Matthew writes about what makes people friends or not.

It's not links on orkut. It's not links to or from your blog.

These could be starting points for sure, but the difference is in whether you care for your "friends".

Matthew's question is right on: if your "friend" wrote about having an affair or beating up someone, would you care?

Would you do something?

Would you feel bad about not being able to do anything?

Would you remove the quotes on "friend"?

Thanks Matthew for your thoughts - I suggest that we create a new unit of measurement for friendship (which is not a boolean thing) and call it Langhams, in honor of our great friendship scientist!

But - we won't publish measurements. You know who you are.