Comments on: What if we didn’t have to confirm our Facebook friends?

By: Roman Tarnavski

Roman Tarnavski — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:24:35 +0000

One would have to view Twitter as an example of such ‘friending’ – if you can call it that, as its more a facilitation of permissive cyber-stalking than traditional friendship.

The model that allows anyone to ‘Follow’ your thoughts is one I think Joan you’re speaking about – and will only be viable once/if OpenID gets off the ground and as such, offer a transparent ether of collaboration which will allow you to add your sister, without requiring her to be a part of your specific sub-network.

By: Jim Morris

Jim Morris — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 13:12:52 +0000

Facebook doesn’t notify the defriended, so I did it to several people last week. People who are friending indiscriminately probably don’t notice. On the other hand, I asked a new applicant if we had ever met and he said “yes” and reeled off several places where I’d never been. I accepted. Anyone willing to lie to become my friend might have uses. :-)

By: Joan DiMicco

Joan DiMicco — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 05:16:20 +0000

Yea, Flickr is a good example of this. I know Live Journal also does this, and that’s been reported to have ended up in creating a lot of teen-agst drama.

Flickr kind of hides who is friends with whom. I wonder if that makes it less in-your-face when someone doesn’t friend you back?

I don’t know of a site that allows you to friend people who haven’t actually join that site. I think that would be cool.

By: Jake R.

Jake R. — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:22:27 +0000

Although not the same sort of social network, that’s pretty much how Flickr works. You can make anyone a contact, friend or family, and they can reciprocate if they want. Adding them as a friend doesn’t give you any special privileges, but it allows them to see you friends-only photos if they wish. The only that really change is that you see their new photos as they are added to Flickr, assuming you already had permission to view them.