Nick,
my best guess its more about amassing listeners to his stuff, as there is no way he has an inkling of an idea who half of those people are.

the question arises then about what types of connections people are making on facebook. are they personal (what it was originally all about) or are they impersonal (i've got 450,000 friends on myspace).

Nick,
my best guess its more about amassing listeners to his stuff, as there is no way he has an inkling of an idea who half of those people are.

the question arises then about what types of connections people are making on facebook. are they personal (what it was originally all about) or are they impersonal (i’ve got 450,000 friends on myspace).

Nick,

I have just 60+ friends and I am having trouble following all of them. Now sure how Robert manages it. I do know that he follows many of them. He once commented on one of my video and posted a video of my real world friend. I suppose he has a decent filtering mechanism in place. I should have asked him how he does that when I was talking to him yesterday at Ignite Seattle. Robert, if you read this post and this comment, why can't you write a post in your blog about how you manage this information overload (or in terms of what Deborah Schultz presented at yesterday's Ignite, relationships).

Nick,

I have just 60+ friends and I am having trouble following all of them. Now sure how Robert manages it. I do know that he follows many of them. He once commented on one of my video and posted a video of my real world friend. I suppose he has a decent filtering mechanism in place. I should have asked him how he does that when I was talking to him yesterday at Ignite Seattle. Robert, if you read this post and this comment, why can’t you write a post in your blog about how you manage this information overload (or in terms of what Deborah Schultz presented at yesterday’s Ignite, relationships).

I've wondered about this issue too. I remember reading some research that suggests a person can really know about 150 friends. Beyond that, people become indistinguishable numbers or stereotypes. Like many 'friends' on myspace, Robert is obviously way over this limit. But what's the implication for those of us who don't play for numbers like this?

I started using facebook with the intention of only adding people who I'm presently in contact with, but I keep getting requests from past friends from school and work. Being particular is difficult; ignoring a request is a rude, blunt gesture, yet adding them has given me an unmanageably long friend list.

I think this is another reason to add some kind of category system, but I'd like to go further. Along with the friend, work and family categories which are often suggested, I'd like to tag friends with some kind of 'proximity' rating. Closer friends would appear in the news feeds more often and at the top of friend lists. There are probably other places where this measure of distance could be used.

For now, I use the cruder tools of deleting friends, ignoring requests and adding people to the less list in the news preferences. How do you manage having so many friends?

He's following 5000 twitters too.

I’ve wondered about this issue too. I remember reading some research that suggests a person can really know about 150 friends. Beyond that, people become indistinguishable numbers or stereotypes. Like many ‘friends’ on myspace, Robert is obviously way over this limit. But what’s the implication for those of us who don’t play for numbers like this?

I started using facebook with the intention of only adding people who I’m presently in contact with, but I keep getting requests from past friends from school and work. Being particular is difficult; ignoring a request is a rude, blunt gesture, yet adding them has given me an unmanageably long friend list.

I think this is another reason to add some kind of category system, but I’d like to go further. Along with the friend, work and family categories which are often suggested, I’d like to tag friends with some kind of ‘proximity’ rating. Closer friends would appear in the news feeds more often and at the top of friend lists. There are probably other places where this measure of distance could be used.

For now, I use the cruder tools of deleting friends, ignoring requests and adding people to the less list in the news preferences. How do you manage having so many friends?

He’s following 5000 twitters too.

I just added Scoble as a friend yesterday. Today, I messaged his wall (the most effective way to get his attention, according to him) with an invite to Silicon Prairie Social while he's in Chicago for Blog Business Summit, and the possibility of securing some interviews for PodTech that I really believe he will find interesting.

No response yet. I won't take it personally if I don't hear back. He doesn't know me or have a reason to listen to me, and I do know he's busy as a lot of people are trying to get his attention. I would enjoy a response (and would love to see him at the event) though!

My real issue with Facebook friends is dealing with unfriending people I don't know well. My biggest pet peeve is passive-aggressive status updates from “friend-of-a-friend” types or old classmates I only saw in the hallway. It annoys me to see their drama in my feed when I don't know them and I'm not invested in their lives.

Plus, I think it's childish to post updates like that for the whole world to see.

The other day, I unfriended a girl who is a friend-of-a-friend for just that thing. The next day, I get a friend request from her! I thought about it, and clicked ignore because she's probably requesting me via one of those 'import your email contacts' forms, and not putting much thought into it. If she ends up confronting me in person, I'll kindly but honestly explain why.

How do you deal with Facebook friend weirdness?

Nick - lovely to see you one-on-one at the Razoo fiesta tonight - thanks so much for the invite. I blogged about your super stardom tonight, because you qualify for that kind of hype right now, and you should definitely keep climbing.

And in my humble opinion, Steve might have 4,500 Facebook contacts, Cynthia de Lorenzi (Powder Room Diaries) might have 8,000 (or is it 16,000?) LinkedIn connections, and David Armano might Twitter the hell out of my boyfriend throughout the night, but they don't have that many friends. Who has time or energy for all that, and what on God's green earth would spreading yourself that thin contribute to anything? Most of us have a hard enough time wading through our work email accounts, let alone our e-rolodexes (rolodi?).

I say: be open about who you let in, but upfront about expectations for accessibility and friendship. If you can't be a friend, don't front.

It obviously can be argued that Steve doesn't hide behind a facade of openness, but it sure sounds like he's got more than a few people fooled.

I just added Scoble as a friend yesterday. Today, I messaged his wall (the most effective way to get his attention, according to him) with an invite to Silicon Prairie Social while he’s in Chicago for Blog Business Summit, and the possibility of securing some interviews for PodTech that I really believe he will find interesting.

No response yet. I won’t take it personally if I don’t hear back. He doesn’t know me or have a reason to listen to me, and I do know he’s busy as a lot of people are trying to get his attention. I would enjoy a response (and would love to see him at the event) though!

My real issue with Facebook friends is dealing with unfriending people I don’t know well. My biggest pet peeve is passive-aggressive status updates from “friend-of-a-friend” types or old classmates I only saw in the hallway. It annoys me to see their drama in my feed when I don’t know them and I’m not invested in their lives.

Plus, I think it’s childish to post updates like that for the whole world to see.

The other day, I unfriended a girl who is a friend-of-a-friend for just that thing. The next day, I get a friend request from her! I thought about it, and clicked ignore because she’s probably requesting me via one of those ‘import your email contacts’ forms, and not putting much thought into it. If she ends up confronting me in person, I’ll kindly but honestly explain why.

How do you deal with Facebook friend weirdness?

Nick - lovely to see you one-on-one at the Razoo fiesta tonight - thanks so much for the invite. I blogged about your super stardom tonight, because you qualify for that kind of hype right now, and you should definitely keep climbing.

And in my humble opinion, Steve might have 4,500 Facebook contacts, Cynthia de Lorenzi (Powder Room Diaries) might have 8,000 (or is it 16,000?) LinkedIn connections, and David Armano might Twitter the hell out of my boyfriend throughout the night, but they don’t have that many friends. Who has time or energy for all that, and what on God’s green earth would spreading yourself that thin contribute to anything? Most of us have a hard enough time wading through our work email accounts, let alone our e-rolodexes (rolodi?).

I say: be open about who you let in, but upfront about expectations for accessibility and friendship. If you can’t be a friend, don’t front.

It obviously can be argued that Steve doesn’t hide behind a facade of openness, but it sure sounds like he’s got more than a few people fooled.

Oh, oh, I better answer that message!

Oh, oh, I better answer that message!

i know you can set preferences on your news feed to see less of some people, but the limit is 30 people.

i've got 288 friends, 95% of whom i've met in person the rest i have either conversed with via email or chat. The more people you add to your friend pool, the less value the word friend has. to me a friend is someone with a 2 way connection, not a one way. If you want one way, just stalk someone on twitter.

i know you can set preferences on your news feed to see less of some people, but the limit is 30 people.

i’ve got 288 friends, 95% of whom i’ve met in person the rest i have either conversed with via email or chat. The more people you add to your friend pool, the less value the word friend has. to me a friend is someone with a 2 way connection, not a one way. If you want one way, just stalk someone on twitter.

you deleted my reply?

like I said yesterday, you never replied to me so obviously you think I'm a twit

so Robert Scoble must think you're a twit

you deleted my reply?

like I said yesterday, you never replied to me so obviously you think I’m a twit

so Robert Scoble must think you’re a twit

Best way to get in touch with Robert Scoble is via the new age medium (this is in Brian Solis blog), but still, he is too busy to answer all the requests. Agree but unfortunately, he only has 24 hours in a day and just too many requests from his followers, fans, tech geeks and amny more people. I have realised that he will pay heed to your requests untill or unless it is something NEW or else he would not be moved.

Best way to get in touch with Robert Scoble is via the new age medium (this is in Brian Solis blog), but still, he is too busy to answer all the requests. Agree but unfortunately, he only has 24 hours in a day and just too many requests from his followers, fans, tech geeks and amny more people. I have realised that he will pay heed to your requests untill or unless it is something NEW or else he would not be moved.

[...] I’ve been on Facebook for 3 1/2 years, since it first arrived at my college. Since then, it’s always been a place for people who truly do know each other to track each other’s personal lives and interact with each other. For every person I added who I didn’t know, the usefulness of GP social networks decreases. Which is why I don’t. You can ask me about any of my 380 friends, and I can tell you something about each one of them, including how we know each other. The phenomenon of mass-friending has always been the case, since the early days, when incoming freshmen would go on a spree of adding random schoolmates in the hopes of appearing as if they are more popular. It’s the exact same thing now. [...]