Unrelated very short LJ question:

[msagara]

Can anyone tell me what a serial adder is? And, if it's what the name implies, what the point of being one is?

Comments

[chibipoe.livejournal.com]

Someone who goes around adding people to their friends list indiscriminately, usually if they share a common interest.

And...the point is that they're trolls and do it(most of the time) to annoy others.

[blow-saidjulian.livejournal.com]

They're usually an intentionally offensive LJ or a joke one (like the 'Krispy Kreme' adder from a while back). It's usually just to get a rise out a few people but it can be incredibly annoying.

Oh yeah, and I added you ;)

[msagara.livejournal.com]

And...the point is that they're trolls and do it(most of the time) to annoy others.

They annoy others by adding them to their friends list? I'm going to assume that they don't actually read their lists, then <wry g>. Trolls -- and maybe I'm showing my age here, or my lack of LJ knowledge -- used to be people who showed up and said something like "I hate writers, they're all stupid" in the case of my LJ. Do they post?

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, and I added you ;)

I'm assuming it's the writing related stuff and not, in fact, the serial adder ambivalence <g>.

[chibipoe.livejournal.com]

Not usually. Troll has sort of become a catch-all(depending on who you talk to) to refer to anyone doing stuff like that, even if it isn't the most straightforward definition of it.

Oh, and, since this is my first time commenting on your lj, i'll go off-topic and say: Love the Sun Sword series. :)

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Oh, and, since this is my first time commenting on your lj, i'll go off-topic and say: Love the Sun Sword series. :)

Which is the sort of off-topic that, I'm afraid to admit, does not break my authorly heart <g>. Thank you!

[waywardpixie.livejournal.com]

Like trolls, serial adders just like to get a rise out of people.

I added you because of the writing :)

[msagara.livejournal.com]

I added you because of the writing :)

I honestly don't mind being added to reading lists; I expected a few people would find some of the rambling interesting, and I actually don't mind questions or comments.

I guess it never occurred to me that someone would add a journal to their list to be irritating. It's sort of like assuming that someone would buy a book just to be irritating <g>.

[bobafet.livejournal.com]

If you recall a few months ago when I was pressuring you into starting an LJ, I warned you that there were people out there with tiny little lives who took things entirely too seriously... ?

This is one of those cases. Some people, for reasons unfathomable to me, *care* about who shows up on their "friend of" list.

As you must know, some people are just nature's button pushers and if you care that much about who's on your 'friend of' list you have some pretty big, easy-to-push buttons...

[bobafet.livejournal.com]

Please note that I meant 'you' in the 3rd person "someone" sense, rather than you specifically.

[domynoe.livejournal.com]

I added you a bit back because I was (and am) learning so much! I tend to add journals (either here at LJ or on my kinja or both) I enjoy at the moment, but my reading list changes a lot. Sometimes I wish I could keep everybody I add, but if i did that, I would never have time to write! ;)

[phantom_wolfboy]

I assume you don't mean "cereal adder", a kind of small snake whose natural home is breakfast food boxes. Highly poisonous, but not dangerous unless you accidentally try to eat them.

[mambolica.livejournal.com]

Which is a completely valid question and one which I was planning to pose had you not done so first.

Cereal adders are quite small, though, and are most often encountered while fishing for the toy.

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

There some more info here. (http://www.livejournal.com/community/lj_biz/220241.html) Sometimes the friends-of drama is just that, but sometimes people choose to ban serial adders or hide their friends-of list (http://www.livejournal.com/users/news/76866.html) to avoid exes, would-be stalkers or idiots who want to make you a member of a community you're offended by (there was something wrt a white supremacy group a while back, I think). It's part of the unfortunate LJ nomenclature "friend," I think -- I don't think people would get as upset about it if it were "reader" or "linker" or some other neutral term.

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

there IS. Arrgh. Embarrassing typo.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

You pressured me in the 3rd person someone sense to start an LJ?

Hee.

Actually, it was andpuff's fault. Because, you know, she'd stopped sending email, given her cruddy connection, when I didn't have that excuse <g>. So... just in case anyone wants to point fingers, it's all andpuff's fault.

[folkmew.livejournal.com]

It's part of the unfortunate LJ nomenclature "friend," I think -- I don't think people would get as upset about it if it were "reader" or "linker" or some other neutral term. ah good point! What I tend to do is more or less friend anyone I know but sometimes post to specific filters which are people I really trust to not spread discussions to people I wouldn't want them to get to.

[folkmew.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you asked. I had wondered that same thing. It still doesn't make sense to me - I mean - when I post something not filtered I just ASSUME that anyone can read it and if I'm really worried about the content remaining more private I'll post it friends only to some degree or other.

Dunno - maybe I should be more paranoid.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

I, having been subjected to the pointless drama of "un-friending" someone, still say that the term "friend" should be switched to "FolksWhoseJournalICantBeArsedToVisit." Much more accurate, though a mouthful.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Check out this one (http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=lj_serialadder). It was an LJ April Fool's joke, and people got all freaked out about it. And yeah, he did add every single user on LJ.

[next-bold-move.livejournal.com]

Funny that someone bought that account a paid membership. Everyone loves a troublemaker, I guess.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

Serial adders don't necessarily need to be trolls. I've added, for example, quite a few writers to my Friends List over the past couple of weeks. I don't necessarily expect people to add me back; but this way all the journals I enjoy reading all line up on my Friends page rather than me hitting each of them one by one to see if they've added anything lately.

[amyirene-40.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you asked this one - I'd never heard the term before. I assume I'd have run into it sooner or later so it is good to know exactly what it means.

I am confused about why it is considered such a bad thing. If the serial adder is doing something like spewing obnoxious and/or off topic posts to all the LJs that were friended, that would be annoying and troll-like. But the impression I've gotten from reading these responses is that all the person does is add names to their friends list.

I don't understand the harm in someone randomly friending me - shoot, it would be kind of flattering: "Look! I'm interesting enough to have attracted a serial adder! At last my life has meaning."

[msagara.livejournal.com]

I did some reading from some of the links that other users have posted since I asked; I think people use porn names or offensive language as their user IDs, and the words that turn up in the "friend of" list can upset people. Which is fair enough.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Serial adders don't necessarily need to be trolls. I've added, for example, quite a few writers to my Friends List over the past couple of weeks. I don't necessarily expect people to add me back; but this way all the journals I enjoy reading all line up on my Friends page rather than me hitting each of them one by one to see if they've added anything lately.

I'm not sure how this makes you a serial adder, given what everyone else has said, or perhaps how I've interpreted it -- you're adding people whose journals you have some interest in to your list, and one assumes that you at least peruse the pre-cut-line portions of those <g>.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

Some people have such a broad definition of "serial adders" that they mean anyone who adds a lot ("lot" being a relative term) of people in a short amount of time. They don't distinguish between the trolls and people who legitimately want to read other folks' journals.

For some reason, I don't know why, a lot of people adding them to their Friends List is a problem. I like being added, personally.

[amyirene-40.livejournal.com]

Ah, now that makes sense, and suddenly I understand why LJ offers to the option to hide the "friend of" list on the profile page.