steepholm

I'll leave the profound post to someone else to write, but in the meantime I've been looking at my friends list, which currently includes 27 different people (not counting myself). And I got to wondering...

How many of my LJ friends have I met in real life?

Answer: 10 (37%). For this purpose, 'met' is a very flexible term, ranging from a single conversation to lifelong partnership, but words must have been exchanged, at least. Thus, I'm not counting

lamentables or

nineweaving, because although I've been in the same room as them (in my pre-LJ days), I don't think we had a conversation.

(I do enjoy meeting LJ friends in the flesh, by the way - as I and

lady_schrapnell did the other day with

lilliburlero. And I'm really looking forward to meeting

emmaco when she comes to England.)

How many did I first meet through the internet (excluding email)?

Answer: 23 (85%). Almost all of them. The only exceptions I can think of are

fjm,

gerald,

sdn and

drasecretcampus.

How many did I get to know through LJ?

Answer: 12 (44%). The other main source is the Diana Wynne Jones mailing list.

I'm a relative LJ newbie, and my friends list isn't that large, but I'd be interested to know if these proportions are typical. (Maybe it's also relevant that 25 (93%) of my friends are female.)