# Facebook people : Is this a valid premise? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 5, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079 "2012-12-05T16:26:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/1 "2012-12-05T16:26:09Z")
I just had [this image](http://i.imgur.com/FA5OS.jpg) (completely SFW) pop up in my facebook feed. I tried it, and the results seem to be in line with my expectations, more-or-less. Anyone know if it’s true? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/2 "2012-12-05T16:34:14Z")
I saw that on tumblr. There’s actually an easier way to get that information. Would you like to know how? Follow these step: 1)Open your chat list. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/3 "2012-12-05T16:38:42Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I saw that on tumblr. There’s actually an easier way to get that information. Would you like to know how? Follow these step: > > 1)Open your chat list. My chat list is in alphabetical order, but the information I get from the photo in the OP is not. ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/4 "2012-12-05T16:41:02Z")
Hmm. Well, I tried it and it seems like it might be accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/5 "2012-12-05T16:46:09Z")
As far as I can tell, the ordered friends list is for the chat pane, the message pane and the Timeline Friends pane. The arrangement in the source page give you the users you interact with the most in decreasing order but exactly how they determine interactions and how they’re weighted is not known to my knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/6 "2012-12-05T16:49:50Z")
What, exactly, is “stalker” supposed to mean in this instance? People who’ve looked at your page the most? People who’ve commented on your posts the most? Seems like pretty useless information to me. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/7 "2012-12-05T16:55:03Z")
Considering that my chat list (edit - didn’t try the thing in the OP) includes fairly high up on the list an Internet-famous web-series actor who I’m pretty sure I’m “stalking”\* way more than vice versa, I doubt the veracity of this. - I’m not. Just liking funny/cool posts from him and occasionally commenting. Honest. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/8 "2012-12-05T16:55:41Z")
This worked for me but I didn’t get the result I was expecting, considering how little she actually responds to my posts. The second one never comments at all to my posts. The third was my mom. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/9 "2012-12-05T17:04:09Z")
I did and every person on that list is already a friend, likely ordered by the number of times they visit your wall or comment on your posts. It doesn’t show anyone who isn’t a friend, therefore that cute girl from college that had a little thing for me doesn’t show on my list although she likely checks out my page every day to swoon over my photo. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/10 "2012-12-05T17:05:15Z")
I checked the other day and the first person on my list is the same today as it was the other day (I didn’t check the second person the other day). The first person is my best friend, who, at one point when it was set up as such, I put him in his own grouping of friends and labeled it “my best friend.” He’s not a prolific poster nor does he check FB every day I don’t think (he’s one of those people with 500 friends he sort of knows). The second person is my sister-in-law and I know she doesn’t check FB much and rarely ever comments on my posts, if at all. I did, however, add her to my family when that was an option. I do tag her in pictures I post of my nieces, and always “like” her pics, and pics of her (my nieces) that other people post. The third person is a friend who is tagged with that “close friends” star. And when she does go on FB she does interact with me and I interact with her. Anyway…I dunno what this list means at all. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/11 "2012-12-05T17:20:58Z")
It’s almost certainly a complicated algorithm that combines things like contact, both frequency and timeliness, friends in common, page views, comments, interests in common, and so on. It’s facebook’s way of trying to quantify how close you are to people on your friends list. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/12 "2012-12-05T17:33:12Z")
I did the script and found the results highly unlikely to be the friends who check me out the most frequently. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/13 "2012-12-05T17:47:01Z")
The result for #1 was my ex boyfriend. He has been chatting me up lately to get advice on a new relationship he is pursuing, so I doubt it means anything that he is number 1. #2 is my BFF #3 is a guy from my old Church who I never talk to. I taught her daughter in Sunday School I think. This doesn’t seem to tell anything about “stalkers”. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-people-is-this-a-valid-premise/643079/14 "2012-12-05T18:10:45Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > It’s almost certainly a complicated algorithm that combines things like contact, both frequency and timeliness, friends in common, page views, comments, interests in common, and so on. It’s facebook’s way of trying to quantify how close you are to people on your friends list. That’s my impression as well. If you interact with someone frequently they move up the list.