Online people were very helpful to me when I first went vegan 11 years ago, they were a life support as I felt totally alone at that point. Most vegans were lovely when I actually met them face-to-face, not all obviously, but I would say about 80% of them were nice.
I get a lot of online support from people now too, but I probably won't ever meet up with them.
Same here. I really appreciate my online friends for various reasons.

as far as I'm concerned, we interact regularly, we share details of our lives and talk about our interests, we support each other through tough stuff... that's friendship to me