Friends??? What about them?

I don't know if i'm making a fuss about nothing here, but i have a question about that "Friend thingy" on this forum. So i have received a couple of Friendship Requests and so far i have accepted them all but the last one. But to be honest, i have no idea what it's all about.

For me a friend is a very intimate person, someone close, dear to my heart, trustworthy and ... and ... the list goes on... and is probably different for each and every one of us.
To be honest, receiving a friendship request by a person of which i have but read a post or two just doesn't make sense to me. Because, to put it bluntly, none of the charasteristics i mentioned above are met (it's something different when i have chatted, exchanged emails or otherwise communicated and learned to like this person).

So, what is it all about? Did i miss something and a friend in the time of internet relationships is somebody who happens to stumble upon one of my posts and thinks "hey, that chick seems to have a sense of humour/has a nice avatar/likes to be tied up/is using smileys exactly where i would use them too, so let's be friends"?

Friends in the internet sense is different to friends in real life. At least it is for many people. It is easy to click on a link and friend someone you think is cool or like the look of so many do it as a matter of course. I tend to do it as a reminder of people I have talked to in chat or had significant conversations with on PM or in the forums mainly as a reminder to me that I know them in some (however small) way.

Use the service as you feel fit. You can block friends if you don't want to have it so open and just have close friends if you like. No one will judge you for it.

Well, there are a few features... albums for example, which you can limit for viewing by friends...

I myself do not accept friends requests unless I'm conversing with them a lot... either in PM, on forum threads, or in chat. I've been here 3 years and have fewer than 20. ;)