Disabled by Facebook

I feel as if there’s a force field that’s sucking me deeper and deeper into Facebook. (Although there was a temporary setback when my account was disabled for excessive evangelism, if-you-know-what-I-mean.)

The whole Facebook apps thing was the crowning touch. Facebook as a “platform” is the most interesting development platform since Macintosh. To wit, I want to learn how many “friends” my readers have at Facebook, so please complete this poll.

Comments

[Weefz]

Yep, the poll is definitely on the low side. Between college friends, school friends, previous work friends and current work friends, my flatmate managed to rack up 74 friends that she knows IRL in just 2 days.

[djsurge]

Seems it's the time to talk about facebook in the blogosphere. Readwrite web ran a poll on users as well:

Poll
Sweet spot seems to be 100-500.

Cheers,
Sergei

[Steven C.]

In regards to the number of Facebook friends, the sweet spot that I've observed among my undergrad and recent grad buddies is about 75 - 250 friends. What I find interesting (and very annoying) is the "friend-whoring" behavior that I saw on MySpace is starting to make its way onto Facebook. (By "friend-whoring", I mean people who add complete strangers as friends for the sole purpose of padding their friends list)
What happens when all the "social networking connections" end up being hollow?

[Simon]

Damned, I read your post. stoped by at facebook. lost 2hours. incredible

[Robert Scoble]

I have more than 3,400 friends on Facebook. I'll add anyone who wants to be my friend.

What did you do to get kicked off?

[Nickolas Greising]

So Good-Guy ticked off the Zuckermeister. I too am becoming enthralled with the Facebook concept. Maybe because I boycotted Newscorp's neglected step child due to excessive questionable video advertisements.

[DT]

Hmm, Guy, it could be you might have breached their T&C of which I cant figure out why. Personally I got my account disabled cos I did not use my real name but they were very quick to rectify it.

Have you tried contacting facebook?

[Marilyn Scott-Waters]

Well Jeepers, I have 115 friends on LiveJournal and it doesn't seem to be a problem. Then again, no one uses Live Journal do they?

Best thoughts,

Marilyn

[Kraft]

I agree that the poll options seem low. I'm not an excessive user--checking it as needed or about twice a week otherwise-- and I have 515 friends.

I've been using it, though, since 2004 and spent a couple years of college on Facebook. Now, I'm working in campus ministry so my real-life network all uses Facebook as their primary online network.

What we have seen is organizational websites and mailing listserves are now not nearly as important as Facebook. One particular group's listserve became a little over-senstive to spam (blocking or creating very long delays before delivery), so now Facebook is the official time-sensitive message delivery system to organization members. E-mail is still used, but if they want to ensure delivery, the organization uses Facebook.

While the analogy to AOL may be true, the major difference in Facebook is that it is not a lone shark in primarly a fee-based system. Facebook, while huge, still has MySpace to fight with and in the social networking industry, a new "Friendster" could pop up and knock it out if they don't stay ahead of the curve. Money exchanges occur on Facebook, but I think the majority of users haven't used those features.

That being said, I don't think the Apps platform is that incredibly exciting. A fine addition to Facebook, but the next Mac? Eh.

[Charlie]

The ranges for your survey seem a bit low. Almost everyone I know on Facebook has at least 100 'friends'. I have around 90 now. Obviously most of those people aren't friends, more like acquaintances, some of them not even that.

I find it a very handy alternative to emailing now

I personally find the applications slightly annoying. Most of them are just gimmicks. Hopefully people will quickly lose interest with the applications and it will go back to being a very simple, intuitive networking site.

[Facebook Marketing]

Facebook is insanely addicting guy. I've added so many facebook friends that facebook has banned my account numerous times. I often email them telling them that without it I might revert to MySpace or collecting Star Wars figurines. They usually re-instate my account within a few hours - honestly. My website TreasureFriendships.com seeks to help people monetize their profiles. Just like how payperpost or reviewme pay bloggers to post content, we connect advertisers and people to post on their profiles! Check it out and let me know what you think.

[Alex]

I think your poll stops a bit short... since I have ~60, most of my friends have around the same or more, and I can think of at least two with over 400 friends.

I'm also curious to see the poll results, but I can only see the ajax loading gif after having voted.

[Steve Herder]

Guy,

You've piqued my curiosity! Could you explain "excessive evangelism" if even by a quickie little addendum to your next post.

Suffering in Osaka, Japan,

Steve

[andrew h]

more facebook shenanigans...
yet you never responded to my linkedin friend request, sheesh. will you be my facebook friend?

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=592572078

[patricia]

Help me understand Facebook. I seem to be missing something. I mean, it just doesn't do anything, that I can see, but yet people talk about it like it's the ultimate... whatever, whatever. I just don't get that...it just seems one dimensional and lifeless to me. My 19 year old niece loves it, is that the problem? Do you have to be really young? I've found MySpace to be much better for networking on a specific topic. So again, what am I missing. BTW, Twitter too, don't get it.

[Bill Batten]

Hey, am an almost 55 year old guy who joined Facebook two days ago because Guy responded to my email and asked that I visit his truemors.com Facebook app. Never dreamed I'd join Facebook, but like Dr. Cialdini's book says (Influence), the urge to reciprocate is a powerful force.

So now I'm in Facebook along with my two sons and in a Group! The truemors Facebook app links in nicely to Facebook. Yo, shout out to Guy - how about establishing a Guy Kawasaki's Gang group on Facebook?

[justin]

This facebook hype is .. er .. hype. Think about the implications of suggesting everyone who matters should move their affairs to their little walled garden. One company, one API (and a very limited one), one point of failure. No way! It is AOL all over again and it is strange that it has fooled smart people who did not fall for the AOL walled safe garden philosophy.
Facebook is clean and works right now because it is at maximum development velocity just now, the API is new, no legacy stuff, they are on top of their hardware needs. But this won't last forever, it is a "facehoneymoon".
I for one am going to wait until you guys come back from the all-you-can-eat cruise to face the small apartment with the washing, the screaming baby, and have to hold down a real job to pay the rent.
Even the mighty google is having some difficulty with reality, judging from todays results.

[teknokracy]

I'm actually disappointed with the apps part of Facebook. Originally, it was just a great place to network with friends, exchange pictures, find people's contact info (I use it often as an address book of sorts, if I can't remember someone's address or phone number), and just generally communicate with people. Once the apps were introduced, the focus became the apps. Now, we are steering towards having another Myspace, where annoying songs begin playing as you visit someone's page, and it takes 30 minutes to load. Really, the simplicity of Facebook was it's crowning touch, and that doesn't seem to be a priority for the developers anymore.

[Terry]

Hi

Facebook will replace blogging as the ultimate tool to properly connect with people. It’s not like you have to be an A-list blogger to be popular. Facebook is so much more than a blog. It is the ultimate relationship tool. But the trick is to decide who your real friends are.

Will you be my facebook friend?

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=672606517

Ciao!!