So what does it mean on the board to be someone's "friend?"
Aside from it just being a friendly gesture, does it affect how you contact them, private posts, or any other board function? Does it allow any functions not otherwise available?
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Rich
Tampa, FL 99.1% ESR'd...
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If I hardly know the person, is it appropriate to accept their request? Or should I get to know them better first? Or would that impose on them an undue burden of obligation to somehow "earn" the privilege of being accepted as a friend?
If I accept the request, would it be inappropriate to change my mind as the months go by and our "friend"ship develops?
If I don't respond, is that a response? Will vBulletin ever let me "defer" or "table" or even "ignore" their request, or will that damned "Your Notifications" continue to taunt me for eternity with its number greater than zero?
If I reject the request, does that also reject the person and everything they live for? I don't want to give that impression by telling them that we can't even be "just friends".
If, while I'm considering the request, I learn that the requester has also made "friends" requests of many others, should I feel somehow cheapened by their group approach? Is monogamy expected? Is celibacy OK? Or are we all expected to politely participate in polygamy or even orgies?
Frankly this seems to be a minefield of unexpected and unintended consequences. It would appear to be so much easier to defer participation indefinitely.
Sincerely yours, but not yet your "friend",
-- Confused
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* For more info see "About Me" in my profile.
Rich, other than enabling you to click on "Friends" on your profile page to quickly see if they are online, I'm not aware of any other board functions associated with friend status. Maybe Janet will chime in with additional information.
__________________ Numbers is hard...
90% of building a retirement nest egg is just showing up. The other 10% is half the battle.
Nords if this surfing/angel investing/handyman business doesn't work out. You actually have a future writing for the onion. That was pretty damn funny.
Just wait until you get on Facebook in order to keep in touch with DD and others.
Nords if this surfing/angel investing/handyman business doesn't work out. You actually have a future writing for the onion. That was pretty damn funny.
Thanks. I confess that I ripped that off from Nelson DeMille's "The Gate House", whose main character I find simultaneously funny and pathetic.
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Originally Posted by clifp
Just wait until you get on Facebook in order to keep in touch with DD and others.
As if life isn't already busy enough and I don't spend a sufficient portion of my day on the Web...
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* For more info see "About Me" in my profile.
Seems like the whole thing is a little simplistic and one-dimensional. Why only a "will you be my friend" list? How about a "will you join my antagonists" list? "Will you please mock me in front of the crowd" list?
Anyway, friends are way overrated. I say every "friend" is just another person who will eventually ask for a favor. Forget it! Better to be feared! (I could use the Khan picture here).
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"Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite." - R. Heinlein
Seems like the whole thing is a little simplistic and one-dimensional. Why only a "will you be my friend" list? How about a "will you join my antagonists" list? "Will you please mock me in front of the crowd" list?
Anyway, friends are way overrated. I say every "friend" is just another person who will eventually ask for a favor. Forget it! Better to be feared! (I could use the Khan picture here).
"A friend in need, is a pest."
__________________ "Knowin' no one nowhere's gonna miss us when we're gone..."
Well, I got a request to be my friend from someone here I'd never heard of. So I figure what the heck, I can OK that request, as long as it doesn't somehow mess things up board-wise.
Then I go to my Control Panel only to find that I have a bunch of friends in high places that I never knew about. Then I worried that maybe I was supposed to contact those people to assure them that I loved them and wanted to be their friend, too.
So then I ask myself, what's the deal? How are they somehow special? Am I supposed to have them over for a beer? Is this a come-on of some sort? Should I feel guilty about not reciprocating these by-now-stale friends?
Then I posted this thread and now I know: no one knows what a friend is, being one has no affect on anything, and yet people use this "feature" pretty regularly.
Life is mysterious.
__________________
Rich
Tampa, FL 99.1% ESR'd...
As if you didn't know..If the above message contains medical content, it's NOT intended as advice, and may not be accurate, applicable or sufficient. Don't rely on it for any purpose. Consult your own doctor for all medical advice.
I'm just getting into the whole facebooking thing, but one cool thing I've found is that declining a friend request doesn't give any announcement to the requestor, so they don't notice you declined unless they check back. Another thing to know is you can unfriend someone at any time and that is also silent.
So I sometimes practice the middle way: friend everyone who I know that requests it, but then a few weeks later silently unfriend the folks I don't want to be connected to. Kind of like "Oh yeah we should totally do lunch sometime but I can't schedule a time right now".
__________________ "It's tough to make predictions, especially when it involves the future." ~Attributed to many
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." ~(perhaps by) Yogi Berra
"Those who have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge."~ Lau tzu
I use Friends to tag people who seem to be willing to put up with my twisted sense of humor. Sign right up, folks.
I use Contacts to remember the forum regulars' screen names vs the once-in-a-while visitors.
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"Happiness depends upon ourselves." - Aristotle
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