local social media genius Chris Brogan ( check out and pre-order Trust Agents ) recently blogged on friending and online reputation right up here …

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/friending-and-reputation/?success&dsq=14706854#comment-14706854

I left some commentary for Chris’ network right on his blog using Disqus, but here it is right here on SMN, too … just in case ;]

woah … Chris … right on!

i think we have the same social web translation devie or something, because i too am a bit flirtatious in my friendings and pretty much openly invite and accept friend requests … i look at these sites as a tool or means to not only connect w/ people, but to also express myself in new and interesting ways ( never before possible prior to the social web ) …

the term and activity i would like some clarity on is the ‘poke’ ;] … i got in trouble a while back for ‘poking’ a friend of a brand new friend, right? and as much as the term ‘poke’ could be thought of in some psychoSexual way, i was thinking of it more along the lines of tapping someone on the shoulder … after all, at least a year or so back, poking meant that you were now allowing someone else to check out your full Facebook Profile and all the interactive goodness you might have put up on it over time and space …

… but, now … back to friendliness …

i think what you propose here makes a lot of sense … keep a list of your own friends like in your back pocket or something … no one should have access to that list buy you and maybe your inner circle, right? it shouldn’t be the way you think of your activity in online networking …

another note … i am also trying to put out a certain kind of crazyHappy, positive energy in my social webbedness recently … to express a certain mindset and ideaGeneration capability using Facebook and LinkedIn Groups in combination w/ my own unwieldy batch of online presences … so, through this energy and designerly approach to my web persona ( which is veryMuch my offline personality anyhow ) i am trying to attract likeminded, excited and slightly ‘out there’ prospects and clients … to join forces and conquer the world … ( all for fun, fun for all! ) … and so far, its been workin’ out well … its been pretty amazing …

and in regards to the endorsementure … i agree 123% in what you put up there in this blogEntry … endorse only those you might consider hiring yourself … keep your reputation in mind … make sure you can endorse that connection w/ an almost cartoonish fervocity, and if not, don’t endorse them …

i do think that endorseability could indeed be a parametric function of time … i know several people that in the deepest depth of friendship and workedness have put in the old LinkedIn endorsement request to me … and at the time of the request there was something, just something small inside me that would say ‘hey, Lou … uhm, don’t do it … remember the time …’ and that voice would point up and out to like 3 things that made the person a little offstance w/ my reputationBase … a little warning coming directly from the heart that just said in its antiNike-like way ‘just DON’T do it’ … and luckily, when trusting in matters of the heart, the voice was like SO right … SO right … but i can totally imagine a time in the future when these very people, due to some new face-to-face interactions or discussions over a coffee or lunch ( or better yet, over another collaborative assignment ), i can imagine a time when these verySame people would inspire a flood of nice commentary and a real recommendation … i think, sometimes, you just don’t have enough narrative connection w/ the person requesting the recommendation … not enough story between the 2 of you, ya know? … and so, you just need time and space together to see if you can really, quite literally, sing their praises

my 2 cents … brought to you by Paypal Connect … the new social network that let’s your money talk for you ;]