Flist: Define Yourself

[snick_backup]

This is a question that's been niggling at me for a long time now.

[Poll #1654773]

Comments

[angearia.livejournal.com]

I think it all depends on your friending policy. I friend back people who friend me, so when I say my flist, I mean those people who would be reading me and thus reading my post, but who I'm also friends with.

There's a few people who I've friended who haven't friended me back; I don't really think of them when I address my flist in a post.

Helpful?

:)

[snickfic]

Yes, helpful! Obviously the mutual friends are included; to me the question is which non-mutual friends are.

This is all so much simpler in DW!

[bobthemole.livejournal.com]

I tend to friend relatively few people and nearly all those have friended me back.

When I lock my posts, "my flist" is referring to the intersection. My unlocked posts are presumably read by the same people, but I account for the occasional lurker. In this case "my flist" is anyone who is reading.

[snickfic]

*nods*

I don't friend very many people, either. I have a lot of people who've friended me but whom I don't know well or who never comment. Once I get to know them, usually I'll friend them back.

[gingerwall.livejournal.com]

Eh. I don't post much, so I don't really consider the people who read my journal. Most of my lj interactions are through comments.

Also: super-mega bonus points for using mathematical intersection in an everyday conversation!

[snickfic]

Yay math! It's my responsibility as a math teacher to wedge math into every possible conversation.

...right? :)

[bobthemole.livejournal.com]

ABSOLUTELY.

[snickfic]

Glad I have your backing there. *nods*

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

I friend back selectively, and therefore when I say "my flist," it's always in the context of whomever I've friended back or to whom I've granted access on DW.

[pamsblau.livejournal.com]

I don't friend many people. Usually only those who i have known before or those with whom i've interacted before. Another case is when we just share the same interests and i believe we may become good friends.

So when i say "my f-list" i mean my mutual friends.

[snickfic]

*nods*

Makes sense to me.

[gillo]

It depends a lot on context and usage. Generally I mean the subset of people I feel I've come to "know" and care about - and that could be for all sorts of reasons. I may have friended them because of fandom but am now more interested in their actual lives. I may have friended them because I saw their posts everywhere and we clearly had so many people/interests in common it was silly not to. They may have friended me, similarly, and we found we had more in common than we expected. Or they may be RL friends who know about my LJ, which is decidedly a subset of the whole.

[snickfic]

Yeah, for me it definitely depends on context. When I flock something, clearly the friendlist to which I've flocked consists of people whom I've friended. But when I address a general "Halp!" sort of question 'to the flist,' I'm talking about whoever's reading the post.

Very complicated. *nods*

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I mean "people whom I've friended and who read my journal" and sometimes I mean "everybody who reads my journal" and sometimes I just mean "people I actually sort of know something about" and those would be flocked posts. I don't automatically friend back because I know a lot of people are just here for the fic and that's fine.

[snickfic]

I don't automatically friend back because I know a lot of people are just here for the fic and that's fine.

Exactly. I wait until I get to know people before I friend them.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Depends. I have a lot of people who read my journal who I haven't friended back, and sometimes I mean them. And sometimes I mean only the people who can see my locked posts (aka, people who I have friended back). I'd say that most of the time it means whoever happens to be reading the specific post, but that's not always the case.

I am a complicated girl.

[snickfic]

*nods*

That's pretty much where I am. It's all context for me.

[next_to_normal]

It depends. I think most of the time I use it to mean the intersection of the sets, but there are specific times when the reference is broader. For example, if I say something like, "My flist is full of posts about X today," or "Everyone on my flist seems to be obsessed with Y," I'm talking about all the journals I read. But if I make a post saying, "Question for the flist!" and it's not flocked, then I'm inviting everyone who reads me to comment, even if I haven't friended them.

[snickfic]

Exactly! Excellent examples. And both ways it's meaningful.

Whereas over on DW you've got your 'read' list and your 'access' list, and they're different (except I bet everybody still uses 'flist' anyway).

[next_to_normal]

Heh, I thought about mentioning DW, but it is simultaneously simpler and more complicated, lol.

It's simpler because I reciprocate access/subscription for almost everyone, whereas on LJ I don't friend everyone who friends me (like you, a lot of people friended me for fic, and I prefer to get to know them before I friend back). But it's more complicated because there are so many options for the ones that aren't reciprocal on both!