"Friending" protocol on MF

[EZEtoGRU]

I just had another PM exchange with a daddys poster explaining why I was declining their "friend" offer. I am somewhat uncomfortable with the concept of declaring someone as a "friend" when I really don't know the person and haven't met them. To the person, everyone who has offered to be my "friend" has been a perfectly thoughful and respectful and I have no issues of any kind with them whatsoever. None!

 

Having said all this, I started thinking about what happens when someone is your "friend" and you later see a side of them (via their posts) that you don't care for. Can someone be de-friended? Does it require mutual consent? Does it create an awkward situation between you and the other person? Has this happened to you? Not looking for names of course....just how the situation was handled if it did occur.

[RockHard]

Has this happened to you?

 

I've had several invites for "friend" status with the new software and, once, a troll threw in my face the fact that I have "0" friends listed, suggesting that my online personality was to blame. Of course, I laughed and explained to the board that I do not accept "friends." There are certain features of this no-purchase-necessary software that I have no use for. And anything remotely smelling like a bullshit-Facebook-6th-grade-girlscout-sorority club, I want no part of.

 

I'm happy to respond to private messages as well as email, if you ask me for the address. Just don't ask me to play these silly social networking "status" games. I think they're god-awful silly and, yes, I will never join Facebook or own its stock.

[down_to_business]

The quick answer is yes, you can unfriend someone as easily as you can friend them.

 

@Rockhard, I don't understand what facebook or facebook stock has to do with it, but OK, so noted.

[RockHard]

Didn't Facebook make the "friending" concept infamous?

[bigvalboy]

The quick answer is yes, you can unfriend someone as easily as you can friend them.

 

@Rockhard, I don't understand what facebook or facebook stock has to do with it, but OK, so noted.

 

DTB is very correct. Un-friending someone is very easy to do. I use the friendship and contact element of the pm system as a way to monitor who is allowed to contact me. There are members that I have zero interest in communicating with on any level and thus can eliminate any unpleasant communication by simply allowing only certain people to get through. It is a sad fact of this cyber-world we decide to access, that you will from time to time come across people that by my definition are "Trolls" in every sense of the word. I have no patience for that...

[Phil_musc]

EZE, I think you are basically right, but I also think you are applying the old standard of friendship to a new situation that probably doesn't warrant it. Yes, true friends in the classic sense of the term usually require some actual face-to-face time. But the internet doesn't really encourage that kind of intimacy and friendship. And yet people do write the honest musings on sites such as this and share their inmost thoughts more readily than they might in a face-to-face encounter. The idea of friendship here is a different animal from what you and I grew up with. It would seem that you can either accept it for what it is (with its pluses and minuses) or not. Maybe we need another term for it - friendship is a term already taken with its own meaning(s). Can somebody come up with another term that might more accurately reflect this new type of relationship?

[gp0560]

Could someone please explain to me the purpose of Friending? What can a Friend and I do that a non-Friend and I cannot?

 

This is where I could ask you to get your minds out of the gutter, but I won't. The responses might be a lot more interesting that way.

[Phil_musc]

GP, your still thinking with the old meaning of friendship. C'mon, guy, loosen up. Get with the times. There's "friends" and then there's "friends." You know.You need to think outside the box on this issue, I think.

[gp0560]

GP, your still thinking with the old meaning of friendship. C'mon, guy, loosen up. Get with the times. There's "friends" and then there's "friends." You know.You need to think outside the box on this issue, I think.

 

So, Phil, will you be my "friend"? "Musc" and all?

[Phil_musc]

Oh gosh, GP, that's so public. It's like that Youtube video where the guy proposed to his girlfriend during some hoopla-type musical number - what could the poor girl do? Of course she said yes. As do I.

 

But I think you have to go through the Daddy channels for it to be official. But I would be honored to be your friend here. "Musc" and all!

[JT Brooklyn]

The 19 People on my Friend List have been on my list for a very long time. Happy to say I DONOT regret not one name listed!

 

Unfortuntely some no longer follow Daddys for different reasons which I do understand! To the Lurkers on my List..Hello & Be Well! JT

[EZEtoGRU]

GP, your still thinking with the old meaning of friendship. C'mon, guy, loosen up. Get with the times. There's "friends" and then there's "friends." You know.You need to think outside the box on this issue, I think.

I'm the first to admit I'm not with the times like gp probably isn't. I always feel awful dealing with the friend offers cause every one of the persons seems fabulous in terms of their posting history. It's totally my issue not theirs.

 

Back to the issue at hand. Anyone have to de-friend someone...and was it awkward?

 

Back to the question at hand. Ha

[gp0560]

Oh gosh, GP, that's so public. It's like that Youtube video where the guy proposed to his girlfriend during some hoopla-type musical number - what could the poor girl do? Of course she said yes. As do I.

 

But I think you have to go through the Daddy channels for it to be official. But I would be honored to be your friend here. "Musc" and all!

 

Why, thank you, sir! I will submit the proper forms promptly. In the meantime, let the whole world know that I am not ashamed to befriend Philmusc! (Hehehe. Did I say that right?)

[gp0560]

Bunch of wise guys, aren't you? But I still want to know:

 

Could someone please explain to me the purpose of Friending? What can a Friend and I do that a non-Friend and I cannot?

 

I'm not interested right now in the mechanics of befriending and defriending. I just want to know why I should bother. Besides the warm fuzzies, I mean.

[Lookin]

I'm generally flattered if someone wants to be my friend, both here and in real life. Should one of my real-life friends do something a bit tacky, I usually just say, "That's a bit tacky!", stay friends, and get on about my day. I expect I'd do the same thing here.

 

If somebody wants to look down their nose at me because of who my friends are, I figure they're probably looking down their nose at my friends too for knowing me, and will eventually develop permanent scowl lines.

http://ramblingrhodes.mu.nu/archives/ScowlBoy.JPG

[LookingAround]

Parton my ignorance, but what is "MF?"

[jawjateck]

I'm the first to admit I'm not with the times like gp probably isn't. I always feel awful dealing with the friend offers cause every one of the persons seems fabulous in terms of their posting history. It's totally my issue not theirs.

 

Back to the issue at hand. Anyone have to de-friend someone...and was it awkward?

 

Back to the question at hand. Ha

 

Yeah, I de-friended someone; it was as easy as un-checking a little box, and we were friends no more. There was nothing awkward about it; the actual communication between us was sour, and I didn't want my "friend"ship with him to communicate any unspoken message to others who might view my profile and see he was my "friend".

 

Last year, I cleared my entire friend list, and started over. I have started adding new friends again, but I've gone back to the old standard of friendship.....I've actually met the person and like him too. I occasionally swap PM's with some unknown person, and next thing I see is a friend request. I just ignore it. I've got one sitting dormant in my profile now.

[jawjateck]

Parton my ignorance, but what is "MF?"

 

MF = Message Forum. http://www.companyofmen.org The lovely little message board/website we are using right now.

[Samai139]

Until this morning I was not aware that this Message Forum (MF) and its members, including me, had a "Friends" function.

When I checked mine a few seconds ago, lo and behold, I have 0 friends. I think I'll keep it this way since I haven't felt "left out" of anything.

I'm not particularly anti-social, not tech-phobic, not averse to sharing, and have reached the age where comparing my stats (on anything--from number of "friends", to number of posts, to length and girth of penis, to number of escorts hired, to annual income) is pointless and a waste of time.

BTW: thanks to this thread however for some knowledge I didn't have--one of my daily goals is to learn at least ONE new thing each day---even if it is not earth-shakingly significant )

[unsub2O17]

When I first got a "friend" request, I sent a message to Daddy to ask what it meant. The answer was "not much--just a nice thing to do".

[Phil_musc]

That's it exactly!

[gp0560]

When I first got a "friend" request, I sent a message to Daddy to ask what it meant. The answer was "not much--just a nice thing to do".

 

I have come to a deep, meaningful conclusion to my question:

The world is full of Size Queens.

 

 

 

There are many examples:

I have more MF Friends than you do.

 

I have more Facebook friends than you do.

 

I have more Twitter followers than you do.

 

I have bigger biceps than you do.

 

I have more hair than you do.

 

I have more money than you do.

 

I have more car elevators than you do.

 

My nation has more nuclear bombs than yours does.

 

I have a bigger dog than you do. "My dog's bigger cuz he eats Ken-L Ration; my dog's bigger than yours."

 

 

I come to deeper, more meaningful conclusions than you do.

 

 

And the grand-daddy of them all:

I have a longer dick than you do.

[Boner]

I have a longer dick than you do.

 

A pencil without an eraser is a useless tool.

[RockHard]

When I first got a "friend" request, I sent a message to Daddy to ask what it meant. The answer was "not much--just a nice thing to do".

 

I wouldn't give it that much credence. This suggests that those who don't participate are "not nice." Volunteering for God's Love We Deliver or donating to Housing Works is a "nice thing to do." I absolutely fail to see anything "nice" about nurturing technology driven insecurities.

[+ deej]

Bunch of wise guys, aren't you? But I still want to know:

Could someone please explain to me the purpose of Friending? What can a Friend and I do that a non-Friend and I cannot?

 

I'm not interested right now in the mechanics of befriending and defriending. I just want to know why I should bother. Besides the warm fuzzies, I mean.

 

To answer your specific question...

 

There are settings in the user control panel where you can limit access to various parts of your profile to your friends only instead of leaving it wide open to all visitors. There are other features that we don't have turned on that you can likewise limit to your friends.

 

It's a feature that's far more useful on a far more heavily populated -- and far less anonymous -- forum.