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Journal bmetzler's Journal: How do people use their Friends and Foes list? 19

Journal by bmetzler
I've been thinking on this subject for a while now. Everyone has a reason for who they put in their friends and foes list, and I'd thought it'd be interesting to hear some of your philosophy on the subject.

When the F&F list showed up, I started out using it to weed out the bad guys. If you made a bad argument in a comment, Whooz! you were on my foes list where I could easily use the thumbtacks to overlook you in the future. Those making good arguments got put on my foes list.

My theory was that people making logical points would continue making logical points in the future, and people making illogical points in the future. This sort of worked, but really didn't because not everyone has had logical thought training, and most people can create a logical discussion with some things, but try to argue most things.

When my F&F list was wiped out (Ahem), I took a new approach. By this time I had discovered journals, and I used my friends list as a sort of bookmarking system to follow the most prolific journalists on slashdot. Now instead of using the F&F list in judgement of someones logical thinking skills, I am always on the lookout for new users posting to their journal. As a consequence, my Friends list consists of 90% + users with active journals.

My foes list now consists of just a few users who I feel are the most blatent abusers of /.

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How do people use their Friends and Foes list? More

How do people use their Friends and Foes list?

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  • I, too, started adding friends based on a) people I knew and b) people whose comments were intelligent, funny, and well written. Of the people who I added from b), some had journals that I enjoyed immensely, so I kept them on as friends and most added me to their list as well. Now my list mostly grows through friends-of-friends that comment in the journals that I read. I check out their journal, and if I like it, I announce myself as a fan... and so on, and so on. The Friends list is definitely a handy way of being notified when someone posts a journal. I haven't yet touched the foes list. No one has annoyed me enough to warrant it.
  • Mostly, I use it for people that have commented on my journal entries. Heck, if you even read my journal, you must be my friend. ;-)

    Once I started adding friends, the message section became really easy to use to read other people's recent journal entries.

  • Yes, certain amounts of specific quantities of liquor will effect certain mannerisms upon an individual. But that isn't the point at all.

    You're query into the use of the F&F list: I'm all about All Friends All the Time. If some titbagging fuckwhore foes me, I make him a friend. If I foe him, then they're entirely out of my life. Wheeras if I friend them, then I get notified if said titbagger writes a journal, making it easy to Set the Record Straight.
    • Never thought of doing that way. Befriending titbaggers that is, the liquor part I know quite well.

      Makes sense, if you make a foe, then you never know what he is saying, a friend however leaves you a nice message everytime.

      • I didn't realize I had posted that blathering shit until you replied. Interesting commentary from me. Rather fucking verbose. Not my usual style.
        • Due to the recetn rebuild of slash code, I've been pestering "friends" and "Fans" to enable comments in their journals.

          However, to you it is not a command, but a a question. GIven you bold new steps away from slashdot, away from you current employer, and most likely away from your current hair style (everything in 3's) is not enabling comments your way of adding dramatic flourish to the seperation process? Or did you just not realize the deafult was "comments disabled"? Or am I reading a subtext in your actions which infact does not exist?

          fuck it, either way.
  • I use them in several ways. Foes are almost exclusively those pwp'ers and crapflooders who manage to get modded up every so often. But I haven't added a foe in so long, I'm not sure why that person is there.

    When I agree with the reasoning in a post, or if a post is truly 'insightful' or 'interesting' or whatever, I check out the name of the poster. When I get to the point where I recognize a name, the get friended.

    But lately, the list has been getting a little too big to handle. In the past 6-8 weeks, I've only been adding journal writers to my list. (Sof if there is someone with whom I've conversed, particularly my fans, I may not have befriended you simply because you don't write journals. My fans get the same bonus as my friends, so I still see your posts.)
    • I do the same.

      To be my foe you'd basically have wreck my browsing experience. Guys who "post first" don't bother me, even when I browse @ 0, because there don't seem to be so many, & it is easy to skim past them.

      Even if I think that such 'n such is a real troll or an intollerant bigot, I just let them be neutral, because it's not like I read a whole lot of /. anymore.

      I tend to use friends for keeping in touch with people such as yourself, or in hopes of learning something by their journal entries. I used to use friends just as a way of visually reminding myself that such 'n such said something insightful before, so pay attention again. That didn't help too much, especially since I usually post in somebody's journal. When I read in somebody's journal, I find it easier to skim through, than in a front page story, because there aren't as many comments.

      Regarding the idea of reading somebody's journals, I'd say that the best illustration is as if I were subscribing to a magazine or reading a monthly comic. If the person is just grumbling all the time or is deals with topics that don't interest me [although it still is a well written journal], I'd "unsubscribe".

      Because I'm getting busier in the real world, I tend to have less time for /., so I'm not intending on making any new "friends" in the near future.
  • Purely to bookmark journals that I follow.
  • I use it to keep track of when people have updated journals...
  • I was playing around with the comment mods system and I just finally got tired of it. Now I only use the friends system to keep track of journals... not to assign modifiers to comments made by friends.
    • that's about it for me, too. i usually read at -1. i think that started because i used to moderate really frequently. so i just left the default at -1.

      i don't use my foes list. i add friends if i see a good comment, a good .sig, something that cracks me up (where's migor? that guy is funny), if i know the person in real life, if they are cmdrtaco (to read his journals about /.), or usually if someone shows up on my fans list.

      sometimes i wish people didn't write so much. if i decide to take a break from slashdot for a couple days, i have way too many messages. but i read them even if i have several old ones unless they are only about football, just because i don't know or care much about the sport. i probably just cut my fans list in half.
  • I have my Prefs set up so that messages are organised as Highest Scoring Threads, and have set Mod Modifiers to mark up Funny/Intelligent posts and mark down Trolls and Flamebait. I also have Relationship Modifiers set.

    I'm now leaning more towards adding people to my Friends list who keep Journals, or who put something in their User Bios to tell me who they are and what motivates them. I'm now resisting the urge to add (in)famous folks (with the exception of CleverNickName, 'cos he writes a Journal, and I respect him for having the balls to post here in the first place!) I'll also add people from my Friend-of-Friend and Foe-of-Friend if they meet the above criteria.

    The only people on my Foe list are out-and-out Trolls.

    At the last count, I had 45 Fans and zero Freaks, so I must be doing something right.
  • Journal readers/writers get befriended, and normally people with whom I go along well on Slashdot. I have no foes except for those 2 troll blacklists accounts on which I am listed for some reason (probably historical)..

    What I do systematically is befriend everyone who considers me as one. All my fans get the green/blue pair from me, since I consider it an honour to be in their list too :)

  • I basically befriend anyone whose writing I want to read. Make a particularly insightful/interesting comment, I'll befriend you. Once the list became established, I started spending time reading journals. I give friends a +3, so I can see their comments even if they're not modded. I don't use my foes list at all, and so far I have no freaks either.

  • Ditto (Score:2, Interesting)

    by bellus quies ( 585501 )
    If I make someone a friend it's usually for one or a combination of these reasons:

    1)I enjoy reading your journal.
    2)You commented in my journal.
    3)You made a comment that I connect with.
    4)You were on my fan's list.

    Also, I've been running into the problem of having too much to read, ie. distractions from work. So I've been using the amigos [slashdot.org] page rather than go message by message. It speeds up the checking-in process.

  • As you say, people seem to use their lists in many different ways. What I can't work out is why I keep picking up foes who then disappear a week later: I mean, if they don't read my stuff, what causes them to change their mind? Or does putting me on their list induce so much guilt that they are driven to repentence?

    Apart from that, I tend to put my foes down as friends just to annoy them.

  • I usually add people if they add me, or if they post decent stuff... Sometimes FOFs, but there are loads of them - i'd probably add most of posting slashdot if I did that ;-). Ah yes, and there is one person who added me the other day... but they last posted when I was 13 [April 13th 2001] and have only one other friend. WTF?

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