Facebook: How to Friend Someone Without Showing Your Status Updates

[mouser]

From www.makeuseof.com:

I’m sure that this has happened to you before. Someone you have ties to, whether it’s a co-worker, your boss, or even worse, a parent, has finally discovered social networking and wants to be your newest Facebook friend. For me personally, that’s no big deal. I’m fairly open about my online activities. Everything I write, Digg, ...
Here’s what I would do to keep that fact confined to my closer friends:
On your Facebook home page, you should see the ‘Settings’ menu close to the search field on your upper-right. Open that menu and go to ‘Privacy Settings’
...

http://www.makeuseof...m-all-your-business/

[mahesh2k]

I guess Facebook is way too behind Orkut on some features.

[superboyac]

That's cool...now I can add my parents without worrying.

[f0dder]

I wouldn't add anybody on facebook whom I wouldn't want to see my status. There's just so many other things that can go wrong, like idiots uploading pictures that really don't belong on the intartwebs and tagging you, or writing inappropriate things on your wall.

That said, I do have people from my work added, including a couple of superiors. Fortunately, it's a workplace where you can wear tshirt-hell t-shirts ("...as a kite" and "swallow or it's going in your eye") without people blinking, so being tagged moronically drunktarded isn't a problem

[app103]

That said, I do have people from my work added, including a couple of superiors. Fortunately, it's a workplace where you can wear tshirt-hell t-shirts ("...as a kite" and "swallow or it's going in your eye") without people blinking, so being tagged moronically drunktarded isn't a problem

-f0dder (March 11, 2009, 07:03 PM)

[tomos]

is everyone a member of facebook

it bugs me when I get mails from facebook telling me my friend John or Jimmy would like me to look at his facebook profile - when I follow the link I'm told I have to join up to see it - 

I find it pretty offensive (of facebook) and a bit ironic if the people dont seem to be able to manage to even send me an email themselves (mind maybe they dont even know facebook is sending these mails )

[f0dder]

tomos: facebook has an "Invite Friends" feature, that's probably how you've ended up getting those mails (unless they have really been counterfeit versions ). Lots of people blindly import their addressbook from gmail, HoTMaiL, etc. and fire out invites to everybody.

Yes, you have to be joined up to see people's profiles, but imho that's kinda the whole point - I wouldn't have a facebook profile (even with the limited info I provide) if any random Joe could view it.

[superboyac]

Facebook has its pros and cons.  I use it on a very limited basis.  Very limited.  it's a good way to keep in touch with friends on a really light level.  You see a couple of pictures and what they're up to and everything.  And it's a convenient way to find a long lost friend if you need to.  There's a decent amount of privacy which is comforting relative to all the other websites.

On the other hand, personally speaking, a lot of the "applications" are a nuisance.  What's worse is how much time people spend on it.  I heard it's classified as an addiction now.  I'm 30 years old now, I don't want to "chat" or "poke" people.  I see people at work on it all the time, which is not good.  So, much of the way people use facebook is very childish and a waste of time.  But, fortunately, there are some very useful and cool features which is why i even participate.  Overall, it's a pretty nice idea and I like it, and if people want to waste a lot of time on it, so be it.  but, as with everything else, I'll use it as a tool and nothing more.  Everyone accuses me of sucking the fun out of things anyway.

So...who wants to add me as a friend?

[40hz]

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I have a big problem trusting social sites that are too open to the general public.

I vastly prefer focused online communities that have a central theme to those sites that are "ten miles wide and a quarter-inch deep." Otherwise the 'noise' ratio is just too high.

I guess if I ever felt the need to participate in the whole 'social network' thing, I'd be more likely to get some like-minded people together to set up an Elgg server, and then try to grow a community from that.

Of course, its success would depend on whether we were interesting enough that other people would want to hang out with us in the first place...

[Mandork]

I never have understood the facebook addiction.  I mean, it's kinda neat to see what people are up to and all, but I probably check it twice a month.  Most of the people who are my "friends" are people that I haven't seen for a long time (old high school friends and whatnot) who occasionally post stuff like the cute thing their dog did or some vacation photos.

My husband's friends, on the other hand....

[AJay]

I use it some, and not only do I not let certain people see my status updates, you can also prevent them from seeing pictures that your friends post of you (not that I have any to worry about).  I checked once what one of my "closed" friends could see....all he ever sees is when I become friends with someone.  To him it looks like I almost never use Facebook.

You can clamp down on people seeing much of anything.

And to make it easy, I set up a list of friends that I call "Closed".  And I greatly limited what they can see. Whenever someone wants to "friend me", and I don't care for them to see much about me, I just add them to the list, and it's done.

Easy.

[superboyac]

And to make it easy, I set up a list of friends that I call "Closed".  And I greatly limited what they can see. Whenever someone wants to "friend me", and I don't care for them to see much about me, I just add them to the list, and it's done.

-AJay (April 01, 2009, 10:49 AM)

I do the same thing...except I call it "Family".

[mouser]

 

[40hz]

I mean, it's kinda neat to see what people are up to and all

-Mandork (March 30, 2009, 03:12 PM)

I have a friend who feels the same way, but he uses a set of old fashioned binoculars. (He lives high up on the side of a valley in California.)

I wonder if he knows any of your husband's friends...