http://sciencebase.stumbleupon.com/review/17633386/

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:55:04 -0800

Did you get defriended on StumbleUpon? Not befriended, DEfriended? It's not that you smell bad or anything, it's just that some people are just soooo friendly. Take Blah Blah Tech's Wayne Smallman, for example. He's just had to trim away some old friends from his SU friends list because he reached the 200 limit. Needless to say not only is he rather upset by this, but so are some of the friends he dumped. He's asking StumbleUpon to raise the limit, he doesn't want to be left all alone with just 200 friends, he wants a much wider circle. It's fair enough, most of us like to party, and the more the merrier, as they say. But is that strictly true?

There is an idea that 200 is actually probably too high for a circle of friends.

If you've read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point you will have come across the notion that around 150 is about the maximum number of people any individual can truly care about. It's the reason certain communal groups, such as the Hutterites split their communities when they reach this limit. It's the same reason that army units are limited to this order of magnitude, and it's the reason why six degrees of separation could get way out of hand if we let it.

I didn't actually check to see whether Wayne had defriended me. I hope not. He's a good e-mate. But, I would understand if he did and I will support him in this to the end...after all, that's what friends are for. D'oh!

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http://sciencebase.stumbleupon.com/review/17633386/