"Be friendly. Befriend me now..."

[robotech_master]

So I just received a notice that I was friends listed by someone named silent_and_calm. (I guess that's better than "silent but deadly".) Curious, I went to his LJ to check him out, and noticed that he had, as of this writing, put 733 people on his friends list. Why? At first I couldn't guess, then I saw a comment on one of his posts saying something about using a serial adder, so I googled a little and found this bit of info. Cute.

Anyway, I checked out a link in one of his LJ posts to a Google Video of a prank where the front of someone's SUV was apparently filled with ice cubes, so they avalanched out when he opened the door. Amusing. I noticed the entry had sixty-odd comments in it so I went there to see if anyone had any more information about the prank or how it was done. It was so low res I couldn't really tell for sure whether they were ice cubes or what. To my surprise and subsequent amusement, every one of the posts there was some confused friendee going, "Why did you friend me? Who are you?" or "Unfriend me please, I didn't give you permission."

For example, frozenvirgin writes:

I really dont understand why people friend people that have absolutely no connection to in any way.

Please remove me, and perhaps you should realize that its polite to ask before adding next time.

lorderunion writes:

this is fucking livejournal, not myspace. go spam-friend somewhere else.

greenlily writes:

From the other comments, I gather that you've friended me randomlyrather than because you actually know me. Please remove me from yourfriendslist. Thanks.

There were a few people, such as cavillor, gunneryunagirl, or silvernekonushi, who seemed to be okay with it, though.

Subsequently, the fellow posted a faq entry in which he explained that he didn't feel like divulging his identity, he friended people because he felt like it, and if you want to ban him from friending you ever again here's instructions.

I was honestly startled by all the people who said, "Unfriend me," as if they somehow had a right to expect their dictates would be obeyed. They seemed to believe that you're supposed to ask permission before you friend someone. What's up with that? I never do. It's part of the whole social networking system of LiveJournal that people can friend whoever they want, whether they ask permission or not. It doesn't necessarily mean that they know each other, it just means that the friendee said something that the friender found worthwhile enough not to want to miss future posts. It doesn't affect the friendee in any way, other than that his posts will appear on the friender's friends page, and the friender's name will appear in the friendee's user profile.

I actually rather like it when a complete stranger friends me, it means I'm being read. Now granted, it probably doesn't so much in this case (though silent is perfectly welcome to prove me wrong by commenting here!), but it's made up for by the amusement of the anti-frienders. The complainers don't have any more say over whether they end up on some stranger's friends list than webmasters do over whether someone else links to their site. It's just how the system works. If they don't like it, they can ban him.

I'm tempted to friend some of the loudest whiners myself just to tick them off further—but on reflection, I wouldn't want them on my friends page; they probably wouldn't have anything interesting to say anyway.

Comments

[catta2290.livejournal.com]

Oh, I was added to. And until this point I didn’t know, that I can kick them off, of my friends list. Thx for the tip, because I don’t like it either, when strange people ad me. They can read my things and can give their comments, but until I at least know their name, I don’t have any reason, to ad them... so thx^^ (could have had this shorter^^)

[robotech-master.livejournal.com]

You don't have to "add" them to anything. You're under no obligation to friend someone back if they friend you. You don't have to do anything at all. It's an action that doesn't affect you in any way, save for those rare exception cases that Zoner mentioned.

But whatever!