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So what is proper Orkut etiquette? The whole idea is that you link your friends together and so that they can find one another, chat to other people who have things in common and - essentially - ask favours of them because there is a vague vague vague link between them.

It’s kind of like an online version of the Masons.

So, what do I do with this evening’s request from another Rawlinson to link our profiles?

Sure, we have a couple of common interests. He’s into Apple computers, has joined an Amelie community, is a blogger… but his profile tells me nothing other than the facts he’s in a committed relationship and lives in Canada. We don’t even seem to have any friends in common, so I’m guessing he found me by searching on my name, rather than by clicking through someone we both know.

Wouldn’t accepting the link negate the whole purpose of a social network? If I don’t actually know him then the whole thing falls down. Friendship is, after all, more than sharing a surname, and that definition highlights the key weak point of social networking tools like Orkut: they are at the mercy of their users. If Orkut members don’t take Orkut seriously then it will, ultimately, be nothing more than an online directory of names and stats.

Or am I being an unfriendly, solitary sod?

Social networking is fraught with potential for social faux-pas.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 1st, 2004 at 11:56 pm and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.