If you don't know me please defriend me

RBC is becoming a trusted network oriented site. JD Jason Davis started the trend himself but it is catching on like wildfire at the grassroots level and going far beyond what he ever envisioned.

Here's the real goods though. You can't depend on your unknown "friends" to defriend you because most of them signed up and never participate. You have to cull the dead wood yourself.

Who is willing to join me in making RBC a unique social network in which the members actually have a living connection to their online "friends".

Are you willing to put your friend list on the bonfire in the cause of social network integrity? Come forward friends and testify! Who's with me?

NOTE: Every pop psychology book says that you can only have a personally meaningful network of 150 people. Everything beyond that is like a client database or fan club.

On Linkedin you need to be connected to see people. That's not true on RBC. So what value are your friends unless we limit them and thereby give them value.

The only current value to having friends is that you can mass mail up to 500 people. But let me ask you this: do you ever get good mass mail on RBC?

Leave mass mail to the groups. That way you get mail about a topic you are presumably interested in.

THERE SHOULD BE A LIMIT TO THE # OF GROUPS YOU CAN JOIN TOO.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on January 9, 2009 at 10:31am

I'm going to take a different approach Animal. Today I will draft a note to all my friends on RBC that have not connected with me in a "real" way in recent memory. By "real" I mean - sent me a note, engaged in dialogue on a chat, forum or blog post or emailed my real email address (jerry@profsearchgroup.com or jerry@verbalsummary.com)

The note I'll be sending will be simple: Dear RBC Friend - it's been a while since our connection has meant anything to either of us. Please give me a call to see how we can reconnect and possibly add value to each other.

How does that sound Animal?

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Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on January 9, 2009 at 10:34am

Yeah, me too (defriend me if you don't "know" me). Save me some trouble. I won't be offended!

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Permalink Reply by Amitai Givertz on January 9, 2009 at 10:35am

On the subject of friends and bonfires, I was friends with Joan of Arc once.

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Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on January 9, 2009 at 10:40am

Did her friends list perish with her?

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Permalink Reply by Rich on January 9, 2009 at 10:42am

If you do it, you might as well do it for a Whopper.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Canto on January 9, 2009 at 10:42am

I don't see any issue in being connected to those I don't "live" with daily. We don't know what tomorrow may bring. And, there is no way we can all maintain a quality, living, connection with a large network.

I'll go with "innocent until proven guilty" as my approach. If you're not spamming me... and I'm not spamming you... then.. let's move our connection into a "living" one when our needs become mutual. Isn't that the point?

Maybe for some, the goal is just a few quality connections .. like a private split network or something. Not sure. But, for me, more is better until someone abuses the connection. Then, I know exactly who to block. :-)

Just my approach... from my perspective.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on January 9, 2009 at 10:47am

That's a reasonable approach Jim.

Jim - medXcentral said:

I don't see any issue in being connected to those I don't "live" with daily. We don't know what tomorrow may bring. And, there is no way we can all maintain a quality, living, connection with a large network.

I'll go with "innocent until proven guilty" as my approach. If you're not spamming me... and I'm not spamming you... then.. let's move our connection into a "living" one when our needs become mutual. Isn't that the point?

Maybe for some, the goal is just a few quality connections .. like a private split network or something. Not sure. But, for me, more is better until someone abuses the connection. Then, I know exactly who to block. :-)

Just my approach... from my perspective.

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on January 9, 2009 at 10:51am

@ Jerry: you don't talk to all of your good friends all the time so I don't know if frequency is the only issue.

@Jim: On linkedin you can only see the people in your connection list. But on RBC you can see everyone even if you are not friends

The only value friends have on RBC is mass mailing and there is a limit of 500. I can't mass mail easily because I have too many friends. So 300+ are a pure burden. And 90% or more of the mass mail I get on every network I belong to is garbage.

So tell me again what the value is?

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Permalink Reply by Amitai Givertz on January 9, 2009 at 10:53am

I sold it at $47.00 a name.

Maureen Sharib said:

Did her friends list perish with her?

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on January 9, 2009 at 10:57am

@Rich: Don't you know that I'm a vegetarian?

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Permalink Reply by Eric Gilson on January 9, 2009 at 10:58am

I just wanted to point out that none of you have ever bought me a beer.

That's what friends do.

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on January 9, 2009 at 11:05am

@Eric Give it up pal. Soon you'll be asking for those crappy virtual drinks that you get on Facebook. That's for babies. But, listen, when I'm in your town (never) I'll buy you a beer. But if you come to Toronto, we'll drink coffee.