If you’re reading this and are not already browsing Facebook using HTTPS (secure HTTP), you need to go to Facebook RIGHT NOW and enable the option (lest you fall victim to Firesheep). In in your Account Settings under Account Security -> Secure Browsing (https). If you need more help, Gizmodo has a great tutorial about how to do it.

After being away from real internet for the past 11 days, I returned to find the typical couple dozen Facebook friend requests. Here’s the breakdown:

• Totally random/unknown people: 8
• Random/unknown diving or photo people: 5
• Random/unknown Sea Shepherd fans: 4
• Personal friends: 2
• Known dive/photo acquaintances: 1
• People known only virtually: 1

In this case, I accepted 4 of them, but I had to think about accepting the virtual acquaintance. In this case, she passed the test.

My Facebook “friend” list is really a list of acquaintances, and although my bar for connecting is rather low, I still Ignore at least 5 people for every one that I accept. It’s nothing personal.

My bar for Facebook “friendship”:

If you are someone I …

1. … know in person, we’ve spent time together in real life, and I have a neutral or better feeling.
2. … have never met, we have had significant dealings virtually over an extended period of time, and I’m sure you are a real person.
3. … totally don’t recognize, then I must be a big fan of you or your work.

I also have no qualms about de-friending people, although the amount of offense it takes to be removed is directly proportional to how well I know the person and how long I’ve known them. My Facebook page is not a public space, and I choose to make it a place that I enjoy.

My Twitter friend criteria is much more complicated. Twitter is very useful as infrastructure, but I find it to be poorly conceived and potentially intrusive as a community. As a result, I choose to keep the list I follow short, and even close friends may be excluded if our update styles are not compatible.

Finally, I do have a Facebook fan page for my photography, and a joke fan club. :)

I’m currently blocking 87 applications (and 5 individuals) on Facebook for what I call “Facebook application spam.” I don’t care what kind of vegetable you are most like, and I don’t care to have a [random object here] thrown at me.

Facebook will probably add privacy features to account for this problem eventually, but in the meantime, we have to block every annoying application we see to prevent repeated spam from annoying applications / individuals.

Want to see my current block list? (read more »)