I agree with most of all of this. I've got mostly girl friends and like 5 guy friends, which i'm trying to expand. The WHOLE thing hinges on the maturity of both people. If two people meet and like the qualities of each other that is great. If you like the qualities of the person AND think they are attractive, it's still not a problem, because you can still act mature and not really let on (I.E. DROOL) then you can be friends with them and maybe you won't like them. IT helps if you know what you want, so that you won't play with their emotions and toy with the thought of a relationship.

A lot of it depends on your experience. I know a person who i'd hang out with and when we would go out with a group he would eventually like a girl in the group and so of course when it didn't work out we'd be outcast and not hang out with them or be friends with any of them. I'm not the most mature person in the world but to me friends are important so it's worth it to ignore feelings for all of these reasons. And because of certain things in my life i tend to be more like everybody's big brother, which also works to my disadvantage. But I think it's better not to be a flirt. I'd rather have most women be comfortable with me than think of me in a romantic way. That is a lesson i learned a looooong time ago.

An example of keeping it proper is a guy and a girl going to a party, which has happened to us all. If you take someone to a party and you both know people don't be paired off when you get there. Don't hang on them the whole night. Don't make it look like you are a couple. Guys are worse at this than girls. I've been to parties where girls have told me they don't know why no guys will talk to them and they are so happy i asked them to dance and i tell them it's because the guy they came with is giving the rest of us the signal to stay away, meanwhile the girl isn't even interested. Anyway, i've also had a bad experience with this, because me and a sister who i was best friends liked each other, but we never knew. It turns out however that someone who didn't approve interfered and told both of us that the other wasn't interested and it wasn't until AFTER she just got engaged that i found this out. But that was a rare case.