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mcd on Apr 11, 2007

One thing I'm doing just to clean up the list a bit is delete people who don't have avatars. I kind of see that as the benchmark of whether someone is going to stick around or they just signed in once to check out the new site.

So no offense to the new avatar-less users, but I think it's time to upload or be un-friended. :)

gswd on Apr 11, 2007

If it was easier to send sets to non-friends, that would go a long way to helping us limit our friends lists to just those people that we have a real (or electronic) relationship with.

dyar on Apr 11, 2007

hmmm... seems to contradict the information contained in the "So, how does this IconBuffet work?" thread. "Showing up on dozens of friends lists? Another badge."

I've found that adding Friends is one of the best ways to use Stamps. Add someone to your Friends List and they post what they need in your Box. You can then send them Icons at your leisure, and they generally accept them right away. No need to spam the masses. There are over 3,700 Points in my account and over 1,400 Friends so my system seems to work.

I do agree that the Friends List as it is doesn't function very well. It takes forever to find someone, and when you go to their page then come back to yours it starts all over at the beginning of the list instead of where you left off.

Hopefully you'll get some more input on the matter.

iconmaster on Apr 11, 2007

Showing up on others' friends lists is different from having lots of people on your own.

Anyway, we want you guys to be able to add lots of friends if you like; the limit is just to keep the database humming along. If you can deal with the UI issues that come with having hundreds of friends, it's no problem for us.

Betty on Apr 11, 2007

So, does this mean that dyar will soon get an invisible cap? I'm sure that will be a cute badge.

By the way, Josh, it's LOTS not LOT'S. Might have to report you to Apostrophe Abuse.

Looking forward to whatever changes you make to the friends list. BFF?

aaroncampbell on Apr 11, 2007

Well, it was kind of a pain to send to non-friends, so I accept all friends. Also, like dyar said, one of your "friends" sees a set they want...clicks on it, sees your name as having it, leaves a message in your profile, and you send...poof, points. I have 122 friends (and growing fast) and 3520 points...so again, seems to work.

josh on Apr 11, 2007

gswd - what ideas would you have to make it easier to send icons to non-friends? We're working on a couple things, but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

dyar - I definitely agree that having friends is a great way to use stamps. Unfortunately for long term performance reasons, we're definitely going to have to cap friends somewhere. Your case of 1400+ friends is extraordinarily rare.

I guess our goal here is to clean up the friends UI and functionality while making it easy to trade.

In the end, adding people to your friends list is great. But if after a while you haven't interacted with certain friends, you might consider dropping them until later.

gswd on Apr 11, 2007

Hmm. I only have 77 friends, but none of them ever post anything in my "box" saying that they want something.

I guess you guys have your friends trained well.

aaroncampbell on Apr 11, 2007

If you really want to make it easy, make it so you can see "friends" that have/don't have sets, OR "everyone" that have/don't have sets. As of now, you only know who to ask, or who to send a set to, if you have them added as a friend.

Jahnoth on Apr 11, 2007

You don't have to have them added as friends to send them packs. Just go to their profile page, and click the Send button.

The main reason I have added so many as friends is to be able to click on any given pack that I've received, and then see a list of all my friends who haven't received it. I can than click on the one I want to send to and the process continues. It's not terribly hard.

Also, it appears the system has changed so I don't get shunted back to my profile page every time I send a set. Makes it even easier.

gswd on Apr 11, 2007

@josh: I guess I was going about things the wrong way, or remembering an older post relaunch glitch. But going to the person's page and hitting Send Set does work well. But if you go to the Sets I Need tab, you can see what the "cost" is, but if you click on it, it takes you to that set's page and shows which friends (from my list) need it. Maybe if the clickthrough from someone else's page created a dialog for "Send this set to...." with a Yes No option would help. To me, that feels more intuitive.

Also, the Sets I Need tab shows sets that have not been accepted. I have found that while it is listed in the Need tab, it is not in the sets available to send, or I get the message that I have no sets they need, while their Need tab shows sets missing. (did that make sense?)

quicksilver on Apr 11, 2007

@gswd: it did make sense (to me at least :) the reason you're getting that message is because someone else has already sent them that set, but they haven't accepted it yet. They don't actually have the set yet, so it still shows up under Sets I Need. I hope this makes sense and answers your question

mik on Apr 11, 2007

The key reason people want unlimited friends seems to be the usefulness of looking at a set and seeing who doesn't have it (and I think sending to multiple people at once? - haven't done this myself yet).

I would love if we could indicate if we were accepting sets or not, and if not, when you show up in that list you'd be grayed out or have a border or background. As far as this thread is concerned, maybe go the opposite way too - if you want sets sent (maybe specific ones but I'm talking just a radio button setting with at least Y/N options) then you would show up in the list regardless of if you are a friend or not, and have a different color border or background, and/or be grouped differently.

I confess, I have recently begun to leave deliveries unanswered, which unfortunately ties up the sender's stamps. That's not very community spirited so I'd like a better option.

taario on Apr 11, 2007

Hmm, having 180+ isn't good I guess. I'll chop it down as best as I can.

tamashii on Apr 11, 2007

I befriend everybody I come across so that they show up in the list of those people who have/don’t have an icon set. When sending a fresh, new delivery, I employ methods that don’t involve the use of the actual friends list on my profile page.

To be quite honest, I don't use the actual friends “list” at all. It might as well not be there. At 953 friends, I will never click through it - 5 names at a time (though it is markedly faster than before with refreshing after the click).

josh on Apr 11, 2007

The problem with showing which sets that the general public (i.e., not your friends) have on the delivery page is that well, the general public includes tens of thousands of people. Queries of that magnitude could potentially slow the site to a crawl. Plus it would be VERY VERY unwieldy. All that said, I understand the sentiment.

iqon on Apr 11, 2007

I'd like to see a flag on my friends showing if they sent me a set (doesn't matter if I accepted or declined). Then give us the ability to sort by that flag so the giving friends can be separated from the "add me add me" friends. In fact there could be two tabs "Friends that give" & "Friends that don't give". To be a real friend you have to invest at least one stamp. Of course the bottomfeeders wouldlook for people with no tokens and more than 7 days from a refill.

mitten on Apr 11, 2007

josh says: "In the end, adding people to your friends list is great. But if after a while you haven't interacted with certain friends, you might consider dropping them until later."

Since you're revamping the interface anyway, how about greying out or lightening (or otherwise indicating) the people on our lists who we haven't traded with (either direction) in, say, 6 weeks? It would make it easier to cull them out.

I don't use the list at all in its current incarnation. Too hard to page through.

MacManX on Apr 11, 2007

I suggest that we keep the Friends list the way it is and add a separate "Traders" or "Recent Traders" list. I think the problem is that we have people in our Friends list who we have traded icons with but aren't necessarily our friends.

justG on Apr 11, 2007

Why yes, yes I do. Guess I'll start paring that list down, then. =]

rajr19 on Apr 11, 2007

ha, i do as well!

debbye on Apr 11, 2007

what about a "top ten" or twenty list without deleting the others?

angelamaria on Apr 11, 2007

I like mitten's suggestion. :)

cry187 on Apr 12, 2007

Culling them by looking if we traded with this person or not is not a good idea for me. List of active/Inactive members in trading and blog forum will work for me. I haven't traded much in the past weeks but I have friends on my list that I have interacted with in the blog forum.

soprano on Apr 12, 2007

I've almost 1500... :P

dyar on Apr 12, 2007

@soprano - have you tried adding any new ones today? click on my name and see if you can add me.

I maxed out at 1478, I can't add a new friend unless I delete one from my existing list.

matthazinski on Apr 12, 2007

I'm going to start paring down my list so that I can only have active friends. I agree with mitten; having the most active friends at the top of the list or something would be a nice idea.

@Betty- or we could report him to Bob the Angry Flower.

soprano on Apr 12, 2007

@dyar: Right now, I’m at school, using IE6, which doesn’t work happily with adding friends. I’ll try tonight.

P.S. I thought you were my friend…

josh on Apr 12, 2007

Yeah, I spoke wrong yesterday. The friend max out number is 1500. Really, it's not because we don't think you should have 1501 friends. It's simply to keep performance happy on the site.

rajr19 on Apr 12, 2007

i have 1290

i want 1300. be my friend, please?

SuperLlamel on Apr 12, 2007

Is 421 friends too much?

josh on Apr 12, 2007

421 is not too much. ; ) Really, the "right" number is totally up to you.

soprano on Apr 13, 2007

Yeah, I can't add any, and I'm at 1487. It says, “You can’t have more than 1500 friends.” Hmm…

Staril on Apr 13, 2007

I only have 10 friends ... sniff ... sniff ... WAH !!!!!

Well ... I did only find the site today ;)

rajr19 on Apr 14, 2007

soprano, u have phantsom

dyar on Apr 14, 2007

(-: I'm not on Josh's friends list.

lobotomia on Apr 14, 2007

Thanks Josh!