Also, if I died, you guys would grieve (give me the benefit here thanks) for a completely different person than my parents would. It's partially the nature of the medium and partially how I express myself.
Yes yes. I'm also unsure of what constitutes an "internet friend." Does that mean when we totally have the inevitable Hubski Meet-Up in Colorado, you guys won't be internet friends to me anymore? That's all it takes? A couple years ago I remember a girl that I knew on a hella obscure Earthbound forum met a guy on tumblr. They got super close, met in "real life", and now they're engaged, I'm pretty sure. At what point did they stop being "internet friends"? They skyped and played games together and everything. Are they still just "conversations" to each other at that point? Also, since I'm still butt-hurt about it - if you think grieving for online friends feels weird, but you liked the movie Her, your opinion means nothing to me.
That's the question I've wondered, myself. I think that depending on the interaction level you have with users, your silence at some point would be noticed and people would wonder. For those of us who are facebook friends or on Twitter, we might find out that way.