[Traubenfuchs]

Yes, I started to actively search for that category: People you REALLY like to spend time with, people you are happy when they write you and people that are happy when they write you: Deep connection friends, soulmate(s) (friends), "chosen family", maybe even those that would donate one of their kidneys for you!

This subjective drivel must have been written by someone who does not have those kinds of friends and does not understand them. I would categorise friends and acquaintances completely differently.

> You just like talking to them, spending time with them.

Maybe the author considers that transactional...

[kome]

aren't those "backstage intimate"?

[Traubenfuchs]

The author does not use a single word of emotion to describe what he calls "backstage intimates", so I reject this label for the kind of friendships I talk about. I would primarily describe them based on emotions! Intimacy, platonic love, deep appreciation, being confidents!

The greek storge variant of love comes closest to what I am talking about. I have three friends like that, I trust them on a deep level, we often talk about our deepest feelings, in complex ways they love me and I love them. I even share physical closeness with them, when we meet we are as close as a long distance couple that just met again in real life. With two of them I occasionally have sex when we see each other, opposed to my FWB I do not have a connection to beyond sex. They are beacons of light in my dark life and among the most valuable things I have.

[smusamashah]

> platonic love

> With two of them I occasionally have sex

these are two conflicting descriptions.

[Traubenfuchs]

The semantics aren't too important to me, but my gut says no: What else than an extension of platonic love is it, if you can combine and the trust and affection it creates with mutual physical attraction that culminates in sexual relations?