The Benefit of Friends
posted by Ben Engebreth on 04.19.2005
Users of the carpool matching portion of this site may have noticed that their profiles have a section headed Friends with a number in parenthesis. What's that all about? Well, it's an effort to try provide relationship information to users. For instance, suppose you have some friends from back in College or something. Maybe one of them told you about Pooln and you registered here as a result. If you add your college buddy as a Pooln friend (and he/she accepts your friend-ing) you've told the Pooln user community that a relationship exists between the two of you. That person is no longer an absolute stranger, they are connected to you to some degree.
What's the benefit of this? I think that's still largely to be determined, but I can give a hypothetical example of it's potential. Say this buddy that you friended is your only Pooln friend. There's still some good information that you may be able to use just by having one friend. Say your pal has a couple of Pooln friends besides you. When you do a carpool search or look at any other Pooln user profile you'll be made aware of those people that are friends of your friend. Perhaps you already know some of these people and hadn't noticed them on the site yet. Hopefully this will tip you off to their being Pooln users and then you can friendify them (you'll see a big <foaf> by their name -- it stands for Friend of a Friend). But even if you don't know them, you now have a direct reference to check in the event that the person is a good potential carpool partner for you. You can ask your buddy about their friend so-and-so. A person who was a stranger (the friend of your friend) is now someone you can ask someone you trust about.
That's the idealized theory, and Pooln is a test of that -- and other -- theories. That's why this place is an experiment. Through a process of trial and error we'll hopefully find good techniques for finding carpool partners.
So, if you're friends with someone else using Pooln, add them as a friend by clicking on the add as friend link on their profile page. When they accept your offer, you will be made friends in the system and hopefully that relationship will provide some information that will benefit your search for a carpool pal.
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