Are you trying to be some kind of internet bully?
LOL. Yes, and I also kick kittens into the traffic as a hobby :-P
But I'll unroll this for you. The OP made some assertions about "made me better" and "one of the very best decisions I've ever made in my life", and provided a couple of links, probably to substantiate these assertions. Unfortunately it seems to me that the content behind these links not only doesn't substantiate these claims, but actually puts into question the judgment of the OP. The quotes in the parent post are precisely what made me doubt the claims about "made me better" as well as the criteria by which the OP picks the best decisions he has made in his life.
It seems to me that since Alex is an expert on his own life, we should give his opinion that good internet peers are more valuable to him than lousy real-life peers very substantial weight. But perhaps someone with a different sort of personality would derive less value from internet peers.
As in, how do you find ways to meet the right people you talk to? Presumably, they would have personality fit with you, and be high on both intelligence and openness. Furthermore, they would be in the point of their life where they are willing to spend time with you (although sometimes you can learn a lot from people simply by friending them on Facebook and just observing their feeds from time to time).
Historically, I've made myself extremely stalkable on the Internet. In retrospect, I believe that this "decision" is on the order of one of the very best decisions I've ever made in my life, and has made me better at social discovery than most people I know, despite my dual social anxiety and Asperger's. In fact, if a more extroverted non-Aspie could do the same thing, I think they could do WONDERS with developing an online profile.
I've also realized more that social discovery is often more rewarding when done with teenagers. You can do so much to impact teenagers, and they often tend to be a lot more open to your ideas/musings (just as long as you're responsible).
But I've wondered - how else have you done it? Especially in real life? What are some other questions you ask with respect to social discovery? I tend to avoid real life for social discovery simply because it's extremely hit-and-miss, but I've discovered (from Richard Florida's books) that the Internet often strengthens real-life interaction because it makes it so much easier to discover other people in real life (and then it's in real life when you can really get to know people).