At 7/14/08 05:01 PM, Ansel wrote:
I think the whole friends system is unnecessary and useless. You can add someone to your favorite artists list if you like their work. You can talk to them through various channels of communication if you want. I'm going to skip over the rest of my hyperbolic, drawn-out post and ask "what practical purpose would the friends system serve?"
Well here's one example... A newcomer to the site watches something by Zekey. He doesn't know anything about NG, doesn't know anything about Zekey... But if Zekey actually used the friends system (and who knows if he would), that newcomer could get turned on to guys like Bug and RTIL... A whole sub-community within NG that isn't obvious to someone who doesn't browse the site regularly.
It's a lot different from Myspace because on Myspace, everyone is pretty much a pile of shit and you don't care who their friends are. But when you find an interesting artist on NG, you are curious to know who they associate themselves with and what other talented artists might be doing similar stuff, or stuff that's just as cool. etc.