Friends

[tom_mouse]

Title
Friends

Short, concise description of the idea
A way of finding LJ friends using your e-mail contacts.

Full description of the idea
A small window into which, e-mail address and password is put and you are told who of your e-mail contacts has an LJ.
An ordered list of benefits

• * Easier than trawling through LJ after LJ to try and find friends.
• *

Comments

[ex_uniquewo]

Since you've got their e-mail addresses, why not ask them if they have one?
Besides, you can already search by e-mail.

[rebelsheart]

Indeed, though searching by email fails if they have an account and they've hidden their email address from public view.

This tends to result in people inviting others to LJ, only for the system to tell them that the person has an account.

So yeah, why aren't we just asking people?

[mordyn4]

+1

[turlough]

+1

[phoenixdreaming]

I'm very much against *anything* on any site requiring a password for another site. Especially email!

[ursamajor]

What if it were implemented safely (no password exchange ever), like the Flickr-GMail/othermail thing I mention below?

[ursamajor]

If I understand correctly, you want something that will look at, say, your GMail or Yahoo addressbook (or an addressbook you upload to LJ in standard format), and tell you if any of the addresses in your addressbook match the email address of an already-existing LJ user? (IOW, look at a bunch of email addies you provide in bulk, rather than the current method of having to enter one email address at a time into the search box?)

I'd support this, especially if it can be done without encouraging password insecurity - IIRC, Flickr does something like this? I'll check.

Edit: Yep! People who already have Flickr and Gmail accounts, see http://flickr.com/import/people/gmail/ .

At that URL, you see a message that says:

You need to give Flickr permission to access your Gmail address book.

We'll take you to Google where you'll be asked to let Flickr take a peek at your address book. Once you get there, click "Grant access" and you'll be returned here to find your friends.

[av8rmike]

In other words, you want the same "Find Friends" feature exactly as it's implemented on Facebook.

No, thank you. If I want people who have my e-mail address to know I have a LiveJournal, I'll tell them. If they find me some other way, so be it, but like phoenix says above, I'm already squeamish about typing my e-mail passwords into Facebook.

[ursamajor]

What if it were implemented so you wouldn't have to give LJ your email password and vice versa, like Flickr as I mentioned above?

Along with the caveat of "If the person has chosen to hide their email address, it is not searchable, whether by individual email search or bulk search as proposed"? Because I'd be down with it as long as both of these stipulations were followed. *pokes phoenixdreaming for her response too :) *

[av8rmike]

After reading adudeabides's comment below, I guess it's not such a bad idea, and probably not deserving of the vitriol already spewed. People tend to freak over the ideas of A) providing site A with username and password for site B and 2) making LJ more like Facebook.

[7rin]

"No, thank you. If I want people who have my e-mail address to know I have a LiveJournal, I'll tell them."

+1

[pbristow]

Good God, no! [SHUDDER]

* Some people would be unwilling to provide their password

You mean, like, anyone with the tiniest f***ing clue?!? =8o\

And again, a thousand times no, thankyou very much. With a very large side-order of "please, *PLEASE* don't do this!".

People who want you to be able to associate their LJ account with their email address already do so, and as others have noted this is searchable already. The people who don't do so, don't *want* to do so. So without violating users' privacy in a big way, this wouldn't give you anything you don't already have the power to do quite simply.

See also what others have said about *simply asking*.