# Tell me about the 'friend' feature

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-friend-feature/471140>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [November 4, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-friend-feature/471140 "2008-11-04T20:47:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-friend-feature/471140/1 "2008-11-04T20:47:24Z")

</div>

What is the function of the \*friend \*feature?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-friend-feature/471140/2 "2008-11-05T18:02:28Z")

</div>

It maintains a list of your friends. It is exactly what it sounds like. Social networking is hot right now, and so everyone is running to add it to their application, regardless of whether it makes any sense or whether their implementation actually does anything at all.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-friend-feature/471140/3 "2008-11-05T21:02:41Z")

</div>

> [@Khadaji](#):
>
> What is the function of the \*friend \*feature?

You tell us - you’ve got two of them.

It doesn’t confer any special priviliges either way, or at least I don’t think it does.

The problem I have with the function is that a friendship request can remain pending for literally _aeons_ (probably) and you’ll never know whether the request has been actively rejected, totally ignored or accidentally overlooked.

If I sound at all bitter, it’s because my selfless wish to befriend a very high profile member of this message board has been rejected/ignored/overlooked.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-friend-feature/471140/4 "2008-11-06T18:02:01Z")

</div>

> [@Chez\_Guevara](#):
>
> If I sound at all bitter, it’s because my selfless wish to befriend a very high profile member of this message board has been rejected/ignored/overlooked.

A mere oversight, I promise. Send it again, and I’ll approve. 😃