We don’t know what most posters look like, what they do for a living or often even their real names. They can post hundreds of comments, yet you still have very little sense of who they are as people. I have wonderful friends in real life, but on Slugger I can have conversations I wouldn’t otherwise have. I have met a few fellow Sluggerites in real life, and meeting them has only added another layer to that sense of connection. It turns out you can know strangers well enough to miss them.