatly impact what we do over at WhyGoSolo...I'm wondering why you want to coin this?!?

Posted by: Ann Bernard at February 13, 2008 11:43 AM

This is a very interesting conversation because WhyGoSolo is all about online to offline connections for friendships, to just hang out or networking and conduct business. So I guess whatever the process ends up being called it will be the core of what WhyGoSolo does. Nothing really strikes me from what was said, but I'll start seriously thinking about it.

Posted by: Ann Bernard at February 13, 2008 11:19 AM

Post-Virtual Friend... PVFriend?

Posted by: Zvi Band at February 13, 2008 11:12 AM

rE-Friend

Refriending someone Electronically :)

Posted by: drew olanoff at February 13, 2008 09:50 AM

I was at this breakfast yesterday, and after a good hour's worth of brainstorming and discussion, we started to break up. On the way out, I was chatting with our (very cute) waitress Michelle, explaining we'd been trying to figure out a good word for the experience of meeting someone in real-life that you'd only known online. Totally deadpan, she said, "Oh, you mean 'disappointing'". We all cracked up.

Posted by: Joe Cascio at February 13, 2008 08:57 AM

Virt2Real seems to be in the lead.

Please continue to share alternative suggestions. :)

Posted by: Jeff Pulver at February 12, 2008 11:03 PM

I like Virt2real (pron. "virtureal"). The coinage wd combine both worlds and that's significant since the line is becoming so blurred and the boundary so porous.

I like RLF but keep in mind that the word Rolfing also refers to a very intense massage therapy technique ... say that in the wrong context and you are going to get a lot of funny looks! LOL!

Posted by: vicequeenmaria at February 12, 2008 10:47 PM

I like Virt2real (pron. "virtureal"). The coinage wd combine both worlds and that's significant since the line is becoming so blurred and the boundary so porous.

I like RLF but keep in mind that the word Rolfing also refers to a very intense massage therapy technique ... say that in the wrong context and you are going to get a lot of funny looks! LOL!

Posted by: vicequeenmaria at February 12, 2008 10:46 PM

Converts!

WebFriends

Friends+

FullCircleFriends

Posted by: Todd Jordan at February 12, 2008 10:25 PM

oh I like Oren's netEfriend

Posted by: Dallas J Clark at February 12, 2008 08:58 PM

Everyone has a BFF, but when you meet an online friend in person, perhaps they become an "RLF" for REAL-LIFE FRIEND. (Of course an RLF can eventually become a BFF!) And then the process of meeting a new RLF can be referred to as RLF'ing (pronounced "RoLFING") Used in a sentence: "Today at a Jeff Pulver hosted breakfast, I enjoyed rlfing a bunch of folks from my Twitter stream!"

I look forward to "rlfing" you in Miami on February 21st!

Posted by: Jeff Sass at February 12, 2008 07:36 PM

how about "friend2.0" ?

Posted by: Danny at February 12, 2008 06:44 PM

Vir2Real is good

netto-real

netEfriend

Posted by: Oren at February 12, 2008 06:42 PM

Meating your ParaMetas ...heh

Posted by: Justin at February 12, 2008 06:34 PM

I always use Pixel-2-People when talking about online friends that I meet face/face...

Posted by: Lynette Radio at February 12, 2008 06:31 PM

I've been thinking about this one for a while, as I am lucky enough to have many online friends who've become real-life friends. My term of choice for some time has been:

Realine Friend

Posted by: Adele McAlear at February 12, 2008 06:31 PM

C.C. Chapman spoke on Managing the Gray about "f"riends vs. "F"riends. It was an interesting topic. I consider everyone my "PH"riends, as in phat! :-)

How about Conference Comrades? The friendships really do solidify when we meet, most of the time that's at conferences.

Cheers,
Dave

Posted by: Dave Delaney at February 12, 2008 06:31 PM

February 12, 2008

In search of a social media term for: “Becoming real-world friends after first connecting with someone online.”

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