Sort of a stupid question, but how does the whole friends thing work? Do you just send a random person a request, chat to them, or do you have to know them off of the internet? Any other important information about the website would be helpful too; all I've really been doing so far is messing with my profile and answering stuff on the forum :rolle:
You can try the "Resources" tab at the top. I'd also recommend reading all of the Code of Conduct. It contains most of the things that you'd think (like don't be a jerk, etc), but there is some unexpected stuff (if you're new). One of those is that you can't post information in any public place (including your wall, which is public by the way) that can personally identify you or make it possible to contact you off this website. That's for security reasons (to ward ourselves against sexual predators and also homophobic and transphobic violence)... We're not an LGBT social networking website; we're a support forum. However, we do encourage people to care about each other and develop friendships. To friend someone, click on their linkified name in their post, "View Public Profile" and on the right panel, find the friends subpanel. There is a befriend link. Welcome to the forum.
As Pret said, definitely read the Code of Conduct, because I really don't like having to ban people just because they didn't know something was bannable. :/ Personally, I think I've only friend-requested about 5 of my friends; everyone else has sent them to me. The people I requested I did so because I was talking with them on a thread or the chat and found them to be cool people with common interests or something. I don't necessarily talk with them all that much, but that's where my friends come from. The only really important things to know are to follow the CoC. Beyond that, this forum is largely what you decide to make of it. It is predominantly a support site, but it does have a social side too (though that's mostly for full members). In short, do whatever you're comfortable with... so long as it won't get you banned
Thanks to both of you for the insight and suggestions. I've read the Code of Conduct and got a better feel for the website, so hopefully I won't be banned any time soon
