Artifex's Journal: friends/foes becoming unwieldy

I use friends and foes, not really as a love/hate notation, but just as a way of cutting down on the chaff I have to sort through when I read articles. People who make good arguments, even if I disagree with their positions, tend to end up getting a friend slot, while people who are either trolling, brain-dead, or rude in their commentaries end up getting a seat with my other foes.

However, for a while now, (longer than my moderation points have been missing, in fact) I've had so many friends and foes listed for my account that I've run out of slots, and had to cycle some back off the lists.

I started out by cycling back off anyone who hadn't posted/journalled in at least a month, and that worked for a while, but with the increasing volume of posting, especially by trolls, I've gotten to where I need to keep it under two weeks in order to stay effective. Some people get permanent places on my friends list, like Bruce Perens and Wil Wheaton, (because I know when/if they post again, I will want to read them still) but for the most part, everyone else gets cycled off because, quite simply, if they're not active, there's no reason to keep a modifier tied up for them.

There's a problem with this, however, and that is that it doesn't leave room for improvement by people who post frequently. Obviously, I can remove neutralize the position of a friend if I see them turning into trolls, etc., but if I'm filtering out foes, and automatically keep it going, it's harder for me to see when, for example, newbies wise up and start posting sensible comments instead of flamebait. Sure, their comments are hopefully moderated up by others, but I'm so used to ignoring anything with a red (or yellow) sphere that I might not even notice them under +5, if they're not starting threads.

So... I think I may kill my foes list, soon. I can just as easily start reading at (x+1), and it frees up slots to show me who's actively making worthwhile contributions to the site. What do you guys think? Have you figured out alternate ways of using these tags? (My foes and freaks are as welcome to respond as friends to this - if you're also tired of a pointless detente because of something stupid that happened a year ago, great, let's move on.)

p.s., for "unrequited" fans of mine,

[Artifex]

Hopefully this explains for you guys/gals why I don't simply reciprocate when you mark me as a friend - it's not that I don't like you, and certainly I filter up fans so I can read your comments, but I simply haven't noticed your sparkling wit in practice, yet.

Oh, yah, I just looked at my fan tab, and I feel loved, especially since I have very few freaks, of which a couple have been gone for ages :) You're encouraging me to keep journalling/posting, so speak up and tell me if you think I'm crazy, or if thi

Subscribe?

[OldMiner]

Stumbled upon this journal by going to comments.pl [slashdot.org] randomly. So, I don't know if you have a position on subscription. However, last I checked, those who subscribed could list up to 400 friends/foes instead of 200 [slashdot.org]. You might try that if you haven't already. I think that's one of the plums which works regardless of how many ad views you limit it to, so you could just donate $5 one time for that particular benefit.

Re:Subscribe?

[Artifex]

I could definitely just pay them a little money and get that restriction made larger, but in the end, I think better managing the current number is smarter than making it larger.

Thanks for the information anyway, OM.