Not planned Friends functionality

[Grover]

Yes, it sounds odd, but I don't quite grap the concept of 'Followers' yet. In general I mean: I don't use Twitter and services like that myself, so I actually never 'followed' someone on systems like that.

So, being really used to the Friends feature in vBulletin, I do not know what the difference is between Friends and Followers. Somebody care to explain this to me?

I love Facebook and vBulletin (altough vBulletin uses the really confusing 'Contacts' & 'Friends' together... we put out so much suggestions to improve that, here's another one: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/show...ove-the-Friends-functionality-(with-Grouping)) for that matter, because you can setup all kinds of permissions attached to Friends and I really hope to see this in xenForo.

Privacy it of a utmost importance nowadays on Social Networks, but I am telling nothing new. Also on our vB 3.8 powered platform were we deal with very personal issues (it is about health-conditions) privacy options are a big deal.

Is Friends functionality like this going to be implemented?

 

[Paul B]

Once you start adding all the friends stuff suggested above then doesn't it just become a Facebook clone?

 

[Dean]

Showing affection for a member or connection with a member is different from following post content. Im sure that friends and followers functionality can be neatly integrated.

I don't think they can be integrated, while keeping the forum really simple to use.

But that is just my opinion.

 

[Onimua]

Showing affection for a member or connection with a member is different from following post content. Im sure that friends and followers functionality can be neatly integrated.

How would it be possible without complicating who sees what, the features you use, etc? A user is then going to have to manage permissions for followers and Friends, keep track of who is in which, etc.

 

[Alpha1]

Profile permissions should be related to friends only. A friend can be a follower or not. So there could be a function to 'Folllow this friend' or 'automatically follow all friends'. We already have a 'followers' and a 'following' block. Adding a friends block doesn't seem overdone to me.

 

[Onimua]

Profile permissions should be related to friends only. A friend can be a follower or not. So there could be a function to 'Folllow this friend' or 'automatically follow all friends'. We already have a 'followers' and a 'following' block. Adding a friends block doesn't seem overdone to me.

It just seems useless outside of that, though. Followers is integrated in a number of places outside of the profile and permissions, putting a Friend box and just permissions seems to add to the overhead with no real gain.

 

[Grover]

Showing affection for a member or connection with a member is different from following post content. Im sure that friends and followers functionality can be neatly integrated.

Exactly! This is a key remark for me and I am worried my members who are now used to the Friends functionality in my vB powered website (and all the other social network sites they use) really need this kind of Friends functionality.

XenForo already keeps track of followers and those who are following, so putting it together to form a mutual list of people should be easy, likely since it seems XF may not have a traditional friend list..

But this is one of my points you see. Did I give permission to someone who wants to follows me? No. Did I need to ask persmission to someone to follow them? No. So, who says we are friends? Exactly like Alfa1 points it out. If I follow someone it doesn't mean I need to be their Friend or have any additional permissions on their profile attached to it. I just want to follow their postings/actions. Imagine XenForo combines the people who follow each other mutually and 'labels' them as Friends. Then we could end up being able to chat (in a future functionality) with them on a 1-on-1 chat... but who says I want that? I didn't give permission to someone to follow me! I have no problem them following my content, but does that mean I want them to be my friend? Certainly not.

The only platform I know of who has this 'following' concept is Twitter. A platform that is based on mini-bloggin', with no social networking functionality whatsoever. My members want and need a social networking with functionality that supports that. I am afraid this Followers concept is/might be too limited to offer my members what they like so much on my current platform and every other social network out there.

 

[TNCclubman]

Maybe make it so that if you follow someone, and that person also follows you.... then you become 'friends'. Once this mutual 'friendship' happens, it also gets posted to the 'Everyone Feed'... ie "Romeo and Juliet are now friends."

 

[Alpha1]

Maybe make it so that if you follow someone, and that person also follows you.... then you become 'friends'. Once this mutual 'friendship' happens, it also gets posted to the 'Everyone Feed'... ie "Romeo and Juliet are now friends."

Thats not a bad idea! It gives a new meaning to internet friends, but I like this idea a lot.

 

[Peggy]

Why're y'all making it so complicated? The follow feature is simple. If you're interested in someone's ideas, posts, etc, you follow them.
Remember - K.I.S.S.!

 

[Paul B]

Remember - K.I.S.S.!

Exactly!

Keep It Simple & Stupid

 

[Peggy]

Exactly!

Keep It Simple & Stupid

no no not & stupid, just Stupid, lol.

 

[Paul B]

no no not & stupid, just Stupid, lol.

Who you calling stupid?

 

[Peggy]

Who you calling stupid?

ROFL!

 

[Alpha1]

Checkmate?

 

[TNCclubman]

Why're y'all making it so complicated? The follow feature is simple. If you're interested in someone's ideas, posts, etc, you follow them.
Remember - K.I.S.S.!

You're right.

But what if you want to post something on your wall that only your friends can see... oh wait, you dont like 'friends'... so with the current system, you're saying who would we set to see it? People we follow? or people that follow us?

thats right, doesnt make sense. We need a 3rd type of relationship. People that are on the same site that we consider friends.

Same goes with photos you upload, invite people to a party etc. (future features I hope lol)

Its not that we simply want to assign people into a 3rd category 'friends' its the permissions and stuff that shows up on the feeds that dont make sense to set to either people you follow, or people that follow you.

Make it something we set, or make the software set it for us by assigning our friends based on mutual 'following'.

I can 'follow' someone because I like what they post on the site, but I dont necessarily want them to see photos of me partying with my close friends. (photos just as an example of what I would do on a xenforo website)

 

[Nick]

While reading the first few posts in this thread, I felt that we needed "friends" functionality. IMO, being interested in somebody's posts and "following" them is way different than establishing a "friendship."

But then I got to this post, and realize he's completely right:

It just seems useless outside of that, though. Followers is integrated in a number of places outside of the profile and permissions, putting a Friend box and just permissions seems to add to the overhead with no real gain.

What's the point of establishing a friendship? Just to show other people that we're friends? What good does that do for anybody?

I no longer see any reason why "friend" functionality is even remotely necessary.

 

[Grover]

How are Friendships from vBulletin imported?

Why're y'all making it so complicated? The follow feature is simple. If you're interested in someone's ideas, posts, etc, you follow them.
Remember - K.I.S.S.!

Hi Peggy,

Yes I understand now what Following is, thanks to the support here. We are not trying to make things complicated... we just want to know how the Followers concept relates to Friends. A lot of us have invested in vBulletin (or IPB for that matter, but I expect most people here come from vBulletin), which comes with Friends functionality. So, we want to know what happens when we would like to move to XenForo. Does XenForo even import Friends-relations? If not, then how can our existing memberbase re-connect all of their Friendships? If that is not possible, how can our existing memberbase re-set their privacy settings so that only trusted people/friends can see certain profile areas?

vBulletin came with an unnecessary confusing friends/contacts concept/UI, but at least it offers Friendships. So does Invision Power Board. Converting your successful, carefully build up platform to new software is not an easy decision and I want to know exactly beforehand what functionality we will loose, or will be essentially different before I can make any decision.

While reading the first few posts in this thread, I felt that we needed "friends" functionality. IMO, being interested in somebody's posts and "following" them is way different than establishing a "friendship." But then I got to this post, and realize he's completely right:

What's the point of establishing a friendship? Just to show other people that we're friends? What good does that do for anybody?

I no longer see any reason why "friend" functionality is even remotely necessary.

No, not 'just to show other people that you are friends': there are privacy-settings involved: that is the good thing about Friends functionality. The only question is: can the Followers concept provide the same as the Friends concept can and how do they differ? See:

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/friends-functionality.587/#post-23082
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/friends-functionality.587/page-2#post-23357
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/friends-functionality.587/page-2#post-23535

 

[Boothby]

http://xenforo.com/community/thread...87/page-2#post-23357
http://xenforo.com/community/thread...87/page-2#post-23535

The links do not work.

 

[Grover]

The links do not work.

Thanks. Now they do.

 

[jmurrayhead]

TNCclubman makes a great point, above. As far as privacy settings are concerned, you might not want to allow your followers to view a particular piece of information or all of the people that you follow. But you might want to have a list of friends that you DO want to allow.