11 comments

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  Jez

  1 year ago

  I have been thinking of this for some time! Vote @ http://facebook.shoulddothis.com
  
  This is the ONE killer feature that will be a success for FB.. of course there will be some people out there that will have no idea.. or find it a little complicated :)
  
  The way I see it: classes of 'friends'
  
  Class 1 - Best friends - can see class 1/2/3/4/5
  Class 2 - Friends (todays friends) - Can see class 2/3/4/5
  Class 3 - Acquantances (yesterdays friends) - Can see class 3/4/5
  Class 4 - Colleagues - Can see class 4/5
  Class 5 - Randoms (poke buddys etc) and also your public profile - Can see class 5
  
  It removes the stupid limited profile. (what does that mean really?) and your 'friends' don't need to know what class they are in anyway!
  
  Like you said, would replace LinkedIn, and also means you can have a public profile that actually means something!
  
  All you allfacebook readers out there.. send this in as an improvement to Facebook
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  Guk

  1 year ago

  Damn facebook. They have way too much potential. That idea is really good because it opens the doors for those people that are willing to have just one social network and organize their collegues, acquantances, etc..
  
  crazy idea.
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  Mike Smith

  1 year ago

  "If Facebook expanded their privacy settings just a little bit, they could end Facebook’s success."
  
  Perhaps some editing is needed.
  
  Good point though, interesting to ponder.
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  Ben Newton

  1 year ago

  I agree, but I'd take it a step further and allow you to tag your friends however you like, then assign your security based on each tag you create. You may have family, work, good friends, neighbors, church, poker buddies etc. See http://bennewton.us/2007/07/16/tag-your-friend-...
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  SB

  1 year ago

  I think this is a *critical* feature.
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  Branton

  1 year ago

  Absolutely, we need this. More and more of my co-workers are joining. I don't want to have to sensor what I share with my best friends because the guy in my office has no business seeing it.
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  Mark Cidade

  1 year ago

  I think this is a critical feature, too. It seems that a lot of people can be very picky with who gets to see what and I can understand that. Not too many developers seem to see this, though. But I can imagine that it can get very complicated and even too fine-grained to process efficently. Maybe caching will be enough.
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  Lee Aase

  1 year ago

  Hi Nick - Absolutely. This definitely needs to happen, especially since Facebook aims to reflect "the social graph." The reality of our social relationships is we have real friends, family, acquaintances and professional colleagues. We have different information we want to share with each category.
  
  I've written several posts about how to work around the one-class friend system, and the limited profile helps to some degree. But they all introduce friction into a system that otherwise is simple and smooth. I think I have a successful way to do it, but eventually Facebook is going to come up with the simple friend class management.
  
  I would settle for two classes: personal and professional.
  
  I saw they now have a book exchange application, which is nice. But I agree that multiple classes of friends would be the LInkedIn killer. It probably will take a lot of work to do this, but it definitely should be the priority as Facebook aims at the more adult user base.
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  Henri

  1 year ago

  I agree with you. I've been thinking about this over the last week. Many of my colleagues have been requesting me as a friend. I really wish I could put them in a different category.
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  Matt S

  1 year ago

  I've thought about this for a while and I think the simplest way Facebook could go about it is replace/add to the Limited Profile with a Professional Profile. Every year, millions of Facebook users remove the most interesting and personable information from their profile as they enter the workplace. Facebook needs an entire second profile for work contacts that can be a glorified resume. The Limited Profile worked at first, but people quickly started to realize they were being snubbed when they didn't see your Wall, your photos, etc.
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  Ruth

  1 year ago

  Been dreaming of this for ages! Especially a family setting as Aunts and friends mums and stuff are joining. Somethings I wanna share with only friends or only family. Looking to the future separating professional and personal is essential!
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