My list is purely reactive. If someone adds me to their list, I reciprocate. Most of them I know nothing about, I’m just being courteous. A few on my list are good acquaintences (I refrain from referiing to anyone as “friend”).
The site that I was previously associated with had a “friends list” function, but it operated my mutual consent. In the later stages of the “wars” on that site, I wiped my list and refused all requests. When my parachute landed here I had intended to follow the same policy, but found it was not possible.
I quickly ran into a number of people from the former site who made it clear to me that I was not welcome to put their name on my list. So I adopted this policy: add only if added first; In the rare instance that I might wish to add someone who has not added me, I ask first via PM.
The lists not being by mutual consent is one of the very,very few things that I find irritating here. The only thing my list represents is an echo of whoever had added me to their list. I don’t really use the list for any real purpose, I’m just showing courtesy to those who have added me to theirs.
If I were actually to use the list for any functional purpose, there would be less than a dozen names on it. +GQ