[issybird]

To expand a bit on my Goodreads cronyism:

Anyone who friends me will be accepted, except for authors trying to spam market their stuff. If someone follows me, I'll respond with a friend invitation. However, if a new friend doesn't read books generally to my taste, I change settings so I don't see his/her updates, just so items irrelevant to my own reading don't crowd things I do want to see off my front page.

On the other hand, if I find someone whose tastes are congruent with mine, I "follow" him/her and hope for a friend invitation, but that's up to him/her. Some people like to manage their lists closely and I still can see what they're reading. I don't like to ask someone to be "friends" if we haven't interacted. Said interaction can take place within a group, however, in which case I don't feel the need for the preliminary "follow."

This is just me, but I see people with hundreds of friends and I don't see the point. I assume covert list management is going on, because how can you keep up with what hundreds of others are reading and how is that helpful?