I'm with Big Jim on the "friends" thing. I like the idea of having real "friends" like people who I know from JPF, but a lot of people "friend" farm or "friend" fish for the lack of a better term. In other words I get requests from hip hop artists mostly, I check their site and they have thousands of "friends". Why do they need me?
I'll tell you why. As a networking tool it is a way to build up a sort of mailing list. The more "friends" they have the more announcements they can send out. Chances are someone will bite and become a fan. It's the same way on Myspace.
I don't have a problem with the "friend" system but it is not my cup of tea. I will only accept people who I know, or have similar taste in music. And I do want to know what my real "friends" are doing. Anyone else is a phony "friend" as far as I'm concerned. Ben