Many social media platforms use the term Friend to refer to the relationship that exists when one person asserts a link to another. Friending can be bilateral or unilateral depending on whether the platform requires "confirmation" of the link.
Friending can lead to a range of Netiquette problems, such as:
- Who should you friend? Should you limit it to people who are really your friends?
- How do you gracefully decline a friend request?
- What do you do if you want to stop being friends with someone?
Examples[]
Communities which support friending include:
- LiveJournal
Best practices[]
Please add best practices! This article needs more examples of best practice. Please go ahead and edit this page to add any you can think of.
- Consider your terminology if you are thinking of including a Friending feature in your online community. If the relationship is not really about true friendship, consider another term like Following, linking, subscribing, etc.