How To - Make Friends
From The Socknet
The Socknet helps users take their friends wherever they go on the Internet. The friend_request function enables users to agree upon friendships.
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To Make Friends
In order to "make friends", a user's provider calls friend_request on another user's provider.
The recipient's provider lets him know that a friendship was requested.
If the recipient agrees to the friendship, his provider calls friend_request on the sender's provider.
If the recipient rejects the friendship, he ignores the request.
Requests should timeout after a while.
Losing Friends
A user can cease being friends very easily.
- The provider no longer lists the friend in the friends list.
- The provider informs the friend that he is no longer a friend by calling unfriend.
Calling unfriend is informational: it lets the friend know that he is no longer a friend. No response is necessary from the scourned friend.
Considerations
If a second request is made while a previous request is still pending, it should supercede the original (especially the message_guid field).
When a request is accepted, both providers generally begin accessing data immediately (friend lists, etc). Ensure that these data are available immediately.
It's possible that UserA would instruct his provider to forget the request. When the response finally came back from UserB, UserA's provider would act like it was receiving a brand new request. This is OK behavior, but it might confuse UserB. UserB's provider should act to clear up any confusion.
For usability, providers should consider what would happen if a request was ignored, then repeated and ignored, etc. Users would benefit from an "always ignore" button, or some clear division of "New Requests" and "People I've Ignored Before" (also "Likely Spam" discussed in Spam).
