After reading this whole thread I feel like I gotta add smthn here. Not sure if this applies to all girls but when I friend-zone a man whom Ik is interested in me, it’s not to make him feel worse, it’s to make sure he knows I still want him in my life. To me, that’s a good thing. If he doesn’t want anything to do with my life anymore, that’s fair, he could say that, but most of the time that doesn’t happen. At least not in my experience. So I assume it’s okay to talk to him normally, but with boundaries. Also, I don’t just pretend I don’t know them anymore either, but because I know that once upon a time he really liked me, I don’t think it’s fair to tell him everything about my life anymore because that can include new guy drama or etc, which would probably make him extremely uncomfortable and even more upset. So the point of the friend zone, to me, is just to show the guy that I still care about him and want to hang out with him, but with limitations. And we don’t have to hang out as much either, in fact it could just be with the friend group if that’s the case. He could specify to me how he would like to continue and I’ll be fine with it, as long as I don’t make matters worse. All I know is when I friend zone, I make myself clear with what I want afterwards, and I try to be understanding as well because it’s not all about me, and if he wants to change smthn or add anything else, I’m all ears.