Do you ever get the feeling that a lot of people looking for online friends just want someone to unload on?
Perhaps half the people who add me on instant messengers across the Internet seem a lot less interested in discussing fandom material or common interests than they do venting. They either immediately kick off the conversation with their problems, or show a marked lack of enthusiasm for topics such as technology, recent video game releases, and school, but have a lot to say when the conversation dies down and they see an opportunity to talk about themselves. It ranges from how lonely they are, to how much their job sucks, to how they can't find a pet, to how ugly they are, to how they can't get anyone to respond on a dating site, to how they got kicked out of their favorite chatroom...
I'm all for supporting friends, but... they're not yet my friends, and anyone who only comes to me to unload is no friend of mine. Do they ever think about how the person on the other end feels and what kind of day they might have had, or is it all about their own feelings? I work part-time in addition to attending college at a job that involves other people's problems, and that's in addition to my own problems, my family's problems, and the problems of my close friends.
It's just making me jaded about allowing myself to be "befriended" online and participating in communities beyond posting on forums, because that seems to be code for getting awkwardly dragged into a complete stranger's personal life when I'm trying to relax and eat dinner. What these people need is a therapist, not a friend.