Journal shanen's Journal: What does "friend" mean on WTS (or Slashdot)? 1
Just another cut and paste for consideration, but at this point I'm beginning to regard the "Why?" button as another castle in the sky. Surely there must be such a website somewhere? (But most of the sentiments do sort of apply to Slashdot. It's just that Slashdot is basically a fossil from the aeons before Unicode evolved.)
Friend = a click on an "Add Friend" link? Sorry, but I don't think so.
Once again I see a long list of names of people who have clicked the click without even looking at my Profile. I'm guessing each of them saw something I wrote and thought it sounded interesting, maybe even friendly. And you decided the "friend" option was better than "follow".
But "friend" means a bit more to me. My Profile explains, but you didn't read it or ignored it or couldn't understand it... So it's time for some housekeeping and here's what I'm going to do.
First of all, I have looked at your Profile to check if you are a Category (1) person. Maybe I know you by your handle? Or maybe it was so long ago that my memories have gotten fuzzy? If you're not an old friend, then maybe you fit into "unspoken" Category (2) as described in my Profile, but so far that hasn't happened. (If I recognized you as Category (3), which happens too often, then...) So I didn't click on the "Accept Request" button, which leads to:
Second, I'm sending you this message on your Talk page and clicking on the "Ignore" button. No negative intentions, but Dunbar's Number and time. You can reply if you think I forgot you or if you have Category (2) reasons. (Or you can follow me, which I regard as "mostly harmless". Currently my stats show I only have two friends on WTS, but I'm following 27 and have 240 followers.)
But what I REALLY want for a better WT.Social world would be a third option, a "Why?" button, where the default response would just let you pick from the existing types of friendship, mostly under Category (1).
Now should I click on the "Publicize Your Journal" option? I don't really know what that option means, but it is possible that someone around here knows about the websites "you are searching for". (Tip of the hat to Obi-Wan Kenobi.) Okay, so I'll click on the option and maybe someone will at least say "Stop doing that", like the phone call from South Africa.
Friends, Fans, Foes, Freaks (Score:1)
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