Tried to make it short as I could. TL:DR at bottom

I had a brief Facebook chat with a former very good friend.

I moved away, no hard feelings, the friendship faded naturally.

I've moved a lot over the years or friends moved away from me, we tried to maintain the friendship online and for me all but one remains.

Its one thing to lose a friend in person but you never had them on social media.

Its another to lose them after they.moved.

To check back through your messages, fantastic and fun conversations you remember like they were yesterday were several months, even years ago.

To notice after checking them the frequency of conversation and detail in their replies (yours too!) subtly yet noticeably declined before they dropped off The map entirely and the last message ever exchanged was you asking how they are and them ignoring it ("Seen") or them giving a one word reply like "OK/Cool/Yep" and you realized at that point things were over. And that message was 10-24 months ago or longer.

You try to reestablish contact and might even get a few lucky decent convo's once or twice a year but its just dead at this point on both sides because even you stopped caring except for the occasional lonely night.

Its one thing to make a new friend,, chat for a month or two but then they ghost you e.g. block/unfriend.

Its another for them to still be on your friends list, to still give you the time of day at times.

Its more like being in a ghost TOWN with brief echoes of sounds that remind you of what was vs. Ghosted by someone who just disappeared entirely.

Worst thing of all: They don't feel the same. Its you who drinka every.now and then crying at all the friendships that faded that were truly special to you, it was special to them too at the time but they stopped caring.

TL:DR: Good friendships fading on facebook is sad. Their messages while containing good memories, always remind you of the past. You think friendship is salvageable in your optimistic little mind but in reality its dead. Less so ghosted and more so in a ghost TOWN with echoes of what once was. Worst of all they aren't as sad about it fading as you are.