I've had very bad experiences with people I've met online and in person. I've had very good experiences also. I will take a good friend in any form I can find them. My illness makes me pull away from people and in time they forget about me, or I feel silly contacting them, or I become paranoid about them. This happens with online friends and in person friends. I'd take a kind overseas snail mail pen pal over an in person insensitive any day. In a perfect world, I'd want my closest people right next to me, but there have been times when the person I'm closest to was an ocean away. You never know what form a friend might turn up in. I'm apprehensive regardless.