What about those friends lists?

by Vysion
March 18, 2004

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You've probably seen them under member links: "Friends List" and "Friend Of". What are they? Well, they are not about winning the third annual BC popularity contest. Instead, the "friends" concept at Bookcrossing is a means of keeping shortcuts to your Bookcrossing friends and their bookshelves. Never worked with this feature? Have no fear, it is easy and I'll even walk you through it.

To start, let's set up your first friend. When a person's screenname is listed on Bookcrossing, it usually acts as a link to their bookshelf. Click on the screenname of someone you'd like to add. You could also type in their name after the last slash in this web address: www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/[name-here]. Scroll down their bookshelf and immediately after the statistics should be this phrase as a link -- "Add [so-and-so] to your friends list". Click that link.

Now when you visit your own bookshelf (http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf), you should have a friends list. Look below your statistics for this link -- "View the 1 friend of [your screenname]" Click to be taken to the friends list that you've just started. Once a friend is added to your friends list, the "add" link will be replaced by a "remove" link when you visit that person's bookshelf again.

Now you can view your list and add/remove a bookshelf from it. But what's the "friend of" link? It is just the reverse. Use it to see the list of Bookcrossers who have YOU on their friends lists. That's all it is.

So what is the point? Why bother with a friends list? Bookcrossers have found this feature useful to:

• have a handy shortcut to their favorite BCers bookshelves
  
• bookmark bookshelves that have similar tastes/genres as their own
  
• encourage new Bookcrossers in their area
  
• track Bookcrossers with whom they have set up bookrings or trades
  
• keep up with Bookcrossers who share similar ideas as them in forum posts
  

I'm sure there are even more reasons. Last point, don't worry about getting permission to add someone as a friend because it is your list, not theirs. Of course, if they are really a friend, you are probably already private messaging them anyway. Have fun Bookcrossing and help keep it friendly (and pun free).