Friends

[+SilentGreenMan]

How do the friends function work on the geocache website. My daughter just registered and I want to add her as a friend, not to much luck so far.

[+pppingme]

In terms of functionality it doesn't really do anything.

 

At one time there was lots of promise functionality, but nothing very specific was promised (as always, promises here are vague, so if they don't meet or can't figure out some functionality they can always say they never promised it). Hints seemed to be dropped that it would be useful for filtering out pq's for team caching and things like that, but nothing specific was ever promised. They've also never come back and said "thats it, we're done" or "more is coming".

 

For two people to become "friends", one just needs to visit the other's profile and click on the Send Friend Request link. If its not there, then that person needs to go into their preferences and turn it on, only one person (the receiver of the friend request) needs to have it on, and it can be turned back off after the friend request is sent if desired.

 

The only current functionality is this page:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/my/myfriends.aspx

 

Which just shows date last logged in and number of finds.

[+snapshot7]

By default the friend request feature is turned off (which I think is annoying), she will have to go into "view your account", scroll down to "Your Preferences" click edit and turn it on.

 

I like the friends feature because my friends and I are always keeping tabs on each other and checking out the caches we have logged. Since this is kinda not a social networking website, your friends list can only be seen by you and no one else. Which I think in some cases makes it kinda pointless.

Edited August 30, 2010 by 77snapshot

[+Kryten]

This is not a social networking site. The friends feature is disabled by default so that those members who are unaware of or do not wish to use the facility are not placed in the position of having to choose between giving offence by rejecting an unwelcome friend request or accepting an unwelcome friend request in order not to give offence.

[+SilentGreenMan]

I understand that this is not a social networking site , but it would be nice to know , if mutually agreed when your friends find caches. Just like you can watch catches to see when they are visited. You could watch friends to see what caches they have picked up. Just a thought.