I've activated the buddylist module on my site, and have been racking my brain since whether or not to go with an invite/accept scheme or to allow anyone to add members to their buddy lists as they see fit. My feeling is that, by reaching that decision, I am deciding between two different features which shouldn't be mutally exclusive:
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Simple contacts: It's definitely useful to be able to keep a list of members I want to keep an eye on and whose posts and actions I would like to follow. When I'm a newbie to a site, I'd probably select the best and most prominent members, e.g. to learn from them. Obviously, requiring them to accept an invite to be able to have them on my list would be silly and basically make it impossible for me to maintain my list.
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Mutual buddy network: I am sure there are a ton of features that make it very desirable to have a net of connections that is accepted on both sides. That's probably especially important to grant extra privileges to members (e.g. for messaging, mass mail, etc.) that would seem obtrusive or spammy by people I don't know.
Is it true that I have to decide between #1 and #2, or is there a way I can get both? To me it would seem best to have a system where I can add as a contact whomever I like. The other side has a list where they can see whose contact lists they are on, and can upgrade any of those to buddies, or leave them as they are. Voila - best of both worlds. Is this possible?
Comments
I think it depends on what
I think it depends on what you want for your site -- if you're building a social networking site ala facebook -- then you'll want to use the second pattern. The point of a social networking site is to make explicit online who your offline friends are and then add functionality so you can interact with those offline friends online.
I'm in process of building a social learning site for my major at college which some ~300 students will use to collaborate and I'm using the first pattern. I settled on this pattern as my goal is to make a mini-blogosphere for students in my major. The first pattern follows how the blogosphere works -- i.e. as you find interesting people, you add them to your blog reader or bookmark their blog so you can return every so often. The second pattern would be too heavy for this use and also make social interactions more awkward (e.g. you disconnect from friend and you then have to explain to them that yes we're still friends I'm just bored by what you write). Anyone who uses Twitter knows how fluid the first pattern can be.
Read this article on Twitter for some interesting arguments in favor of pattern #1: Nearly a million users, and no spam or trolls
Kyle Mathews
Kyle Mathews