The nature of friendship

[Tom Cain]

At 4:33am on May 26th, 2007, Tom Cain said...
Can I just ask a question here people? Call me an old fart who's completely in touch with modern technology, but is friendship on here a two-way street? By which I mean, if I accept someone as a friend of mine, do I become a friend of theirs, too? Or do I have to go down on bended knee and plead to be put on their dance-card?

It's kind of an interesting philosophical point, too ... can you have a one-way friendship? (It's the emotional equivalent of one hand clapping, maybe ...)

[Tom Cain]

Gina, you are clearly a woman of taste and refinement. Come on you Irons!!

[norby]

People have gotten friend requests from people not on Crimespace? I didn't know that was possible. I don't think I have-I usually check the members page for new members so when I get friend requests I check their page if I don't recognize the name.

I feel left out all of a sudden, but I'm not sure it's a bad thing.

[Pepper Smith]

Apparently when one is a member of more than one network, all your friends show up when someone accesses your Ning profile. That allows people on other networks who aren't on this one to send friend requests to people on CS. I've had it happen once so far. I tried to check out the profile to see who it was but kept getting a 'page not found' message because they weren't on Crimespace.

[I. J. Parker]

I have heard from people I knew already and from strangers. Perhaps some of the strangers were commercial "entities" (neat phrase). I've accepted all -- I can use all the friends can get -- but it stands to reason that I'm more likely to visit the pages of old friends. In addition, I look in at the forum and add my views where they seem applicable. I trust I haven't offended anyone by not responding to the "friend request". I also have limited time and cannot post to everyone. I am grateful to all who have asked to be my friend and look forward to knowing them better.

[Tom Cain]

Isn't the whole point of an online network the fact that you meet people you could not possibly have been friends with in 'real' life - people from completely different backgrounds, nations, races, whatever, with whom you disocver you have something in common? I think I'm going to adopt a policy of saying yes to everyone - since my view of human nature is essentially positive - and then let time and communictaion sort out which of those people are actually ones I'd want to keep in touch with, and (equally important) which want to keep in touch with me.

[Jordan Dane]

I'll drink to that

[Tom Cain]

Can't help noticing how many of your posts involve the consumption of alcohol, usually cold. Clearly, you are a splendid woman!